Authorities in Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi have issued a plan in which the municipal government targets to lower the poverty rate by spending VND10.2 trillion ($448 million) for the plan by 2020. Its investment aims to have no out-of-the-place commune by the end of 2018 and reduce the poverty rate in urban areas below 1.2% and in rural areas below 1.5% by end-2020. The total will include VND4.2 trillion from the municipal budget, VND5.7 trillion from district level, and VND309 billion from the private sector. Two thirds of the money will be used to finance the government- and the city-run programs for social beneficiaries, one third to implement the national poverty reduction projects, and VND500 billion for soft loans. The poverty rate in the city of more than seven million population was 2.37% at the end of 2016. It expects to lower the rate by 0.6 percentage point this year. (An Ninh Thu Do – Capital’s Security Feb 20 p7, Thoi Bao Tai Chinh – Financial Times Feb 20, Hanoimoi.vn)
