Vietnam has a fast poverty reduction rate but there are still many areas at high risk of falling back into poverty.

The international community recognizes Vietnam as one of the countries with the fastest rate of poverty reduction. However, in some mountainous areas in the North and Central Highlands, the poverty rate is still high, in some places over 70%, with a high risk of falling back into poverty.

At the conference providing information to the press on human rights and foreign affairs information that took place this morning in Hanoi, Mr. Pham Hong Dao, Deputy Chief of the National Office on Poverty Reduction - Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, provided some notable information on poverty reduction in Vietnam, contributing to ensuring human rights.

Mr. Pham Hong Dao, Deputy Chief of the National Office on Poverty Reduction - Ministry of Agriculture and Environment provided information on poverty reduction work in Vietnam.

Vietnam is among the countries with the fastest poverty reduction rate.

Mr. Dao said that in the 2021-2025 period, poverty reduction results have achieved and exceeded the targets and targets assigned by the National Assembly and the Government (the assigned target is to reduce by 1-1.5%/year). The poverty rate decreased from 5.2% in the first year of the period to 1.93% in 2024. On average, each year, the poverty rate in ethnic minority and mountainous areas decreased by over 3%.

It is expected that by the end of 2025, the multidimensional poverty rate will decrease to about 0.9-1.1%; the ethnic minority poverty rate will be 12.55%.

Vietnam has issued national poverty standards eight times. Vietnam is one of the first 30 countries in the world and the first country in Asia to apply multidimensional poverty standards, ensuring a minimum standard of living associated with sustainable development goals.

“In 1998, the country’s poverty rate was about 58%, by the end of 2024 it was only 1.93%, and by the end of 2025, according to the 2021-2025 poverty line, it is expected to be only about 1%. The international community recognizes Vietnam as one of the countries with the fastest poverty reduction rate,” Mr. Dao said excitedly.

To achieve the above achievements, the Party and State have prioritized allocating many resources to implement poverty reduction policies. The national target program for sustainable poverty reduction alone has a total budget of VND 75,000 billion for the 2021-2025 period; of which the central budget is VND 48,000 billion, local counterpart capital is about VND 12,000 billion and other socialized sources.

The national target program on sustainable poverty reduction for the 2021-2025 period has focused on investing in socio-economic development in core poor areas, supporting vulnerable groups to avoid falling into poverty.

Thanks to the support of authorities at all levels, after the implementation of Party and State policies, many infrastructure systems such as electricity, roads, schools, stations, etc. have been invested in, contributing to significantly improving the lives of people in poor and particularly difficult areas.

Along with that, more than 10,500 poverty reduction models and projects have been implemented, creating sustainable livelihoods and promoting economic and labor restructuring in poor localities.

“In remote areas, people actually do not want to leave their hometowns because it brings with it many social problems such as risks to children. It is necessary to create stable jobs so that they have income and do not have to migrate,” Mr. Dao noted.

Big challenges in remote areas

According to Mr. Dao, poverty reduction work in the coming period still faces many challenges.

In some difficult areas such as the Northern midlands and mountainous areas and the Central Highlands , the poverty rate is still high, in many places over 50%, even over 70%, with a high risk of falling back into poverty.

“There is still a situation where a small number of people refuse to escape poverty and want to stay poor forever, because they think “why should I work when the government already gives me money to spend?” This is also a difficulty for policy-making agencies, and it is necessary to design a way to change their mindset,” Mr. Dao reflected.

Some remote and isolated areas still lack essential infrastructure, limited healthcare, education, clean water and environmental sanitation services; production, trade and logistics infrastructure is not yet synchronized, affecting livelihood efficiency.

In many localities, the implementation of poverty reduction models still lacks sustainability and is not really linked to actual conditions, local culture and long-term development needs.

Currently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment is actively coordinating with relevant ministries and branches to develop poverty standards for the 2026-2030 period.

“Directive 05 of the Secretariat assigned the Government to develop a multidimensional, inclusive and sustainable poverty standard, suitable for the socio-economic development conditions of each period. At a recent meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha directed the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment to continue updating indicators on basic social service shortages, including studying additional indicators on the impact of natural disasters,” Mr. Dao informed.

“We want to raise the income poverty line, but there are also opinions that the budget is not yet capable of meeting it, so we should temporarily apply the old poverty line 2021-2025 for the period 2026-2030, and then calculate when we have money. But that will make it very difficult to implement poverty reduction work in the new context,” Mr. Dao added.

It is expected that the state budget support resources for the National Target Program on New Rural Construction and Sustainable Poverty Reduction for the 2026-2030 period will be about 360,000 billion VND.

In the 2026-2030 period, sustainable poverty reduction has three major groups of issues: Supporting the development of socio-economic infrastructure for poor areas; supporting the reduction of basic social service shortages according to the new poverty standard; management, information and propaganda, inspection and supervision.

Vietnamnet.vn

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/viet-nam-co-toc-do-thoat-ngheo-nhanh-nhung-con-nhieu-vung-nguy-co-tai-ngheo-cao-2446042.html