HCM CITY — The HCM City’s People’s Committee has recognised District 10 for reaching its target of having no households living under the poverty line two years ahead of schedule.

Under the city’s poverty standards for the 2016-2020 period, a poor household has an average income of below VNĐ21 million (US$902) per year per person, and a near-poor household VNĐ21 million to VNĐ28 million ($1,203).

Trần Xuân Điền, chairman of the District 10’s People’s Committee, praised the district’s achievements in poverty reduction and its contributions to development.

In 2016, District 10 had 632 poor households with 2,781 people, accounting for 1.02 per cent of total households in the district.

Measures to help the poor in the province have included loans, vocational training, jobs and scholarships, as well as support for education, housing, healthcare and legal aid for the poor and near-poor.

The city People’s Committee awarded 108 outstanding groups and individuals for their contributions to the district’s sustainable poverty reduction programme from 2016 to 2018.

Since 2016, the city’s fund for poverty reduction provided a total of VNĐ11.8 trillion ($506.5 million) to more than 62,000 poor and 20,000 near-poor households.

Eleven of the city’s 24 districts (1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 11 Phú Nhuận, Bình Thạnh, Tân Bình and Tân Phú) are expected to have no poor households by 2020.

District 6 was the first in the city to no longer have households under the poverty line, achieving the target three years ahead of schedule.

The city plans to mobilise all resources to provide VNĐ4.67 trillion ($200.5 million) next year and VNĐ4.74 trillion ($203.5 million) in 2020 to continue implementing poverty reduction programmes.

By the end of 2020, the city aims to complete the target of no poor households according to standards for the 2019-2020 period. It includes reducing the poverty rate to below 0.5 per cent and increasing the poor’s average per capita income 3.5 times compared to 2011. — VNS