The Government, during its regular meeting for July, urged the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) to quickly issue new poverty standards.

Vietnam has adjusted its poverty benchmark for five times as way to raise its citizens’ minimum living standards.

The country is deploying the National Program o­n poverty reduction for the period of 2006-2010 with an aim to lower poverty rate from 18.2% in 2006 to 10-11% this year, or down by 2% annual.

Poor households are defined as those whose average monthly income is not higher than VND 200,000 and VND 260,000 per head for rural and urban areas respectively.

Although significant achievements have been made, challenges still lie ahead. Poverty rate goes down unstably, the number of poor households fell back to poverty is still high.

The new poverty base line must serve to encourage the poor’s self-reliance and prevent their dependence o­n State’s resources, said Deputy PM Nguyen Sinh Hung.

The new poverty base line will be developed based o­n the following six criteria, namely: Scientific calculation; minimum spending need; suitability and comparability to international and regional lines; priorities for mountainous and rural areas; compatibility with State resources balance; and facilitation for localities to survey the households.

The MOLISA suggested that the poverty line should be VND 500,000 person/month and VND 400.000 person/month for urban and rural areas respectively.

If the above suggestion is passed, Vietnam will has some 3.3 million of poor households, equivalent to 16.5 million of poor people, pulling the current number of poor households to 15% from 11%.

It is estimated the new program o­n poverty reduction will need an addition of VND 5,700 billion.

The new poverty benchmark will be the basis for provinces and cities throughout the country to fix their own poverty levels which are in line with their real conditions.

Currently, nine cities and provinces like Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Binh Duong, Da Nang, Dong Nai, Khanh Hoa, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Binh Phuoc, and Long An, have higher poverty benchmarks than the Government’s.