The figures were announced at a conference to review the operation of the Steering Committee on National Target Programmes in the 2016-2020 period and set tasks for the committee in 2017.

According to Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong, the agricultural sector, rural areas and care for the poor have all drawn great attention and support from the Government and business community.

As of 2016, 100% of centrally-run cities and provinces had their communes and wards meeting the criteria of new-style rural areas with a total number reaching 2,358 communes, a 1.43% increase over the target set by the committee for 2016.

In regards to the poverty reduction programme, Minister of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung reported that around VND 11 trillion (US$ 487.4 million) was allocated last year from the State budget to provide health insurance benefiting around 16 million poor people nationwide. The rate of poor households has dropped to 8.58%.

Addressing the conference, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue asked the two ministries to complete legal documents providing instructions to realise the target programmes.

He recommended a higher target for poverty reduction in order to motivate the people to work harder to escape from poverty.

The two ministries were also asked to mobilise further participation and more investment for agriculture development and poverty reduction from businesses to increase resources for the work.