Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung, also Head of the National Steering Committee for the Zero Hunger Action Program of Vietnam, has asked for strict implementation of the program by 2025 after it had been approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) will be responsible for building a working plan for the committee in 2018. It will also coordinate with the Ministries of Finance and Planning and Investment to map out a financial plan for the program and submit to the PM for approval in the first quarter of 2018. The program targets ensuring enough food and nutrition for all citizens towards improved physical and intellectual health and towards fulfilling sustainable development goals in food security and sustainable agricultural development. The program will help create an institutional platform to design and implement food security and nutrition policies measures in a coordinated manner so as to have a sustained impact on national food security, poverty reduction and development of new rural areas. Funds for the program will be mobilized from international donors and allocations made to target programs earmarked by the government. Vietnam has gained achievements from the “Zero Hunger Program”, particularly poverty reduction. According to the MARD, the nation’s poverty rate reduced from 46.9% in 1990-1992 to 9% in 2010-2012. The national plan aims to “basically tackle poverty” by 2020. (VietnamPlus, Bao Chinh Phu – Government Portal, Bnews, Giao Duc - Education, Bao Phu Yen – Phu Yen Newspaper Jan 3)
