Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Ha Noi, Nov. 27 (VNA)-- The renewal process over the past ten years has helped reduce the poverty rate in Viet Nam by 33 percent, the best result among the developing world.

This was announced in Ha Noi on Nov. 26 by the National Centre of Social Sciences and Humanities in the National Human Development Index, HDI, Report-2001, prepared for the first time by Viet Nam with assistance from the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP.

The other indices have shown that Viet Nam currently ranks 101st among 162 countries in terms of HDI-"Well above what would be expected from its current level of GDP per capita of less than USD 400" as noted by UNDP Resident Representative E.Wattez at the report launching ceremony.

The literacy rate among adults was more than 90 percent while primary school enrolment accounted for 95 percent of school-age children in the 1998-99 school-year compared with 91 percent in the 1993-94 school-year.

The report attributed the achievement to the Vietnamese Government's policy of putting human development at the centre of the national development strategy.

In recent years, rapid economic growth at an annual rate of between six and seven percent has benefited a wide range of people. but also enlarged development gap between the rich and the poor and between urban and rural areas, according to the report.

The difference in annual incomes increased to 40.7 percent in the late 1990s and early 2000s from 35.6 percent in the mid-1990s. In 1993, the purchasing power of 20 percent of people listed as the most wealthy was 4.6 times more than that of 20 percent of the poorest. This gap was broadened to 5.5 times in 1998. Upper class spending made up 43.7 percent of the gross sales revenue while the lower class accounted for just eight percent.

Narrowing the gap while striving for rapid economic growth is a major goal set by the Communist Party of Viet Nam in its national development strategy for 2001-2010, said the Report.--VNA