Nhan made the compliment while visiting Brazil from April 16-18 to learn from the country’s experience in sustainable poverty reduction, as shared by the Brazilian ministries of social development, hunger elimination and education.

He stressed that the Vietnamese Government gives high priority to poverty reduction and said that the country’s achievements in the field have been recognised around the world.

The Deputy PM’s visit is part of a programme to survey experience in poverty reduction in Brazil held by the World Bank and the Vietnamese Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) in collaboration with relevant Brazilian ministries.

Within the programme’s framework, Nhan toured Rio de Janeiro, which is the first state to implement the national poverty reduction programme. He also visited several establishments registered to Bolsa Familia, the programme providing allowances for the poor, and the management system and units providing consultancy to those who are in difficult circumstances or facing violence.

On this occasion, MoLISA Deputy Minister Doan Mau Diep and Deputy Minister of Social Development and Hunger Prevention Romulo Paes de Sousa signed an action plan to realise the memorandum of understanding on fighting poverty signed by the two countries on July 10, 2008 in Hanoi.

Thanks to the Brazilian government’s policies on combining economic development and poverty reduction, about 28 million Brazilian people have escaped from poverty. However, about 16 million others remain under the poverty line. The country is striving to become the first developing country in the world to meet its poverty reduction target according to the first UN millennium development goal.