The Ethnic Committee inspects the National Target Program for Socio-Economic Development in Ethnic Minority Areas

In the districts of Quy Hop, Quy Chau, Que Phong, Ky Son, Tuong Duong and Con Cuong, Comrade Vi Van Son - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Head of the Ethnic Minorities Committee and the working delegation inspected the implementation of the National Target Program on socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas and a number of policies related to ethnic minorities.

Delegation of Nghe An province's Ethnic Minorities Committee worked with Que Phong district. Photo: Van Anh

Que Phong is a mountainous, border area with special difficulties in Nghe An province. The district has 12 communes and 1 town, 107 villages, including 11 communes in area III, 02 communes in area I, 82 difficult villages in communes in areas I, II, III, with 16,163 households (poverty rate 40.12% - 2022 data), with 72,936 people, of which ethnic minorities account for over 90%. The district has a large natural area but the terrain is mainly high mountains, steep slopes, so the production land area is small, transportation is difficult, the socio-economic life of the people is low, the rate of poor and near-poor households accounts for a high proportion.

In 2022, Que Phong actively implemented the National Target Program on socio-economic development of ethnic minority and mountainous areas. Accordingly, the District Party Committee, People's Council - People's Committee focused on directing and urging departments and offices, coordinating with localities to implement the Program; Steering Committees and Working Groups at all levels were established and consolidated, promoting effective management and operation.

Comrade Vi Van Son - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Head of the Ethnic Minorities Committee works in mountainous districts. Photo: Van Anh

Based on the guidance and requirements of the Central Government and the province, the District People's Committee promptly issued documents to deploy, guide and urge the implementation of the program. The departments, branches and sectors assigned to preside over projects, sub-projects and component contents, the District People's Committee closely followed the guidance documents, directed and urged the implementation of the allocated capital; at the same time, completed the documents and procedures of the investment project portfolio to submit for capital allocation in 2022 according to regulations.

As a result, in 2022, the total development investment capital allocated by the district is 53 billion 039 million VND, implementing investment in the construction of 42 newly started projects (39 projects approved by the district level and 03 projects approved by the provincial level). Of which: The District People's Committee is the investor of 12/42 projects, the rest is assigned to the People's Committees of communes as investors. Regarding the career capital source, only 2,249/49,231 million VND has been disbursed, reaching 4.57% of the capital plan assigned in 2022. Currently, the departments and branches of the District People's Committee have developed plans, organized implementation and are submitting for approval of estimates and disbursement according to regulations.

The delegation visited Quang Phong commune, a poor commune registered by the Ethnic Minorities Committee to receive assistance in 2023. Photo: Van Anh

At the working sessions, the districts of Quy Hop, Quy Chau, Que Phong, Ky Son, Tuong Duong and Con Cuong also pointed out a number of limitations and difficulties in the implementation of the National Target Program, such as: The direction and implementation at all levels is still confusing; some sectors and localities are implementing slowly, the process of proposing and selecting the list of investment projects is not reasonable, so it has to be adjusted many times. The progress of completing project procedures is still slow compared to the requirements of the province. Some localities have not coordinated well with departments, offices and sectors in the implementation process...

Visiting and giving gifts to Mr. Sam Van Panh's family - a poor, elderly, single family in Pao village, Quang Phong commune. Photo: Van Anh

Speaking at the working sessions with localities, Comrade Vi Van Son - Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Head of the Ethnic Minorities Committee acknowledged the achievements of the districts in the past time, and shared the existing difficulties. He emphasized that the National Target Program is a program with large resources, bringing many practical benefits to the people. Therefore, it is necessary to consider this as the top priority task, the whole system must participate in the efforts. In the process of implementing the program, the districts need to carefully study the documents; closely follow and pay attention to the implementation contents; if there are any difficulties, they need to synthesize and promptly report to the Ethnic Minorities Committee for specific instructions or the Committee proposes to competent authorities for additional research...