Deputy PM Hoàng Trung Hải has asked ministries and localities to fulfill the task of providing housing assistance to poor households right in 2011, one year a head of the preset target.

The Deputy PM, also Head of the Central Committee on housing policy and real estate market, raised the task at the video-conference held on Feb. 17 in Hà Nội with relevant ministries and localities to review the implementation of the policy on housing assistance for poor households.

He asked localities to develop plans and take proper measures to enhance the supervision of the policy’s enforcement to make sure that it benefit the right people. Localities are also encouraged to mobilize more social resources to speed up the project.

The Ministry of Construction will establish task forces to help localities remove obstacles to fulfill the target.

Deputy PM Hải said that the government may re-consider the policy for better results when the new poverty benchmark for 2011-2015 period takes effect.

He assigned the Ministry of Construction to complete the totaling-up of the number of poor households under the new poverty benchmark by June this year, then report to the Government for consideration.

The policy has gone half way now with 316,975 households out of the total of 512,425 were provided with new houses, including over 72,000 households in 62 poorest districts and 21,500 Khmer ethnic group.

Nine provinces, namely Ninh Bình, Quảng Ninh, Bắc Ninh, Lào Cai, Lâm Đồng, Phú Thọ, Thái Nguyên, Đắk Lắk, and Đắk Nông have completed the task of providing housing assistance to the local poor people, while majority of others have achieved 75% of their preset plans.