Prosperity leads HCM City to lift poverty line

HCM City (VNA) - Ho Chi Minh City has raised the poverty threshold after
ensuring almost all households have climbed above the old poverty line.

It has redrawn the line at 12 million VND (700 USD) a year per person, double the
old level and triple the national level.

At the end of last year, only 0.24 percent of its population earned less than 6
million VND a year, according to the steering committee of the HCM City Hunger
Eradication and Poverty Reduction and Job Creation Programme.

Nguyen Van Xe, deputy director of the city Department of Labour, Invalids and
Social Affairs and deputy head of the committee, said that under the new criterion,
the city would have 172,000 poor households, or 13.8 percent.

The adjustment was based on the city's growth rate and rising living costs among
other criteria, he explained.

The city targeted to cut the poverty rate to 4-8 percent by 2015, he said.

To achieve the target, authorities would verify the status of every poor household
to provide them access to bank loans and job training and create jobs for them, he
said.

The Fund for Hunger Eradication and Poverty Alleviation would give priority to
families earning less than 8 million VND a year, he said, while the Bank for Social
Policy, the National Fund for Job Creation and other concerned organisations would
lend to those earning more than 8 million VND.

The city aimed not only to reduce poverty but also to support those living just
above the poverty line, Xe said.

The steering committee said the city would also spend 140 billion VND (8.2 million
USD) to help more than 870,000 poor people get health insurance cards this
year.-Enditem