Developing cooperatives, promoting poverty reduction in Lai Chau

According to Chairman of Lai Chau Provincial People's Committee Le Van Luong, with 85% of the population being ethnic minorities, Lai Chau is one of the localities with the most difficult socio -economic conditions in the country. By the end of 2024, the province still had 20,961 poor households (accounting for 19.46%), 10,053 near-poor households (accounting for 9.33%). The total rate of poor and near-poor households was 28.79%.

In order to implement the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction, bringing a new look to rural areas, especially remote, isolated and extremely disadvantaged areas, in recent years, Lai Chau province has made efforts to implement policies to directly support poor and near-poor households in terms of infrastructure investment and production support for people. Key poverty reduction programs have been implemented synchronously, helping the province's poverty rate decrease by 4.42%.

In particular, developing the Cooperative model and supporting Cooperatives in applying technology is one of the solutions that receives special attention. Because Cooperatives are the places where people gather to produce and do business together, receiving support and preferential policies (training, human resource development, trade promotion, market expansion, infrastructure investment, capital support, etc.) when people encounter difficulties due to natural disasters and epidemics.

In order for cooperatives to develop stably and support poverty reduction, in addition to the overall policy, the Provincial Cooperative Alliance coordinated with units under the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance to conduct surveys, develop and propose 5 cooperatives to participate in the project under the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction implemented by the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance.

In addition to capital support, information poverty reduction is also identified by the province as an important step, a foundation to promote sustainable development by improving people's knowledge, awareness and economic development thinking.

Therefore, the Provincial Cooperative Alliance has coordinated with the Institute of Science, Technology and Environment (Vietnam Cooperative Alliance) to organize training courses to improve e-commerce operation capacity for cooperative members, ethnic minorities and mountainous areas, helping people overcome difficulties in accessing technology in production and business.

Training courses to improve knowledge of technology application and e-commerce skills for cooperatives in Lai Chau province

Thanks to these practical activities, many cooperatives have promoted their autonomy in production and business. The internal capacity of cooperatives has been enhanced, the activities of cooperatives have been diversified, the number of cooperatives operating effectively has increased, many cooperatives have boldly invested in machinery and technology, thereby improving the productivity and income of cooperative members, contributing positively to the poverty reduction work of Lai Chau province.

The collective economic sector and cooperatives of the province alone have created jobs and income for about 10,000 people. The poverty rate of Lai Chau has also been reduced. In the period of 2021-2023, the poverty rate of the province decreased by an average of 3.4% per year, the poverty rate of poor districts decreased by an average of 4.7%, and the poverty rate of the whole province decreased to 23.88%. By the end of 2024, the average income per capita will reach nearly 50 million VND.

A typical example is Nam Nhun district, which used to be a mountainous border area with many difficulties, and the poverty rate in the area was relatively high. However, with the promotion of collective models, up to now, the district has had about 30 cooperative models.

In particular, cooperatives in the area are the place where the district organizes and supports people in vocational training, job creation, application of science and technology to promote cultivation, animal husbandry, and build effective commodity economic models.

Source: https://phunuvietnam.vn/phat-trien-hop-tac-xa-day-manh-giam-ngheo-o-lai-chau-20250512173348664.htm