Minister Dao Ngoc Dung: "No one is born and grows up wanting to be poor"

“No one is born and grows up wanting to be poor and no one does not want to escape poverty. Recently, many localities have had hundreds of poor households voluntarily write applications to escape poverty and proactively give up their support benefits to others, this is something that needs to be commended” - Minister Dao Ngoc Dung spoke at the National Assembly forum on the afternoon of October 30.

Explaining further to the National Assembly about the implementation of the 3 National Target Programs, Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung highly appreciated the monitoring results of the Monitoring Team which objectively and comprehensively assessed the implementation process of the 3 National Target Programs. The Minister affirmed that the monitoring process has created fundamental changes in the awareness and actions of all levels and sectors.

"I believe that after this supervision, the transformation will be faster and more effective," the Minister affirmed.

Regarding the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction, Minister Dao Ngoc Dung said that this is the second term in which we have implemented this Program. However, unlike the previous term, this term requires higher and more difficult tasks because it not only reduces income poverty but also requires multidimensional poverty reduction, which is higher, more comprehensive and more inclusive.

The Minister said that in the recent past, despite great determination, the implementation of the Program has encountered many difficulties and challenges, including objective causes that have greatly affected the implementation of the Program from the Covid-19 pandemic, natural disasters, floods and storms, which have greatly affected the difficult areas. Therefore, the difficult areas have become even more difficult, the poor have become even poorer...

According to the Minister, over the past time, the implementation of the 3 National Target Programs, although still having many limitations, especially in terms of the poverty rate, the quality and sustainability of poverty reduction, however, with the great efforts of the entire political system, especially the localities, and the rise of poor and near-poor households, they have achieved very remarkable results. The targets set by the National Assembly have basically been achieved. The international community also recognizes Vietnam as a "bright spot" in poverty reduction.

Minister Dao Ngoc Dung proposed to give full authority to the district level to implement the National Target Program (Photo: DK)

The Minister also analyzed the difficulties in implementing the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction in particular and the 3 National Target Programs in general.

Regarding the National Target Program for Sustainable Poverty Reduction, the Minister affirmed, “No one is born and grows up wanting to be poor and no one does not want to escape poverty. It is just that they do not have the ability to escape poverty. Currently, the Poverty Reduction Program no longer has a free policy but has completely shifted to conditional support. Recently, many localities have hundreds of poor households voluntarily writing applications to escape poverty and proactively giving up support benefits to others, this is something that should be commended.”

Regarding the separation of poor households that are unable to work and cannot escape poverty, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs is currently coordinating with the Ministry of Finance to advise the Government on criteria so that after separation, these people will have a better life or not worse than poor households.

Regarding housing support, the Minister said that, in the spirit of Decision 90 and Resolution 24 of the National Assembly, we strive to eliminate about 100,000 dilapidated apartments of poor households in 74 poor districts with a budget of 4,000 billion during this term.

Through practical implementation, Minister Dao Ngoc Dung said that the implementation of the New Rural Development and Sustainable Poverty Reduction Program is progressing relatively well. The socio-economic development program for ethnic minorities in mountainous areas is even more difficult. However, all three programs have had to issue too many documents, even though they do not want to, they still have to issue them because of the implementation of legal regulations.

“On average, each program must issue 60-70 different documents. In that “forest” of documents, even though they don’t want to, the specialized agency has a hard time,” the Minister informed.

Furthermore, the decentralization and delegation of authority are not clear, leading to the situation of "the lower level waits for the higher level, the higher level tells the lower level to do it but the lower level is afraid". That is why there is a phenomenon where the Ministry has issued Circulars but the lower level proposes to issue "instructions from the instructions". Meanwhile, the allocation of small, fragmented, and scattered projects is too much; along with that, the capital allocation is slow and dribbled...

Minister Dao Ngoc Dung said that the Government has proposed 7 specific policy mechanisms to the National Assembly, but according to the Minister, in the immediate future, in the Resolution on supervision this term, the National Assembly should allow a pilot program to give full authority to the district level to proactively decide to adjust the capital structure from programs and between programs; in which each province chooses one or two districts to pilot.

“The district has full decision-making power, the province only coordinates, inspects and supervises, the Central government checks the targets, inspects, checks, summarizes and evaluates the program. Only then can it be implemented quickly,” the Minister emphasized.

C.Giang

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