The information was released at a meeting in Hanoi on June 23 to review the implementation of the results of the Vietnam Development Partnership Forum (VDPF).
During the meeting, the Vietnamese government and development partners discussed four major issues that Vietnam committed to dealing with at the VDPF 2013 - clean water in rural areas, environment management, vocational training and capacity building, and poverty reduction in ethnic minorities.
Ministry of Planning and Investment, relevant agencies and localities have been co-ordinating closely to implement consistent policies, including developing, reviewing and amending related programmes, regulations and legal documents, as well as building and implementing action plans for poverty reduction in ethnic minority groups, and improving the skills and qualifications of the participants in implementing the VDPF commitments.
As a result, the poverty rate in the country fell from 58% in 1993 to 5.975% in 2014. Most notably, the poverty rate in ethnic minority groups has been reduced by 3-4% per year over the past years.
Currently, 84.5% of households in rural areas use potable water and 62% have standard latrines.
Additionally, Vietnam has now 1,456 vocational training establishments, an increase of 100 over the same period last year, meeting the demands of the country's economic development.
At the meeting, experts also discussed and made proposals to further enhance provisions of services to ethnic minority groups, as well as mobilise all resources to solve poverty.
Addressing the meeting, World Bank Country Director for Vietnam Victoria Kwakwa emphasised that the development partners praised the great results of Vietnam in the work of poverty reduction.
She also noted that Vietnam should encourage measures to improve the quality of human resources, an important factor in the country’s economic development in the context of international integration, as well as encourage private enterprises to construct and operate water supply and wastewater treatment systems.
