The Mekong Delta province of An Giang has seen its poverty rate decline significantly in the five-year period from 2016 to 2020 thanks to the implementation of National Assembly (NA) Resolution No 76/2014/QH13 on promoting sustainable poverty alleviation to 2020. An Giang is an agricultural province facing various difficulties in terms of budget and the mobilization of business support. Most poor local workers have low education levels and even lack the tools and skills needed to work. According to the provincial People’s Committee, An Giang’s poverty rate fell to 2.63% in 2019 from 8.45% in 2016 following the implementation of the resolution. The rate of households returning to poverty was also low, with just 16 households doing so between 2016 and 2019. Provincial authorities helped 54,100 poor, near-poor, and recently-escaped-from-poverty families access loans totaling more than VND1 trillion VND ($42.7 million) during the period. Meanwhile, from 2016 to 2020, all members of near-poor households received health insurance cards, with 70% of the cost coming from the State budget and the remainder from the provincial budget. Le Van Phuoc, Vice Chairman of the An Giang People’s Committee, said the implementation of the NA resolution has contributed to creating jobs with stable incomes for poor and near-poor families. The increase in the loan limit by the Vietnam Bank for Social Policy has also helped people in these groupings sustainably escape from poverty, he added. Nguyen Thanh Binh, Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, said authorities will continue allocating budget funds to carry out poverty-reduction policies and programs, with more investment to go to infrastructure development in poor areas and vocational education for those in need. An Giang also plans to focus on building and replicating poverty-reduction models and encouraging startups within the target group. (Vietnam Plus)
