HCM City wards eliminate poverty

Three wards in HCM City do not have a single family living under the city's poverty threshold, according to the steering committee for a programme to reduce poverty and increase affluence.

They are Ward 15 in District 11, Ward 15 in District 5, and Ward 13 in District 6.

Families with an average income of below VND16 million (US$760) per member are considered poor in the city, an amount almost three times the national poverty threshold.


In May the District 11 ward became the city's first to eliminate poverty followed by the one in District 5.

On July 3 the ward in District 6 became the third to achieve this.

Truong Van Luong, head of the steering committee's office, said by the end of this year the city hopes to see another 25,000 families climb above the poverty line, reducing the poverty rate to 4 per cent of the population.

Some 30-40 wards and two districts – 5 and 6 – are expected to have no poor households by the end of this year, he said.

As of early this year there were nearly 83,000 poor households, accounting for 4.5 per cent of the population.

But by the national measure of poverty — annual income of less than VND4.8 million ($228) per person in rural areas and VND6 million ($285) in urban areas — there are no poor households in the city.