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The Hanoitimes - Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) is trying to lower the rate of poor households down to less than 1% of the total households by 2015.
This is part of the city's program to reduce poor households and increase well-off ones in the 2013-2015 period in a bid to cut local poverty rates by 1.5-1.8% annually.
As of 2012, the rate of poor households in which personal income stood at VND 10 million/year was 4.2%, said Hua Ngoc Thuan, Vice Chairman of the HCMC People’s Committee at a seminar which was jointly held by the city, Mekong Development Research Institute and United Nations Development Program.
So far, half of the poor households have received assistance on healthcare insurance and preferential loans from the Fund for Hunger Elimination and Poverty Reduction to do business and raise income.
In addition, around 5,000 households living in dangerous areas were resettled to safer places.
Vocational training and job creation services covered over 60% of poor households.
Despite the aforesaid achievements, the poor's limited awareness of the interests of health insurance and inefficient use of preferential loans are major difficulties for local residents to get out of poverty in a sustainable way, according to a UNDP official.
To maximize the benefits of the program, Deputy Director of the HCMC Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Thi Thanh Mai suggested the city focus on reviewing and classifying poor households for proper assistance.
The city also needs to adjust the credit policies and disseminate the importance of vocational training as a long-term solution for poverty eradication, she said.
VGP
Đăng ký: VietNam News
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