Bananas are planted in the U Minh Hạ National Park in Cà Mau Province. Many local households receive assistance to grow bananas to have a stable income of more than VNĐ200 million ($8,000) a year and improve their lives. – VNA/VNS Photo Huỳnh Anh

CÀ MAU – The southernmost province of Cà Mau plans to reduce its multi-dimensional poverty rate to below 1 per cent in 2025.

Under the Government’s regulations for multi-dimensional poverty in 2022-25, a household in Cà Mau is considered poor when it has an income of less than VNĐ2 million (US$80) per person a month in urban areas and less than VNĐ1.5 million ($60) in rural areas.

Nguyễn Minh Luân, deputy chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, said the province has focused on implementing poverty reduction policies proactively in localities in past years.

The total amount spent for implementing the national target programme for sustainable poverty reduction in the province was VNĐ312 billion ($12.6 million) in 2016-20.

The programme invested in upgrading socio-economic infrastructure, created jobs and livelihoods for local people, boosted production and trade and provided basic social services in poor communes.

During the period, the province had 14,260 poor and near-poor households with access to poverty reduction policies, including receiving soft loans, jobs, vocational skills training, and land for farming and housing.

Its poverty rate dropped by 1.67 percentage points a year in 2016-20 compared to its target of 1.5 percentage points.

The province implemented various social welfare programmes and expanded effective poverty reduction models, helping to improve the lives of people during the period.

The locality had more than 9,600 poor households and 6,943 near-poor households earlier this year, accounting for 3.14 per cent of its total households and 2.27 per cent of its total households, according to its Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs.

Nguyễn Quốc Thanh, director of the department, said the national target programme for sustainable poverty reduction in the province has achieved important results but still faced difficulties and limited investment resources in 2016-20.

The investment for projects that create jobs and improve incomes for the poor has not been implemented properly, and this can lead to the risk of residents falling back into poverty, he said.

The province should strengthen advocacy activities to enhance the awareness of local authorities and the public about the national target programme for sustainable poverty reduction in combination with the implementation of the emulation movement entitled “the whole nation joins hands to help the poor, no one left behind in 2021-25,” he said.

Luân said to create more jobs and livelihoods for the poor, it needs to evaluate in detail existing limitations in creating jobs and livelihoods for the poor and their reasons.

Effective measures that create jobs and livelihoods for the poor should be expanded, he said.

The province’s Fatherland Front Committee and other socio-political organisations have assisted 2,195 poor and near poor households so far this year.

They have also built 290 houses for poor households and households with extreme difficulties.

The central government allocated the province VNĐ62.1 billion ($2.5 million) to implement the national target programme for sustainable poverty reduction this year.

The province also spent VNĐ6.2 billion ($250,000) for the programme this year. – VNS