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Vietnam, World Bank launch poverty reduction program

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-09-21 00:05

HANOI -- Vietnam's Ministry of Planning and Investment and the World Bank Thursday jointly launched here a 165- million-U.S. dollar program to reduce poverty in Vietnam's northern mountainous provinces.

Cao Viet Sinh, Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment, said at the launching ceremony that the program was expected to make positive changes in living standard of the poor people in Vietnam's six northern mountainous provinces including Lao Cai, Son La, Hoa Binh , Dien Bien, Lai Chau and Yen Bai.

Sinh expected the program to help improve local people's life by combining World Bank's capital assistance and Vietnamese government's commitment to infrastructure development and socio- cultural preservation.

Victoria Kwakwa, World Bank Director in Vietnam said at the ceremony that the World Bank highly appreciated the achievements that Vietnam has gained in reaching the United Nations Millennium Goals.

The program will be carried out in the 2010-2015 period. It is expected to improve the quality of Vietnamese people's lives, particularly those of the ethnic minorities, said Kwakwa.