Japan, ADB help ethnic minorities
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Japan and the Asian Development Bank are helping poor and ethnic minorities in Vietnam develop skills and run small business operations.
The Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction granted an additional US$1.3 million to a project to be managed by the bank that will pilot a new approach to skills-training for some 4,000 people in Tra Vinh and Soc Trang, the two poorest provinces in the Mekong Delta.
The region has 13 provinces with a population of 19 million or 22 percent of the nation’s population. However, 80 percent of them are living in poor remote areas.
According to the ADB, the project will train 100 vocational trainers who will also join 150 officials from local departments of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and other stakeholders in training courses.
The Government hopes to promote local industries and businesses like the food and canning sectors, which are expected to generate 12,000 new jobs every year.
A government survey also identified a long list of potential training areas with strong demand, including aquaculture processing, forging, civil construction, IT consumer/industrial sewing, fishing boat and motorbike repairs, hairdressing and cosmetology, handicrafts, welding and assembling of electronics.
The project will link skills training directly to employment and income generation, said Yasushi Hirosato, senior education specialist at ADB’s Southeast Asia Department.
