Vietnam to spend $3.3 bln on poverty reduction plan

The national program proposed by the social affairs ministry will focus on reducing poverty, preventing people from falling into poverty and helping poor people gain better access to social services.

VND48 trillion ($2.1 billion) of the plan’s outlay would be drawn from the national budget, VND12.7 trillion from local budgets, and the rest from other sources.

The program aims to cut the number of poor families across the nation by half compared with 2021. It will strive to keep the percentage of multidimensional poor families at 1-1.5 percent, and lift out of poverty 30 percent of especially poor districts and communes along the coasts and on islands.

Several Vietnamese regions still have a percentage of poor families exceeding 50 percent, like Muong Nhe and Nam Po districts in Dien Bien and Dong Van District in Ha Giang - both in the northern mountainous region, and Ky Son District in the north central province of Nghe An. Ethnic minority families accounted for around 61 percent of all poor families across the country in 2020.

Most poor families live in rural regions, where livelihoods are unstable and there’s high competition in the job market.

Vietnam currently has around 4,473 families, or 17.4 million people, living below the poverty line, which is defined by monthly income of VND1.5 million per person in rural areas and VND2 million in urban areas, according to official figures.