Toward a Viet Nam free of poverty
After 30 years of Doi moi, Viet Nam has become a global model for poverty reduction. Nevertheless, it is not the end of the poverty reduction journey.
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| Aside from significant achievements, the work on poverty reduction of period 2021-2025 must focus on resolving many challenges for Viet Nam to be free of poverty. (Photo: Nguyễn Hồng) |
Urgent challenges
Aside from significant achievements, the work on poverty reduction in the 2021-2025 period must focus on resolving many challenges.
First, Viet Nam must continue to address issues that remain unresolved from the National Target Programme 2016-2020 period.
Numerous poor districts, stricken coastal villages and islands have not escaped poverty. A majority of poor, near-poverty and recently poverty-escaped households lived in the rural areas with unsustainable incomes and livelihoods, lacked professional skills. The quality of human resources remains low and uncompetitive in the labour market.
On the other hand, the effectiveness of connecting manufacturing and production with the consumer markets, resolving the shortage of production land and housing, providing information, improving nutrition remains rather limited.
Moreover, the invested resources for poverty reduction were thinly spread and could not resolve the practical problems. In addition, infrastructures built to support socio-economic developments in poor areas were small, therefore their effectiveness in improving the livelihood of the people and manufacturing was rather limited.
There were also many socio-economic development goals that required attention and national resources. According to the national multi-dimensional poverty 2022-2025 period, by January 2022, there were estimated to be 16.6% households with lower-than-minimum livelihood, accounting for 4.473 million households.
Among those, 10.83% were poor households and 5.77% were near-poverty households. To further fulfill the goal of reducing the number of poor and near-poverty households, more resources are required to resolve the issue.
Currently, the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, urbanization, an aging population, unequal income distribution, along with the immigration of workers have created major challenges for poor people in accessing learning, training, job opportunities to further improve their sustainable livelihood and monthly income.
With set goals, the journey of sustainable poverty reduction 2021-2015 period would become more challenging and require commitment and efforts of the Party and the people. Nevertheless, this is also an opportunity for Viet Nam to take a major leap forward and breakthrough, as poverty reduction efforts around the globe was hampered by the pandemic.
Main focus
During his important remarks at the first Meeting of the Government of 2021-2026 tenure, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong stressed: “We must not sacrifice social progress and equality to pursue mere economic growth.”
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| General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong spoke at the first meeting of the Government for 2021-2016 tenure. (Nguồn: TTXVN) |
With that in mind, Viet Nam has clearly identified its main goals for sustainable poverty reduction in the 2021-2025 period as followed:
First, investment in poverty reduction means investing in helping people escape poverty and have a better life, to assist poor areas in resolving their difficulties, meeting the requirements for new-style rural areas and to accomplish sustainable development and promote economic growth.
Second, the Programme will promote the accomplishment of sustainable, comprehensive poverty reduction, specifically in improving incomes and ensuring access to fundamental services (jobs, education, health, housing, clean water and sanitary information), to erase poverty for everyone, everywhere, on multiple dimensions.
Third, Viet Nam will innovate a poverty reduction policy, kindle people’s spirits to have a comfortable life, mobilize the entire force of the political system in poverty reduction work in the new conditions.
Fourth, Viet Nam will seek to complete its commitment early with the international community to sustainable development and poverty reduction by 2030.
| “We must not sacrifice social progress and equality to pursue mere economic growth” - General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong. |
7 subjects
To further promote achievements and overcome difficulties and challenges in poverty reduction, the National Targeted Programme for Sustainable Poverty Reduction 2021-2025 period specifically focused on the following 7 subjects.
First, the Programme would promote media coverage and education of people on poverty reduction; strongly demonstrated the traditions of unity, the spirit of “the leaves protect tattered ones” of the Vietnamese in treating poor people.
Second, the Programme would aim to further innovate, improve the quality of the campaign of “ joining hands for the poor – no one left behind”, ignite the spirit of self-reliance, self-dependency, utilize the internal forces to “escape poverty and build a comfortable life” for the people, strive towards “a Viet Nam free of poverty”.
Third, the Programme would aim to further complete policy on poverty reduction, multi-dimensional poverty standards coupled with sustainable developments, as well as to ensure people increased minimum living standards and easier access to basic social services.
It must also seek to innovate approaches to poverty reduction, enact new conditional, supportive policies, improve credit policies for poor people as well as social protection for poor households without the ability to generate income.
Fourth, the Programme would promote the implementation of socio-economic development policies connecting developed regions with less-developed ones; enacts supportive policies and encourages businesses to invest in difficult areas, along with ensuring security and defense.
Fifth, the Programme would effectively mobilize resources for poverty reduction, with the state playing an important role in guaranteeing resources, along with fully mobilizing social resources for sustainable poverty reduction.
Sixth, the Programme would continue to innovate and improve on the effectiveness of state management in poverty reduction. Specifically, the Programme would aim to consolidate the system, improve the effectiveness of government and coordinate agencies in poverty reduction at all levels.
Seventh, the Programme would expand international cooperation, mobilize technical support and resources from international organizations and developed partners to assist the Government of Viet Nam in promoting sustainable poverty reduction, and ensuring social welfare.
