Permanent Deputy Chairwoman of the National Assembly Tong Thi Phong chairs the session. 

Speaking at the session, chairman of the NA’s Ethnics Council Ha Ngoc Chien said that the National Target Programme on Sustainable Poverty Reduction was divided into two periods: 2012-15 and 2016-20.

“It was a programme for the whole country, and the main content of both periods focused on investment for two big programmes, including Programme 30a and Programme 135 targeting ethnic minority and mountainous areas,” Chien said.

On the results of the 2012-15 period, the Government’s reports and statistics from the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs’ annual reports on the number of poor and near-poor households showed that in three years, from 2012 to 2014, the average rate of poor households decreased two per cent per year. It reached the target of reducing the number of poor households by 706,849.

The rate of near-poor households was down by an average of 0.48 per cent per year, equal to a reduction of 130,751 households.

Average income per capita of poor households across the country was up by 1.65 per cent, of which average income of poor households in rural areas increased by 1.5 times, equal to VNĐ700,000 (US$30) per person per month whereas those in urban area was up by 1.8 times, equal to VNĐ900,000 ($38.7) per person per month.

The results exceeded the target defined in the Prime Minister’s Decision 1489/QĐ-TTg and increased by 1.6 times compared with 2011.

On results of the 2016-18 period, with a target of poverty reduction, the rate of poor households across the country decreased from 9.88 per cent in 2015 to 5.23 per cent in 2018. On average, it was down by 1.55 per cent per year, in proportion to 1,047,452 households reaching the target of reducing from one to 1.5 per cent per year.

The rate of poor households and poor districts decreased by 5.5 per cent per year on average, exceeding the target of reducing four per cent per year.

The rate of seriously poor communes reduced by 3-4 per cent per year achieving the target.

Total number of poor ethnic minority households was down by 343,470. On average, it fell by 3-4 per cent per year.

Policies on investment in socio-economic development and poverty reduction had created clear change in infrastructure. About 25,000 construction projects were invested and built in poor villages and communes in remote ethnic minority areas, Chien said.

So far, most of the communes have had concrete roads to the centres. As many as 88 per cent of villages have roads for motorised vehicles and 42 per cent of villages have standard roads. A total of 99 per cent of commune centres and 80 per cent of villages have had electricity. Up to 65 per cent of communes have small irrigation systems to meet residents’ demands of production and living requirements. About 76 per cent of communes meet national criteria for healthcare.

Attending the session, Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung said that the poverty reduction programme had met specific achievements.

It reached and exceeded basic criteria, and many outstanding examples were reported with many families writing letters volunteering to be removed from the list of poor households. 

Many localities developed programmes of voluntary social security.

However, Minister Dung admitted that the quality of life and human development coefficients of ethnic minorities was still low. And the gap in income rates among regions was still high.

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs will soon develop an action plan to overcome limitations and weaknesses to have the best solutions to gradually improve people’s lives.

During the session, the NA Standing Committee agreed to issue a resolution for results of implementation of policies and laws for the national programme of sustainable poverty reduction in poor remote mountainous and ethnic minority areas in the period 2012-18./.