Ba Ria-Vung Tau to reduce poverty to 0.5 percent by 2025 hinh anh 1Women make products from water hyacinth in Ba Ria – Vung Tau province’s Chau Duc district. (Photo: VNA)
Ba Ria-Vung Tau (VNA) - The southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau plans to reduce its poverty rate to 0.5 percent under national poverty standards by 2025.

The province now has 2,083 poor households, accounting for 0.73 percent of the total number.

To meet the target, the province will offer vocational training and jobs to the poor, and other support policies.

Speaking at a seminar held in the province this week, Dinh Thi Truc My, deputy director of the provincial Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, said the province’s social allowance rate for the poor in 2016-2020 was 1.2 times higher than the national rate.

The provincial People’s Committee, relevant departments and agencies and localities had implemented poverty-reduction policies with effective and suitable measures, she said.

Support like soft loans, health care, education and poverty reduction models were given priority.

The provincial Fatherland Front Committee and its member organisations mobilised financial contributions from individual and organisations to build houses for the poor, provide scholarships to poor students, and give gifts to poor households on national holidays and the Tet (Lunar New Year) festival.

The province also gave poor ethnic households animal and crop seeds, houses, household use water, and school fees.

It invested in power, roads and schools to improve the lives of poor ethnic households.

Last year, Ba Ria city became the province’s first locality to have no poor households.

Dat Do district has also reduced poverty significantly in recent years. The district’s rate of poor households fell from 11.3 percent in 2016 to 0.22 percent last year.

Tran Thi Kim, head of the district’s Bureau of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, said the district had effectively implemented support measures suited for poor households.

With contributions from political-social organisations, associations and companies in and outside the district, the district had been very effective in reducing poverty, she said./.
VNA