Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Viet Nam News, September 13, 2005

HA NOI — Prime Minister Phan Van Khai has approved the spending of VND 60-62 trillion (about US$ 3.92 billion) to provide poorer households with better access to farming and commercial land during the next five years.

The decision meant that poor families; families with members suffering disabilities and minority households would have access to credit at rates 25-30 per cent lower than the prevailing market rate from next year, said Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Minister Nguyen Thi Hang.
The State would provide VND 3.61 trillion to ensure the preferential rates and the credit limit would be raised from VND 4 million to VND 15 million, she said.

In all, VND 26 trillion would be made available to poor households in this way in the next five years.
The new decision will also allow the transfer of land to minority families. Localities with available land will be permitted to provide 0.5 ha of mountain or hillside farm land for each household or 0.25 ha of paddy.

Landless rural households will be allocated at least 200 sq.m of land while those families who have neither shelter nor own temporary housing will be provided VND 5 million.
The Labor Invalids and Social Affairs Ministry has also asked the Government to include people who have just escaped poverty so as to make the program more effective.

A new public health policy will extend health insurance cards held by poor patients from one to two years with a higher spending limit for treatment.

The ministry says that a policy to help the poor with education and vocational training will also be implemented throughout academia - public and non-public. Businesses and organizations will receive money for training costs when employing poor people for more than two years.

Sai Gon Giai Phong, or Liberated Sai Gon, newspaper says the prime minister has also agreed to new spending for infrastructure at extremely poor coastal and isolated island communes.
It will allow as many as 300 communes access to VND 50 million each year for their own projects.
The prime minister has asked for the appointment of a steering committee chaired by a deputy prime minister to oversee the spending, said Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Minister Hang.

A team would also be formed to manage the spending from the centre to the grassroots.
The State would allocate VND 125 billion for the supervision and evaluation of the work done by the relevant ministries, she said.

A cadre would also be placed in charge of poverty reduction in each commune and to give people direct help.

The minister said that by the end of this year, Viet Nam would still have as many as 4.6 million poor households as defined by the government’s new poverty standard, despite the remarkable reduction of poverty.

While previous programs focused on absolutely poor households that lacked such basic needs as food, future programs would deal with the "fairly poor", especially in the minority population. — VNS