A total of 350,000 people in the central region of Vietnam have benefited from a poverty reduction project funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

 

The 76 million USD project, with 43.09 million USD from ADB, was carried out in 153 communes and 12 districts in the three central provinces of Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien-Hue and the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum .

 

In Hanoi on September 24, Bui Quang Vinh, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment, underlined the significance of the project in hunger eradication and poverty reduction in Vietnam , especially in the central region.

 

The project - jointly implemented by the Ministry of Planning and Investment and ADB - has brought practical results, helping improve people’s living standards and reducing poverty rate in localities, he said.

 

Vu Viet Long, director of the project’s centre, said the project has reached most of its targets, contributing to raising household income thanks to the development of new kinds of business, productivity improvements, and a decrease in the number of poor households.

 

In 2005, the number of poor households in the targeted areas of Quang Binh province stood at 70.53 percent, which dropped to 41.4 percent in 2008 while the figures in Quang Tri province were 61.5 percent and 34.5 percent, Thua Thien-Hue 38.08 percent and 19.3 percent and Kon Tum 64.28 percent and 38.28 percent, respectively, he said.

 

The project built and upgraded 300 irrigation works for 2,400 ha of agricultural land and provided new cultivation technologies for farmers, helping improve productivity by about 1.5 times.

 

Also, the project has put a lot of investment into upgrading rural infrastructure systems. About 570 km of road was built with each commune gaining 3.7km of road, the director said.

(VNA)