Phu Tho urged to increase efforts to reduce poverty

State President Truong Tan Sang said this as he was speaking during his October 16 trip to Xuan Dai commune in the northern province of Phu Tho as part of activities for the Month for the Poor (October 17-November 18).

President Sang inquired about the living conditions of local people in Xuan Dai commune

Xuan Dai is one of the most impoverished communes in Tay Son district and is listed among the 62 poorest communes in the country with a poverty rate of 43.3 percent of households in 2010. Four out of 14 residential areas also have no access to national electricity grid.

In response to the “Day for the Poor” campaign launched by the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee, Xuan Dai has raised VND80 million in cash and VND3 billion in kind and wages since 2002 to support the Fund for the Poor. As a result, 400 poor households in the commune received money to build new houses.

In the first half of this year, Xuan Dai coordinated with the Bank for Social Policy in Tay Son district to lend poor households a total of more than VND 8.670 billion to help them develop production.

At the meeting with President Sang, local people in Xuan Dai expressed their profound gratitude for the Party and State’s attention, hoping that the State will continue to provide financial resources to help the commune develop infrastructure and social welfare projects.

Mr Sang praised Xuan Dai’s efforts in poverty production while calling on the commune to draw on its ten years of experience implementing the "Day for the Poor" campaign aiming to reduce poverty rapidly and effectively in the near future.

During his visit, President Sang also visited a number of families of social policy beneficiaries and disadvantaged households in the commune.