Hanoi (VNA) – The National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee on July 13 gave opinions on the investment policy of the National Target Programme on Sustainable Poverty Reduction and Social Security in the 2021-2025 period as part of the committee's ongoing 58th meeting.

Delivering the Government’s proposal on the programme, Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung, the programme has four main projects and 11 smaller projects with total investment of 90.26 trillion VND (3.92 billion USD).

A representative from the NA Budget-Finance Committee said that the large amount of investment proposed for the programme, along with two other national target programmes, will pose great pressure on the State budget.

NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue said that the proposal should include more assessments on the implementation of the multi-dimensional poverty standards for the first time, and the higher poverty standards in some localities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Hai Phong compared to the national levels.

NA Vice Chairman Tran Thanh Man said that the NA Standing Committee agree on the necessity of the programme, which aims to realise the Party orientations on sustainable poverty reduction.

He said that the programme should continue to focus on investing in poor localities and households, while addressing other aspects in multi-dimensional poverty criteria towards the target of reducing the rate of poor households by 1-1.5 percent each year.

The NA Standing Committee concurred to allocate 20 trillion VND of capital from the middle-term public investment programme for the 2021-2025 period to the programme, while asking the Government to balance its own resources to care for the poor.

The NA Standing Committee also requested the Government to research ideas given at the meeting to complete its report and proposal on the investment policy for the programme, and build a draft resolution on the issue to submit to the 15th NA’s first plenary session.

The same day, NA Committee members also listened to a National Election Council’s report on the verification of 15th NA deputies’ eligibility before passing a resolution approving the eligibility of 499 deputies elected to the 15th NA./.