Vietnam: Achieving UN millennium development goals

Vietnam has achieved three important millennium development goals (MDGs) of poverty elimination, universal primary education and promoting gender equality, said Vietnam's Ministry of Planning and Investment on a draft MDG Report 2013. According to the ministry, Vietnam's national poverty rates have dropped from 14.2 percent in 2010 to 9.6 percent in 2012, reported local online newspaper Nhandan (the People) on Wednesday. The number of primary educated children reached 97.7 percent while female workers accounted for 48 percent of new employment in 2012. In addition to the MDGs on poverty, education and gender equality, Vietnam is likely to reach MDGs of reducing child mortality and improving maternal health by 2015, said the ministry. The country has also made significant advances in implementing other MDGs of prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other serious diseases. The report also pointed out the challenges that Vietnam has to face in the coming years, including the widening gap between the rich and the poor among the regions and population groups, along with climate change issues.