A/HRC/16/45/Add.2 to speak Vietnamese and be targeted as village leaders, while in the past, women had the leadership role.4 19. There are documented cases of trafficking of minority women and disappearances of women along suspected trafficking routes. The lack of policed borders notably between Viet Nam and southern China has contributed to the problem. The Women’s Union noted that attention was being increasingly paid to this issue, including by its regional offices. Nevertheless, the independent expert is concerned that this problem exists in remote regions that mostly fall under the radar of authorities and may have a disproportionate impact on minority women. III. Addressing the poverty of ethnic minorities 20. Viet Nam has been widely praised for its achievements in poverty alleviation. Nevertheless, the Government acknowledges that the poverty rate remains high in almost all provinces with a majority of ethnic minority people. The national poverty rate has been reduced from 58 per cent in 1993 to 16 per cent in 2009. In communes facing extreme hardship, commonly with high minority populations, however, the rate was 32.1 per cent. According to the World Bank, in 2008, 49.8 per cent of ethnic minorities lived in poverty compared to only 8.5 per cent for the Kinh ethnic groups.5 The extreme poverty rate for ethnic minority groups is 29 per cent, over nine times that of the ethnic majority. The Government stated that significant progress had been made in poverty reduction for ethnic minorities and the poverty rate had dropped from 86.4 per cent in 1993 to 50.3 per cent in 2008, namely, a drop of 3 to 4 per cent per annum. 21. Poverty is being reduced most effectively in urban areas where economic growth levels are high, while it persists in rural areas. This is significant for minorities and programming, since only 11 per cent of ethnic minorities live in urban areas, compared to 29 per cent of the ethnic Kinh.6 Generally, the participation of ethnic minorities in nonagricultural labour markets is particularly poor, while a high percentage is engaged in farming activities compared to the Kinh and the Hoa. Surveys reveal that 76 per cent of minorities earn income from rice cultivation compared with 37 per cent of the Kinh. Some 27 percent of Kinh earn income from trade compared to only 2 per cent of ethnic minorities.7 Consequently, the average ethnic minority worker earns 15 per cent less than the average ethnic majority worker.8 The remote rural regions in which minorities live and their high reliance on rural agriculture pose special challenges to poverty alleviation. 22. The Government began implementation of its comprehensive poverty reduction and growth strategy in 2002, within the framework of the social and economic development strategy for the period 2001-2010. Policies and programmes are designed to assist ethnic minority development. Others are focused on remote, mountainous and the poorest regions. Resolution 30 A (2008) includes a support programme for rapid and sustainable poverty reduction for 61 of the poorest districts. Decision 1592 (2009) addresses the cultivation of land, and housing and water required to support ethnic minority households. Government representatives pointed out that minorities frequently relied on outdated production methods, and highlighted their efforts to modernize them. 23. In addition to the provision of seeds and livestock, an interest-free loans scheme for agricultural development and modernizing production was introduced in 2007. In 2008, 4 5 6 7 8 World Bank, Ethnicity and Development in Vietnam, 2009, p. 48. World Bank, Viet Nam Development Reports for 2008 and 2009. World Bank, Ethnicity and Development in Vietnam, 2009, p. 17. Ibid., p. 34. Hai-Anh Dang, “A widening poverty gap for ethnic minorities”, January 2010, p. 8. 7