in the country. The incidence of poverty in these provinces ranges from 44 percent to 52 percent.

The Central Highlands region includes three provinces. Two of the three, Kon Tum and Gia Lai, are among the 15 poorest provinces in Vietnam, with poverty headcounts of more than 50 percent. The third province, Dak Lak, is more prosperous, with a poverty headcount similar to the national average. This is probably due to the importance of coffee production. Vietnam now exports US$ 500 million of coffee per annum, most of which is grown in Dak Lak province.

Poverty is less severe in the southern regions, although each region has at least one province with a poverty headcount over 40 percent. The Southeast region is the least poor region, but it has two provinces, Ninh Tuan and Binh Tuan, with poverty headcounts over 40 percent. These provinces are farther from Ho Chi Minh City than the other provinces in the Southeast. In the South Central Coast, Quang Ngai has a poverty headcount of 47 percent. In the Mekong River Delta, Soc Trang, Tra Vinh, and An Giang have rates over 40 percent.

The lowest incidence of poverty is found in Ho Chi Minh City (less than 5 percent), followed by four provinces in the Southeast (Binh Duong, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Dong Nai, and Tay Ninh) all of which have poverty headcounts under 15 percent. The headcounts for Hanoi and Da Nang are both close to 15 percent.

Poverty headcounts in rural areas are similar to the overall provincial poverty levels, which is not surprising given the large proportion of the population living in rural areas in most provinces (see Table 6 and Figure 2). Rural poverty is greatest in the border provinces of the Northern Uplands. The Central Highlands provinces of Gia Lai and Kon Tum are among the ten poorest provinces in terms of rural poverty.

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