By the end of this year, programme 135 will have finished the first phase, which lasted for seven years. Under the first phase, more than 20,000 infrastructure projects have been built, more than 200 commune-cluster centres established, 70 percent of the communes have built basic infrastructural facilities such as roads, schools, irrigation, medial centres and electricity supply networks. Furthermore, about 90 percent of the children living in communes with special difficulties have attended school, 86 percent of communes built primary schools, 96 percent built medical centres, and an additional 500 communes built motor roads. On average between four to five percent of households have escaped poverty.

According to Trang A Pao, chairman of the National Assembly’s Ethnicity Council, the educational level of ethnic people in disadvantaged communes remains very low and they mainly rely on self-sufficient economic behaviour. In many areas, ethnic people still practice slash-and-burn farming, while infrastructure facilities do not meet the requirements for development.

"Programme 135 has proved very effective, but it has only been implemented for a short period of time with modest investment, therefore the results have been limited," said Mr Pao. "For the time being, many small and scattered projects have been built that do not meet technical specifications. The poverty rate remains high while disparities between regions and ethnic groups are still widening."

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs reported that under the new criteria, the poverty rate in the north-western and Central Highlands regions currently stands at more than 60 percent and 50 percent, respectively. Almost all communes far from their cluster centres have not yet got rid of poverty.

The Government hopes that about 800 communes would have escaped their special difficulty situation after seven years of implementing programme 135. But fact-finding tours of these areas by the NA Ethnic Council and provincial People’s Councils showed that only nearly 400 such communes had met the criteria for poverty reduction.

Mr Pao also said that results of the programme are not sustainable.

"These communes encounter difficulties due to geographical locations and adverse weather conditions, which badly affect the quality of infrastructure facilities such as the transport and irrigation systems," said Mr Pao. "Therefore, if programme 135 terminates and its facilities are not maintained regularly, local people in these communes will still live in difficulty."

Many National Assembly deputies shared Mr Pao’s view and finally the legislative body decided to pour more investment into the programme by launching the second phase. During the past seven years, most investment allocations were injected into building infrastructure facilities and commune-cluster centres. Meanwhile, only between 2 to 4 percent of the total amount was funnelled into production development, and only one percent into cadre training.

The NA Ethnicity Council proposed that the Government continue the programme, while drafting a new programme to help areas of special difficulty, as well as mountainous and remote areas, completely escape poverty. The implementation of the new programme should be based on lessons from programme 135. Investment should be funnelled into every village and hamlet depending on their levels of difficulty. According to the council, cities and provinces will manage capital allocations and be held responsible for capital re-allocations in each commune, as well as the inspection process before provincial People’s Councils.