Duong Hoai Nam, Second Secretary of the Vietnamese Permanent Mission to the UN, told the Second Committee of the 61st session of the UN General Assembly that with domestic resources and international assistance, including that from UN organisations, approximately 88 percent of poor people were provided with free medical care; 400,000 new houses were built and there were no more temporary houses in 2,000 communes and five provinces,.

"Vietnam has also successfully eliminated illiteracy and achieved universal primary education back in 2000 and nearly half of the provinces in the country have attained universal junior secondary education," Mr Nam said.

He added that developing countries should be assisted to improve their export capacity and structure of exports to industrialized countries; increase access to high-tech and financial markets as many developing countries are still far from attaining the targets set under the MDGs.