Lai Chau’s Muong Te District Improves Local Lives with WB Funding

Muong Te district in the northern mountainous province of Lai Chau has improved the lives of local people under a sustainable poverty reduction project funded by the World Bank (WB).  Joining the project last year, Vang San commune was provided with initial capital of nearly 3 billion VND, part of which was used to buy poultry and cattle for poor households, repair and upgrade water supply stations, kindergartens and roads on paddy fields. By late 2016, the commune had disbursed about VND770 million, directly benefiting 701 households. Tran Van Don, Vice Chairman of the communal People’s Committee, said the commune will continue developing suitable livestock and agricultural models with the funding. The second stage of the project was conducted in 67 poor villages in Muong Te district from 2010-2015 with total investment of more than VND1.3 trillion ($57.5 million). The project comprises four components, including district economic development, budget for communal development, improvement of institutional and project management capacity. After five years of implementation, 12.08km out of 97km of roads have been concretized, more than 90% of households have accessed the national power grid and most local residents use clean water. Irrigation systems, schools and other facilities have also been built. The rate of poor households was reduced to 69.64% from 88.48%. Nguyen Van Duong, deputy director of the district’s poverty reduction project management board, said more than 3,000 households have benefited from the project. The district aims to become a well-developed locality of the province between by 2020. To that end, it will continue measures to reduce poverty, improve the leadership capacity at the grassroots level and urge local people to develop production. (vietnamplus.vn Feb 23)