The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has been carrying out a project to help the southern province of Soc Trang improve its infrastructure in poor rural areas.

Based on the initiative called Services and Small-scale Infrastructure development (SSI), 84 sub-projects to develop rural transport, electricity and irrigation networks have been implemented in 39 remote villages in the past five years at a total cost of VND33 billion.

As a poor province with most of its population being Khmer ethnic people, Soc Trang has been trying to take advantage of the assistance to improve their living standards. More than 28 percent of the households in the province are categorised as poor according to the country's new criteria.