Viet Nam's population, poverty reduction achievements praised
Viet Nam managed to reduce the average number of children per woman from 3.6 in 1990 to 2.1 in 2005, said Sakurai, who is also a Japanese parliamentarian, predicting that the country will try to reach the replacement fertility level by 2010.
These achievements have helped Viet Nam attain great successes in hunger elimination and poverty reduction as well as firm economic growth in the recent past, he said.
At the seminar, Vice Chairman of the Vietnamese National Assembly Nguyen Phuc Thanh said this was an opportunity for delegates to share useful experiences in building policies and laws conducive to hunger elimination and poverty reduction, thus helping Viet Nam and other Asian countries to implement the work more effectively.
With its own efforts and assistance from international organisations and other nations, Viet Nam has been recognised by the United Nations as one of the countries to have successfully implemented the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), especially in eradicating hunger and poverty, said Thanh.
The country's number of households living under the poverty line was reduced from 58.1 percent in 1993 to 24.1 percent in 2004, he added.
The NA leader noted that Viet Nam is now carrying out its 2006-10 socio-economic development plan with the aim of continuing to eliminate hunger, reduce poverty and promote socio-economic development in a sustainable way.
Chairwoman of the NA Committee for Social Affairs Nguyen Thi Hoai Thu, AFPPD member, said that the poverty reduction process is facing a series of challenges, such as how to achieve sustainable results, to help households avoid falling back into poverty and to increase poverty eradication among ethnic minorities and in difficult ares.
During the two-day seminar, parliamentarians and leading experts exchanged experiences in hunger eradication and poverty reduction in Asia, and spoke of related issues in Viet Nam and the effects of communications in the process.
They also discussed Japan's food security policy and population growth, legislation and its role in rural development and the role of NA deputies in poverty reduction.
Then, the delegates exchanged factual experiences in the process of poverty alleviation in Viet Nam's Tuyen Quang province.
