(VOVworld) – Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung told the UN General Assembly in New York on September 27 that “In Vietnam, human beings are the center and target of development” and Vietnam has always integrated Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) into its development strategy. Vietnam has focused its investment in healthcare, education, and information for all people, especially those in disadvantaged areas and ethnic minority groups and considers it a practical way to ensure human rights.
Sound policies
In the context of the global and domestic economic difficulty, the Vietnamese government has paid more attention to guaranteeing social security and other basic rights of all citizens. Vietnam’s economic development policy is summed up in the phrase “to stabilize the macro-economy, ensure social security, and reduce poverty”.
Since 2005, Vietnam has followed a comprehensive strategy on growth and poverty reduction that is compatible with the UN MDGs.
From 2003 to 2012, Vietnam spent 51% of the state budget on social security targets. From 2006 to 2012, the Government invested nearly 33 billion USD from government bonds in 3,000 transport, water irrigation, healthcare, and education projects. Ethnic minority communities and mountain areas received 2.6 billion USD.
Every year, the State gives a regular allowance to approximately 2% of the population and spends 0.5% to 0.6% of GDP on natural disaster recovery. Vietnam has also mobilized the entire political system to help reduce poverty and observes October 17th as a “Day for the poor”.
Significant statistics
Vietnam has implemented scores of investment programs and policies on infrastructure, employment, and assistance to help poor and ethnic minority households develop their production, community activities, and rewarding people who have rendered service to the nation.
Vietnam has improved people’s access to social services, one human rights index. As of 2012, more than 90% of people in Vietnam had access to electricity, 85% of rural people had clean water, and 100% of communes had clinics and roads.
Thousands of subsidized houses and hundreds of housing projects for low-income people have been built to meet the housing demand of social beneficiaries. By 2010, Vietnam had fundamentally universalized primary education with 100% of communes having schools.
Every year, 1.8 million people are trained through a system of 10,000 vocational training centers and 700 educational centers. Poor students are exempted from or pay reduced school fees and are given a meal allowance.
Vietnam has healthcare policies for people who have rendered service to the revolution and victims of Agent Orange/ dioxin. In 2011 and 2012, the state spent over 1.1 billion USD on health insurance for 29 million poor people, ethnic minority people, children under 6 years old, and people living near the poverty line.
The average life expectancy of Vietnamese people is 73 to 74 years. The percentage of poor households has fallen steadily from 22% in 2006 to 9.64% in late 2012. The average income of poor households in 2012 was 2.3 times the average in 2005 and GDP increased from 1,024 USD per person in 2008 to 1,540 USD last year.
These results have fulfilled Vietnam’s MDGs set for 2015 and the Vietnam Food and Agriculture Organization gave Vietnam an award for its outstanding achievements in poverty reduction. In 2012, the UN acknowledged Vietnam’s progress in reducing child and mother mortality, and in poverty reduction.
Towards social security for all
Vietnam has launched a sustainable development strategy for the 2011-2020 period, focusing on poverty reduction, and equal access to social services with top priority given to poor and ethnic minority people in extremely disadvantaged areas; increasing general knowledge; legal assistance; and strengthening the capacity of human rights law enforcement agencies.
Vietnam’s policies and action programs prove that the Party and State always make human beings the center and target of development.