Dong Nai aims to reduce poverty

(ĐN)- Poverty alleviation efforts by Dong Nai province have lifted thousands of households out of poverty annually.

(ĐN)- Poverty alleviation efforts by Dong Nai province have lifted thousands of households out of poverty annually.

The achievement can be attributed to the development of specific programmes for provincial departments and grassroots agencies to jointly implement based on surveys of poor households and their resulting effective solution recommendations.

Dong Nai branch of Vietnam Bank for Social Policies provided preferential loans to people in Bao Vinh commune, Long Khanh town.

By the end of 2014, the province’s poverty rate was reduced to 0.9 percent, much lower than the country’s average level.

At present, Dong Nai has around 20,600 poor households under the new standards, 2.89 percent of the province’s entire population, and more than 8,000 nearly-poor households, accounting for 1.1 percent.

Under the new poverty standard, poor households are categorized as those with an average income of under VND1 million per person per month in rural areas and VND1.2 million in urban areas. Average income levels for households near the poverty line will be between VND1.2-1.56 million in urban areas and VND1-1.3 million in rural areas.

Over the past years, Dong Nai has carried out policies, programs and projects relating to poverty reduction simultaneously and effectively, considering poverty reduction an important task in socio-economic development.

The province has also provided land, agriculture development, and production stimulation assistance to poor households.

Rural infrastructure for remote mountainous or disadvantaged areas has been improved.

It also focused on intensifying vocational training for poor people as well as helping them find jobs and develop production.

According to Mr Mao Quoc Trung, Head of Vocational Training Office under Department of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs, around 38,700 rural laborers have received vocational training since 2010 and over 80 percent of them got jobs.

Colonel Tran Anh Thu, Principal of Vocational College No.8, said that over the past 15 years, the school provided vocational training to more than 4,500 ethnic students and 85 percent of them find jobs after graduations.

During the last 13 years, Dong Nai branch of Vietnam Bank for Social Policies provided preferential loans totaling over VND1.8 trillion to help more than 123,000 local poor households stabilizing their lives. In the first quarter of the year, the branch disbursed some VND79.7 billion for 7,700 poor families to develop production.

In the coming times, the province will continue to strengthen the involvement of various resources in localities and the implementation of the grassroots projects to ensure long-term sustainability and effectiveness of the projects and programmes on poverty reduction.

The province will also diversify vocational training to meet the local demand and skill, facilitate production and business activities to create jobs while raising funds for social welfare.

Reported by C.N