 (Photo: baohiemxahoi.vn) |
Vietnam has been a model for realizing the UN’s Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals. Its sense of responsibility for its people during the COVID-19 pandemic has won international praise.
Vietnam’s impressive successes
The 2020 Global Human Development Report developed by the UNDP in Vietnam and Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment and released in December last year called Vietnam one of the fastest-improving countries on the Human Development Index.
With an HDI value of 0.704, Vietnam still ranks only 117th among 189 countries and territories, but its Gender Development Index of 0.997 ranks 65th among 162 countries and between 1990 and 2020, Vietnam’s HDI value increased nearly 46%. The UNDP praised Vietnam’s health care, education, employment, and rural development indexes.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Vietnamese government has implemented policies to help 13 million people hurt economically by the pandemic. What Vietnam has done for its people during the pandemic is vivid evidence of its commitment to protecting and promoting human rights.
 Caitlin Wiesen, UNDP Chief Representative in Vietnam (Photo: VNA) |
Caitlin Wiesen, UNDP Chief Representative in Vietnam, said “Vietnam’s successful response to the COVID-19 is an inspirational story.” The international community called Vietnam a “bright spot”, a “role model” in effective response to the pandemic. Western newspapers praised the Vietnamese government’s consistent policy of sacrificing economic gains to protect people’s health and its persistence in detecting, quarantining, and zoning to control the spread of the disease.
BBC News journalist David Hutt, who covers Southeast Asian politics, said the Communist Party of Vietnam has acted in a responsible manner and given priority to saving lives during the COVID-19 crisis. The US website liberationnews.org said the socialist government of Vietnam has put people over profits.
Inspirational achievements
Vietnam’s achievements in ensuring human rights and realizing the MDGs and SDGs of the UN have been internationally recognized.
Once a backward agricultural country, Vietnam has expanded its economy from 14 billion USD in 1985 to 262 billion USD and has become one of the world’s most successful emerging economies. Its economic growth is the foundation for policies that promote social security and the fundamental rights of vulnerable people.
Vietnam has adopted 118 policies to reduce poverty, promote socio-economic development, improve people’s lives and ensure social security for ethnic minority people. Despite a limited budget, the Vietnamese National Assembly and government have doubled Vietnam’s investment in poverty reduction. Vietnam is now one of the countries in Southeast Asia with the highest rate of expenditure on social welfare, 21 %.
Thanks to coordinated social policies, the poverty rate in Vietnam fell from 9.88% in 2015 to 3.75% in 2019 and below 3% in 2020, making Vietnam the first country to achieve the UN MDG on poverty reduction. All communes in Vietnam now have paved roads, 99% communes and 80% villages have access to electricity. All ethnic minority and poor people receive free social insurance. Nearly 3 million disadvantaged and vulnerable people nationwide receive free health insurance.
Vietnam’s incentives and achievements in protecting and promoting human rights during the renewal process and the COVID-19 pandemic, caring for people’s health, and maintaining economic growth and social security have provided inspirational human development stories.