Illustrative image (Source: VNA) Dak Lak (VNA) – The number of poor households in the Central Highlands region has dropped to 8.5 percent with the rate among ethnic minority groups standing at 18 percent.
According to the Steering Committee for the Central Highlands Region, over 35,000 households across the region escaped from poverty in 2015, representing a decrease of nearly 3 percent.
With a poverty rate of just 2 percent, Lam Dong province is the best performer in the regional combat against poverty.
The committee attributed these outcomes to a bundle of measures that aim to support locals in production, accommodation, vocational training and job generation.
Priorities have been given to poor and near-poor households, especially those in rural and ethnic minority-inhabited areas.
In 2015, the Central Highlands provinces organised vocational training courses for over 85,800 labourers and created stable jobs for 101,000 others.
Of note, newly-established 2,417 businesses have offered jobs to tens of thousands of labourers.
Social policy banks, organisations and enterprises in and outside the region have also assisted locals in production.
As a result, in Dak Lak province, for example, 52,000 people have access to bank loans and about 600,000 others have been provided with free health insurance cards.
Besides, the Central Highlands provinces have also organised training courses on farming methods for local farmers.
The region will continue mobilise resources to implement solutions set for 2016 in order to reduce the poverty rate by 3 percent and the number of poor ethnic minority households at least 5 percent.
The Central Highlands encompasses Dak Lak, Gia Lai, Kon Tum, Dak Nong, and Lam Dong provinces.-VNA
