Ho Chi Minh City plans to reduce the number of poor families within the next year from 21,000 to 14,000.
This was reported at a working session on December 3, organized by the Cultural and Social Committee of the People’s Council of HCMC and the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, which met to verify the new standards set for reducing number of poor families in the period 2014-2015.
The City has 21,000 households whose economic conditions are on the poverty line, with annual income being less than VND12 million (US$568) per head.
The Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs said it will strive to decrease the number of poor families in the City to 14,000 or 0.7 percent of the population.
However, if the City applies new standards of poverty household verification, there will be around 130,000 poor households and 50,000 families near the poverty line. The new standards will allow each member of the poor family to have an annual income of VND16 million and each member of a family living near the poverty line to have an annual income of a little less than VND21 million (US$995).
Nguyen Van Xe, Deputy Director of Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, said the City has so far focused on improving the income of poor households but has laid no emphasis on increasing the number of rich households.
