Vietnam aims to reduce yearly poverty rate by 1.5 percent

Ho Chi Minh City, October 3 (VNA) – The rate of households living under the poverty line in Vietnam is expected to remain below five percent in 2015 and fall by about 1.5 percent annually until 2020. Speaking at a seminar on poverty reduction in the southern region, Do Manh Hung, Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Social Affairs, said the rate of poor districts would fall below 30 percent and the rate of poverty relapse would continue to drop. Vietnam had made drastic achievements in poverty reduction during the past decades, he told the seminar participants. Hung said the poverty rate had fallen to 9.45 percent in 2010 from 22 percent in 2005. In 2005, there were six regions with a poverty rate above 20 percent, and in 2010, there were four. The following year, the northeastern and northwestern regions recorded a 20 percent poverty rate. Assistance in providing jobs and healthcare services has been part of Vietnam's poverty-reduction achievements. Between 2006 and 2010, more than 150,000 workers received free vocational training courses and 60 percent of them were able to find a job or become self-employed. Between 2010 and 2012, an additional 1.1 million workers were provided vocational training courses. Of that number, 11 percent were living under the poverty line and 5 per cent were near-poor. According to a report from Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, 468 vocational training centres have been built in 51 provinces where several ethnic minorities live.-VNA