Hanoi (VNA) 🦋- A labor expert said that it is necessary for Vietnam to introduce specific policies and take appropriate measures to ensure sustainable poverty reduction.

"Under the national target program on poverty reduction, supporting livelihood diversification and production development for the poor is always a top priority. This is one of the most important pathways to create jobs, ensure sustainable livelihoods and good income. It can increase the quality of life and contribute to achieving the goal of economic and labour restructuring and sustainable poverty reduction,” said Nguyen Le Binh, Deputy Chief of the National Office for Poverty Reduction (Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs). According to Mr. Binh, for poor districts, especially those in border areas, inhabited by many ethnic minorities, it is necessary to fully implement poverty reduction solutions and supplement specific policies to ensure the implementation of poverty reduction goals and national defense and security. In particular, he said, it is necessary to promote the implementation of inter-regional socioeconomic development policies, strengthen the connection between developed and disadvantaged regions, and support businesses to invest in difficult areas, associated with ensuring national defense and security. “We need to implement policies to encourage businesses to cooperate in production, trade and consumption, develop production models suitable for the poor, especially for those in rural and mountainous areas," Mr. Binh said. Over recent times, national target programmes have aimed at economic and social development and improving people's living standards, especially in remote and extremely difficult areas. For the 2021-2025 period, the National Assembly approved the investment policy of three national target programmes, including the National Target Programme for Sustainable Poverty Reduction and the National Target Programme for Socioeconomic Development in Areas inhabited by ethnic minorities and mountainous areas. Both projects are charged with setting the goal of reducing the poverty rate of ethnic minority households by at least 3%. All three programmes focus on a number of similar projects and activities such as supporting production development and vocational education and employment. To ensure the goals, the Government and localities have established a Steering Committee for national target programmes for the 2021-2025 period from the central to commune levels to unify management and coordinate activities of the three programs. Binh said that in the coming time, poverty reduction will focus on perfecting policies, organising the implementation of projects, improving the quality of staff and strengthening supervision and evaluation, among others. During the 2021-2025 period, over 47 trillion VND (2.7 billion USD) has been allocated to northern mid-land and mountainous provinces to carry out the three national target programmes. As of June 30, over 3.7 trillion VND was disbursed, or 32.63% of the annual plan, 4.43% higher than the country’s average. All 14 localities disbursed their own budget for the programmes, including Yen Bai 100%, Lao Cai and Ha Giang over 65%. The multidimensional poverty rate has dropped to 25.69% while the poverty rate in ethnic minority groups has been reduced by 3.61% on average. As many as 963 out of over 2,000 communes in the region have met criteria for new rural development./.