This is the request of Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha at the direct and online meeting with a number of ministries and localities on 3 national target programs: Socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas; Sustainable poverty reduction; New rural construction, taking place on the afternoon of March 31, at the Government Headquarters.

Deputy Prime Minister Mai Van Chinh co-chaired the meeting at the Khanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee bridge.

Removing obstacles to complete the 3 Program goals

Frankly stating that the 3 National Target Programs still overlap in terms of support objects, objectives, and investment capital sources, the Deputy Prime Minister requested ministries, branches, and localities to learn from experience in coordination, decentralization, and removing obstacles to complete the goals of the 3 Programs. Emphasizing that achieving the targets of reducing the number of poor districts, the number of especially disadvantaged communes in coastal areas, ethnic minority areas, and districts meeting new rural standards still faces many challenges, the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized: "Use effectively, practically, and urgently the capital invested by the State".

Accordingly, the Ministry of Finance will work with ministries, branches and localities to synthesize and propose the allocation of investment capital and remaining regular funding for the 3 National Target Programs, especially the Socio-Economic Development Program for Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas. The Ministry of Finance will coordinate with ministries, branches and localities to review financial and budgetary mechanisms and policies according to Decision No. 1719/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister approving the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction for the 2021-2025 period to ensure sustainability, publicity, transparency and non-overlapping.

The Ministry of Construction discussed with the Ministry of Finance and the Bank for Social Policies to arrange capital to eliminate temporary and dilapidated houses, with priority given to people with meritorious services and policy families.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment builds a database on the 3 National Target Programs; proposes new programs to overcome the overlapping, scattered, and non-based situations based on specific objects and regions, and clearly defines tasks with other target programs. "Localities should prepare well for projects under the 3 Programs so that when funding is available, they can be implemented immediately," the Deputy Prime Minister requested.

Speaking online at the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Mai Van Chinh requested a full summary of limitations, difficulties, and obstacles, unifying solutions to remove them, and determination to allocate and disburse all public investment capital and regular expenses according to plan.

Deputy Prime Minister Mai Van Chinh emphasized the need to issue a new set of criteria on rural development and poverty reduction in an integrated manner, reducing overlaps and duplications; at the same time, continue to strengthen the Steering Committee for implementing target programs at the local level; and demarcate authority and tasks assigned to the province and commune after the disorganization of district-level administrative units.

There are 3 target groups that have not been achieved.

According to the summary report of the Ministry of Finance, the total medium-term public investment capital for the 2021-2025 period for the 3 Programs is 102,000 billion VND (100,000 billion VND of domestic capital, 2,050 billion VND of foreign capital; career capital from the central budget allocated is nearly 97,900 billion VND).

Results of the implementation of the New Rural Development Program by March 2025, the rate of communes meeting new rural standards reached 77.9% (the target for the 2021-2025 period is 80%); the rate of districts meeting new rural standards was 47.6% (the target is 50%); 6 provinces completed the task of building new rural areas (the target is 15 provinces).
The sustainable poverty reduction program has achieved the targets assigned by the National Assembly and the Government. The multidimensional poverty rate by 2024 is 1.93%; poor households in poor districts is 24.86%; poor ethnic minority households are 12.55% (down 3.95%).

Of the 9 target groups of the Socio-Economic Development Program for Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas, 6 target groups have been basically completed and exceeded: Poverty reduction rate for ethnic minorities; average income; education; vocationally trained labor; preservation and development of traditional cultural values ​​and identities; and strengthening healthcare.

Three groups of targets that have not been achieved are: Improving technical infrastructure and social infrastructure; reducing the number of communes and villages outside extremely difficult areas; settling down, and fundamentally solving the shortage of residential and production land.

In 2025 alone, the total estimated budget and plan for the Central budget for the 3 Programs is more than 53,500 billion VND, of which the Prime Minister has allocated nearly 30,400 billion VND (including nearly 22,000 billion VND of public investment capital and 8,400 billion VND of regular funding). It is estimated that by the end of March 2025, localities will disburse 3,836 billion VND of central public investment capital (reaching 16%); regular funding will reach 323 billion VND (reaching 1.8%).

Regarding difficulties and limitations, Deputy Minister of Finance Do Thanh Trung said that some contents of the 3 National Target Programs do not have sufficient legal basis for implementation, especially the Socio-Economic Development Program for Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas. Some support contents of the Sustainable Poverty Reduction Program; Socio-Economic Development Program for Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas are no longer eligible for implementation or the support level is still low.

Some localities have not proactively reviewed and prepared investment procedures right from the planning stage, taking a long time to complete investment procedures, approve projects, allocate and assign capital plans.

Not to mention, in the first months of 2025, ministries, branches and localities focused mainly on consolidating and rearranging the organizational apparatus, so they did not focus on implementing and disbursing capital for national target programs.

Speed ​​up disbursement progress

At the meeting, Minister of Agriculture and Environment Do Duc Duy assessed that the results of achieving new rural commune standards in some socio-economic regions still have large gaps. Some localities have not focused on improving the quality of criteria after achieving standards. Meanwhile, the arrangement of organization and apparatus has changed the implementing entity, causing difficulties in management and synthesis.

In 2025, Minister Do Duc Duy requested localities to urgently complete the allocation and detailed assignment of the central budget capital plan, arrange sufficient counterpart capital for implementation; speed up the disbursement progress; review, supplement, and adjust issues related to new rural construction and sustainable poverty reduction in accordance with the context of implementing the arrangement and reorganization of administrative units at all levels and building a 2-level local government organization model.

The Minister of Agriculture and Environment also proposed integrating the two New Rural Development Programs and the Sustainable Poverty Reduction Program into one Program for the 2026-2030 period; building a national database system on the National Target Programs to improve the effectiveness of state management...

Receiving opinions at the meeting, Minister Do Duc Duy said that the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment will preside over and coordinate with relevant agencies to develop a program on new rural areas and sustainable poverty reduction in an integrated manner, ensuring efficiency, no duplication, and management according to objectives and output products, instead of processes and procedures.

Speaking online at the meeting, Minister of Ethnic Minorities and Religions Dao Ngoc Dung said that the two goals of the Sustainable Poverty Reduction Program on reducing the number of poor districts and the number of particularly disadvantaged communes in coastal and island areas are "difficult to achieve the set targets".

However, Minister Dao Ngoc Dung said: The sustainable poverty reduction program has basically completed its historical mission, so the contents and criteria for households escaping poverty in urban areas, rural areas, coastal areas and islands... should be integrated into the New Rural Development Program. The contents and criteria for poverty reduction in especially disadvantaged villages, communes and hamlets, and ethnic minority areas can be integrated into the Socio-economic Development Program for ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

For some localities with low public investment disbursement rates, speaking online at the meeting, leaders of Khanh Hoa, Gia Lai, Cao Bang provinces... reported the causes, proposed solutions to overcome them, and allocated all public investment capital and regular expenses in 2025 to promptly complete the goals of the 3 National Target Programs in 2025.

Along with that, leaders of the Ministry of National Defense, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Construction, Ministry of Home Affairs, State Bank... requested the Government to continue to maintain appropriate support policies, focusing on each subject and specific area, ensuring sustainable development and avoiding re-poverty; focusing on eliminating temporary and dilapidated houses./.