Minister Councilor Le Thi Minh Thoa, deputy head of the Permanent Delegation of Vietnam to the UN, was speaking at the 62nd session of the UN Commission for Social Development (CSocD62) that is getting underway from February 5-14, on the theme of “Fostering social development and social justice through social policies to accelerate progress on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and to achieve the overarching goal of poverty eradication.”
Thoa noted that Vietnam has implemented a series of policies on education, social security, and poverty reduction over the years, helping to reduce the multidimensional poverty rate from 9.2% to 4.3% in 2022 compared to 2021, increase the average income of poor households by 230% year on year, and raise the rate of people being literate and children going to school at the right age to over 90%.
With regard to the environment, the diplomat reiterated Vietnam’s consistent policy of not trading off the environment for economic growth, while persistently achieving the goal of net zero emissions by 2050, especially with the implementation of the Partnership Just Energy Transition (JETP) agreement.
According to the Vietnamese diplomat, realizing development and social justice goals still faces challenges due to limited resources that requires strengthening international cooperation in capacity building and technical assistance for developing countries, including Vietnam.
During the debate, representatives of countries stressed the need to step up national and international efforts to strengthen the provision of core social services, social security support, health care services and high-quality education at affordable costs for all people.
(VOV)
