- On the afternoon of March 31, the Central Steering Committee for National Target Programs (NTPs) for the 2021-2025 period held a meeting on the implementation status and preparation for the summary of NTPs for the 2021-2025 period.

Comrade Tran Hong Ha, Deputy Prime Minister, Head of the Steering Committee and Comrade Mai Van Chinh, Deputy Prime Minister co-chaired the meeting. The meeting was held in a combined form of direct and online from the Government bridge to the People's Committee bridge of provinces and cities.

Attending the meeting at Lang Son bridge point were comrade Luong Trong Quynh, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee and members of the Steering Committee of the Provincial National Target Programs for the period 2021-2025.

According to the report at the meeting, in the first 3 months of 2025, the implementation of the 3 National Target Programs has been directed by all levels and sectors. Accordingly, the total estimate and plan of the central budget capital in 2025 for the 3 programs approved by the National Assembly is 53,529 billion VND, of which 57% has been allocated so far. Regarding disbursement results, for public investment capital up to March 31, it is estimated to reach 14.21%; for regular expenditure, the disbursement results up to the end of February 2025 reached 1.8%.

Regarding the results of implementing specific targets, for the National Target Program on socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, up to now, 6 basic target groups have been completed and exceeded the plan; 3 target groups have not been achieved, including: the target group to improve technical infrastructure, social infrastructure in extremely difficult communes and extremely difficult villages in ethnic minority and mountainous areas; the target group of communes and villages leaving extremely difficult areas; the target group on sedentarization, settlement, and basically solving the shortage of residential land and production land for ethnic minorities.

For the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction, by the end of 2024, the multidimensional poverty rate will be 1.93%; the poverty rate in poor districts will be 24.86%; 19 extremely disadvantaged communes in coastal and island areas will escape poverty and extreme poverty, and 3 poor districts will escape poverty. It is estimated that the multidimensional poverty rate in 2025 will maintain a decrease of 0.8-1%; the ethnic minority poverty rate in 2025 will decrease by over 3%/year; the poverty rate in poor districts in 2025 will decrease by 4-5%/year.

Regarding the National Target Program on New Rural Construction (NTM), by March 2025, the whole country will have 6,001 communes (78% of communes) meeting NTM standards, of which 39.2% of communes will meet advanced NTM standards, 9.95% of communes will meet model NTM standards, the average nationwide is 17.5 criteria/commune; 307 district-level units will meet NTM standards, of which 29 districts will meet advanced NTM standards; 23 provincial-level units will have 100% of communes meeting NTM standards, 6 provinces will complete the task of building NTM.

In addition to the achieved results, the implementation of the National Target Programs still has some difficulties and limitations such as: some contents of the National Target Programs do not have sufficient legal basis for implementation; the progress of construction, proposal for allocation, and assignment of budget estimates for the implementation of the National Target Programs is still slow; some contents are no longer eligible for support; some localities have not been proactive in reviewing and preparing investment procedures...

At the meeting, representatives of ministries, branches and localities focused on discussing and clarifying a number of contents related to the progress of capital allocation and disbursement of capital sources for the 3 National Target Programs which is still low; a number of targets of the National Target Program have not been achieved and the implementation progress is still slow; problems related to a number of documents and instructions...

Concluding the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha, Head of the Central Steering Committee for National Target Programs, acknowledged the efforts of ministries, branches and localities in implementing the three National Target Programs over the past time.

Comrades request:   To ensure progress in implementing the goals and tasks of the 3 National Target Programs,   In the coming time, relevant ministries, branches and localities will continue to synthesize and review specific contents and tasks. In particular, they will continue to calculate, propose and allocate capital sources quickly and in accordance with regulations; proactively balance capital sources to effectively implement programs; localities need to be proactive, assign tasks and prepare conditions well to quickly implement the contents when resources are allocated.

The Deputy Prime Minister requested the ministries in charge of implementing the 3 National Target Programs to summarize the programs in a scientific manner; relevant ministries and branches to promptly propose to consolidate the Steering Committee for the 3 National Target Programs; propose to add the task of implementing the National Target Programs to the tasks of the Prime Minister's working groups....