Cần Thơ City has encouraged farmers to switch to high-value crops on low-yield rice fields, enabling many poor households to escape poverty. – VNA/VNS Photo Vũ Sinh

CẦN THƠ – The Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta city of Cần Thơ plans to spend VNĐ703 billion (US$30.6 million) this year on poverty alleviation measures.

The money, to come from the central and local governments, soft loans and other sources, will be used to provide poor households with all basic social services and improve their incomes.

They will include support policies and programmes related to healthcare, education, vocational training, soft loans, and job and poverty reduction models to help poor and near-poor people.

Loans worth VNĐ640 billion ($27.8 million) will be provided to 12,974 poor and near – poor households and those that have newly escaped poverty to do business.

The city will provide free health insurance cards to 3,090 poor and ethnic people living in disadvantaged areas, and 34,729 near-poor people, ensuring that this demographic is covered 100 per cent. 

It will provide scholarships or reduce or waive school fees for 1,870 poor students, and vocational training and jobs for 750 poor and near-poor people.

It will expand 48 successful poverty reduction models, and carry out agriculture extension programmes to benefit 150 poor and near-poor households.

The city has implemented various policies and programmes in recent years to enable poor households to escape poverty sustainably.

Last year it built 485 houses, gifted 43,556 health insurance cards to poor and near – poor households and provided soft loans worth a total of VNĐ648 billion ($28.1 million) to poor and near - poor households. 

It mobilised more than VNĐ75.7 billion ($3.3 million) and 227 tonnes of rice from individuals, organisations and communities to donate to poor and near-poor households.

More than 44,900 poor and near-poor households received VNĐ33.7 billion ($1.5 million) worth of Government subsidies to overcome the impacts of the COVID- 19 pandemic.

The city reduced its poverty rate by 0.38 percentage points and had only 1,036 poor households last year, or 0.29 per cent, according to its Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs.

The city aims to ensure the rate does not slip this year since the poor households are not able to escape poverty as they have members benefiting from the Government’s social policies or with chronic diseases or have only seniors. – VNS