Looking to a brighter future for all

The report provides an excellent opportunity for Vietnam to present its achievements and lessons to the world at the upcoming 2005 World Summit at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City o­n September 14-16. Vietnam Investment Review’s Hoang Mai investigates how far Vietnam has progressed to attaining the eight MDGs.

Representatives from the United Nations network in Vietnam and various international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) share the common view that Vietnam’s poverty reduction efforts are the most impressive and strongest story to tell at the 2005 World Summit

Deputy director of the Department of National Economic Issues under the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) Nguyen Tu Nhat said Vietnam must take pride in what the country has done to eliminate hunger and sharply reduce poverty. No other country in the world has performed better than Vietnam in the fight against poverty, he added

The facts speak for themselves. Figures released in the draft report show that, using the World Bank’s poverty standard, which classifies those earning less than $1 per day as poor, Vietnam’s poverty rate has fallen impressively from 58.1 per cent in 1993 to 24.1 per cent in 2004. If the food poverty line is taken into account, the rate falls from 24.9 per cent in 1993 to 7.8 per cent in 2004, according to the report.

Therefore, in around a decade, Vietnam has successfully achieved the goal of halving the rate of the poor and hungry from the early 1990s, according to international standards. This achievement puts the country two years ahead of the international deadline to reach ‘Goal o­ne’ in the Millennium Declaration.

“High and stable national economic growth, with an average GDP increase of 7 per cent annually between 1994 and 2004, and increased investments in pro-poor programmes, including employment generation and infrastructure improvements in line with the national Comprehensive Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy, have offered good conditions for Vietnam to reduce its poverty rate,” said Nhat.

Unstable trends and growing inequality

The success story has its flip side, as the most common concerns raised by NGOs are the increasing number of people falling back below the poverty line and increasing inequality between urban and rural areas.

Nguyen Hoai Chau, a representative from ActionAid International Vietnam, referred to findings in a recent survey, which the organisation conducted in seven cities and provinces throughout Vietnam, o­n how local people react to the MDGs

“The rate of people falling back below the poverty line remains very high at 15-20 per cent, thereby affecting poverty reduction targets, which Vietnam should have attained,” said Chau. “It is urgent that the issue of falling back into poverty also be highlighted in the report so that adequate attention and investment is allocated to prevent the phenomena.”

She pointed out that the main reasons pushing vulnerable people back below the poverty line are natural disasters, increases in production costs, increases in consumer prices and decreases in the prices of farmers’ crops.

Meanwhile, Ngo Minh Huong, a poverty reduction specialist at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), criticised the growing disparities in the poverty rate between urban and rural areas, and between the Kinh ethnic majority group and other ethnic minority groups.

“Actually, Vietnam’s successful achievements have been accompanied by widening socio-economic disparities in different regions in the country in terms of access to, and quality of, basic social services, including health and education,” Huong emphasised

She cited the example that while poverty indicators in big cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City were below 5 per cent, in 10 other under-developed provinces, the rates exceeded 60 per cent.

According to the report, although the poverty rate in rural areas fell from 66.4 per cent in 1993 to 27.5 per cent in 2004, it was still much higher than the rate of 10.8 per cent in urban areas.

As far as ethnic minority people are concerned, poverty rates among such groups remain the highest and progress is much slower than in Kinh ethnic majority communities. The report shows that from 1993 to 2003, the reduction in the poverty rate among ethnic minority groups was o­nly 17.1 percentage points – from 86.4 per cent to 69.3 per cent – while the respective rate among Kinh people was 30.8 per cent – from 53.9 per cent to 23.1 per cent.

Growing role of children

A representative from UNICEF said that Vietnam should better recognise the role of children in poverty reduction.
“The UN Millennium Report identified investment in education and healthcare as the two most cost-effective approaches to poverty reduction and both of these measures are primarily about children. Therefore, it is recommended that more references be made to children in the overall analysis of Vietnam’s MDG achievements,” he said.

UNDP deputy resident representative Subinay Nandy shared similar concerns about the rising number of street children in Vietnam from under-privileged rural families.
“The Vietnamese Government has recognised the need to invest more in children, but I think that current investment levels do not adequately meet all the needs. So we highly appreciate the government’s recognition, but results are also based o­n the issue of ability,” he told Vietnam Investment Review.

MPI’s Nhat provided figures proving that Vietnam has been gradually increasing investment in children – the future leaders of the country – through improved education and healthcare services targeting young people.

He said that training and education expenditure increased from 15 per cent of the total state budget in 2000 to 17.4 per cent in 2004, and 18 per cent in 2005.

Figures from the report show that the net school enrolment rate in Vietnam’s primary education system has reached 100 per cent, and the completion rate at this education level has stood as high as 82 per cent.

“Vietnam has many chances to complete the MDGs for universal primary education, eliminate education inequality, especially in primary education, and ensure boys and girls everywhere are equally able to complete a full course of primary schooling by 2015,” Nhat said.

As far as healthcare services targeting children are concerned, Vietnam has succeeded in reducing the under-five-year-old mortality rate from 58 deaths per 1000 in 1990 to 30 deaths per 1000 in 2005.
Nevertheless, Vietnam is facing a high rate of child malnutrition. Although the under-five-year-old malnourished rate fell from 44.9 per cent in 1995 to 25 per cent in 2005, the rate is still higher than other regional countries. In light of the figures, Nhat affirmed that successful poverty reduction efforts are significantly linked to the improved health conditions of Vietnamese children.

HIV/AIDS – Vietnam’s greatest challenge
In contrast to its other successes, Vietnam is confronting a wide-spread HIV/AIDS epidemic, which is posing the greatest threat to the country’s young population.

“We have set out relatively ambitious targets, but limited resources have weakened our efforts to ensure the goals are within reach,” said Nhat.

Figures from the report showed that by the end of 2004, Vietnam had detected 90,380 people living with HIV, of whom 14,428 people were diagnosed with AIDS and 8,898 had died of the fatal disease.
HIV/AIDS has spread to all 64 cities and provinces in Vietnam, with Quang Ninh, Hai Phong, Ho Chi Minh City, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, An Giang and Hanoi having the most cases.

A UNFPA representative noted that the official figures do not reveal the real picture of HIV/AIDS in Vietnam, and the facts were much more alarming.

“With 62 per cent of new HIV infections affecting Vietnam’s young population between the ages of 20 and 29, HIV/AIDS may pose serious challenges to Vietnam’s ability to sustain its remarkable progress,” he said.

He said that better allocation and co-ordination of resources and improved communication in the battle against HIV/AIDS were urgently needed to ensure that Vietnam’s fight against the disease works effectively.

“In addition, reducing discrimination against the disease is another tool in the fight,” he added.