Lai Chau Provincial People's Council has passed a resolution stipulating the principles, criteria and norms for budget allocation for the National Target Program on health care, population and development for the period 2026 - 2030.
This new policy strongly directs capital flows to the grassroots level, opening up opportunities to improve physical condition and improve health conditions for ethnic minorities.
In order to ensure that resources are used transparently and not spread out, the resolution controls the provincial budget ceiling at a maximum of 15% for recurrent expenditures and 20% for public investment capital.
The entire remaining budget will be prioritized for direct allocation to communes and wards to renovate health stations, purchase equipment and implement community health programs.
The allocation of capital to grassroots levels is strictly scored based on population size and area, especially prioritizing border communes and communes in region III (calculated at 2.5 points).
Localities with a rate of malnutrition and stunting in children under 5 years old over 20%, a birth rate of less than 2.1 children/woman or a proportion of elderly people over 14% are all given a maximum score (10 points) to receive additional support.
Notably, the resolution flexibly stipulates the counterpart ratio: difficult areas may not be required to allocate counterpart capital (0% ratio), helping to reduce budget pressure for lower levels.
