Vietnam has started conducting a poverty reduction project in the Central Highlands costing $165 million with funding from the World Bank. The five-year project is aimed at raising the living standards in 130 communes of six provinces including Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Gia Lai, and Kon Tum in the Central Highlands, Quang Ngai and Quang Ngai in the central region. The project has four components, namely developing infrastructure in remote villages, improving livelihood of ethnic minorities to enhance their food security and nutrition, raising their productive capacities for more diversified income sources, and connecting them selected agricultural markets. The bank has pledged to fund the Southeast Asian country $1.5 billion for poverty fight in the next two to three years. Vietnam said that it spent an estimated VND864 trillion ($41.14 billion) on poverty alleviation during 2005-2012. But it is believed that a large amount of the annual spending has gone to feed the administration system instead. (Thoi Bao Kinh Te Viet Nam – Vietnam Economic Times Sept 17 p3)
