The Romanian government wants to pull an additional 400,000 people out of poverty by 2020, according to a draft report released by the Ministry of Labor, Family, Social Protection and the Elderly. Figures show that one in five Romanians — or one-third of the population — lack sufficient income to maintain a decent lifestyle. The National Strategy for Reducing Poverty will be open for debate until Feb. 10, writes Mediafax. The plan targets households with an annual income that is below 60 percent of the average income per adult. One of the goals of the government is to create jobs and opportunities for the poor. “This means developing the abilities, education and experience on the labor market of the poor from the point of view of the revenues, increasing the occupancy rate of this segment and applying measures that would improve payments for the target group,” the labor ministry writes in the report. “We also propose that the government reduce poverty through a more substantial and specific allocation of social protection expenses for the poorest segment of the population.”
