Vietnam needs $247 milion to assist poor ethnic minorities

Source: Vietnam Financial Times

Nearly VND4 trillion ($247 million) will be needed to help poor ethnic minorities in Vietnam in the coming time under the Government’s Hunger Elimination and Poverty Reduction Program 134, the Committee for Ethnic Minorities reported at a review meeting.

Of the total capital, over VND 1.65 trillion ($104 million) will be spent for building and upgrading houses, VND13.2 billion ($830,186) for providing housing land, and around VND 1.85 trillion ($115.62) for facilitating concentrated water supply works.

At present, Vietnam has some 476,000 ethnic minority households under the program with 333,000 among those requiring housing assistance, 237,000 asking help for production land and 84,000 in need of housing land. Meanwhile about 281,000 others are facing difficulties accessing clean water.

Two years after program implementation, some provinces have helped more than half of the minorities repair houses and granted 14,175ha of cultivation land for 33,600 households.