2.4 million needy people to benefit from direct assistance
11:28' 16/01/2009 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge - The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA), on Thursday, announced that 2.4 million poor and ethnic minority people will benefit from direct assistance.

 

Ethnic minority people will benefit from this program.

 

At the announcement ceremony of the program for rapid and sustainable poverty reduction for 61 poor districts in Vietnam on Thursday, the MoLISA’s official said poor families that are willing to take care of forests will be granted VND 200,000 ($11.7) per hectare per year.

 

These families are allowed to own the products generated from the assigned area of forest, are provided with seeds and seedling worth VND 2-5 million ($117-294) per hectare per year. They are also supplied with 15kg/person/month during the time the forest has not yielded produce yet, and an additional VND 5 million/hectare/family.

 

For needy families, apart from having access to financial assistance to develop household economics, they are allowed to borrow up to VND 5 million/family at a 0% interest rate for two years to buy seeds or breeding poultry or cattle. These families will also receive VND 1 million/household to build breeding facilities or dig ponds at VND 2 million per hectare of grass.

 

For poor families in border areas, VND 15kg/person/month during the time their fields or forest has not yielded products yet will be available.

 

The government will assist poor districts to build appropriate facilities to support their economic structure shifting plans.

 

The program aims to cut the rate of poor households to less than 40% by 2010 and to the average rate of Southeast Asia by 2020.

 

According to statistics, Vietnam currently has 61 districts (totaling 797 communes and towns) in 20 provinces where the rate of needy families accounts for over 50%.

 

These districts are in isolated and mountainous areas, where the natural lands are spacious but the cultivated lands are limited, while the weather is unfavorable. These districts have 2.4 million people, most of them are ethnic minority people.

 

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