Double-digit inflation and shocks from the global financial turmoil threaten to plunge Vietnamese households living on the margins back into dire poverty, the UN has warned.
Despite Vietnam’s economic boom of recent years, many groups remain vulnerable to food shortages — especially landless farmers, the urban poor and ethnic minority groups — UN resident coordinator John Hendra said.
While global commodity and energy prices have dropped back from their peaks this year, Vietnam’s inflation, although falling, still stood at 26.7 percent this month, squeezing the family budgets of the most marginalized groups.
PHOTO: AFP
On top of soaring consumer prices, Hendra said, the global financial crisis will likely impact Vietnam’s export-driven economy.
“Taken together, these economic challenges threaten to derail Vietnam’s progress in reducing poverty,” he said in a televised national address on Friday.
UN data showed that “less money is available to many Vietnamese households, especially poorer ones and there is a real risk some families could fall back below the poverty line, while those already there need additional help,” he said.
“Poorer women and children are particularly at risk since higher food prices can worsen their already precarious nutritional status,” he said.
Vietnam, which launched its doi moi (renewal or renovation) market reforms in the late 1980s, has seen more than a decade of economic growth above 7.5 percent, lifting tens of millions out of poverty.
The developing country of 86 million joined the WTO early last year and hopes to soon become a middle-income nation with annual GDP of US$1,000 per capita.
However, over the past year, Vietnam’s overheating economy has been hit by double-digit inflation and other economic woes. Especially high food and gasoline prices have hit the poor the hardest and fuelled social discontent.
Vietnam, the world’s No. 2 rice exporter, does not face overall food shortages, Hendra stressed in a separate speech last week.
But he warned that, while some farmers had benefited from high global food prices, more than half of Vietnamese households are net buyers of food and have seen their real purchasing power reduced.
Groups including low-skilled and landless rural workers and the elderly “are not only temporarily worse off but also challenged in their long-term ability to secure adequate intakes of food,” Hendra said.
Ethnic minorities faced the greatest risk, including in the Central Highlands and northwestern mountains, which already face “high poverty and moderate to severe stunting rates among children under five years.”
To address the problem, Hendra recommended that Vietnam strengthen its social security programs and its data collection on poverty to more precisely and quickly identify and help the most vulnerable groups.
He also warned of long-term threats to food security in industrializing Vietnam as agricultural areas face pressure from “a growing demand for land for industrial, residential, tourist and leisure purposes.”
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
RSS