Vietnam plans to spend around VND2.7 trillion ($1.3 billion) to increase the average income of poor households nationwide by 160 percent during the period of 2012 – 15.
The Government aims to reduce the number of poor households by 2 percent each year under the National Target Programme on Sustainable Poverty Reduction recently approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
Most of the programme's funding comes from the State Budget. The rest comes from local budgets and international aid organisations.
As part of the programme, roads will be built in 60 percent of villages and communes nationwide and electricity will be supplied to over 90 percent.
Vietnam now has about three million households below the poverty line and 1.6 million households close to the poverty line, according to statistics from the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs.
In Vietnam, the households in rural areas which have an average monthly income below VND400,000 ($19) are considered poor. The cutoff is VND500,000 ($24) for urban areas.
Near-poor households in rural areas earn an average income of VND401,000-520,000 ($19-$25) per month. In urban areas, the cutoff is VND501,000-650,000 ($24-31) per month