Provincial Party Secretary: Focusing resources to support and accompany ethnic minorities to rise up

The workshop was jointly organized by the National Assembly's Ethnic Council, the Government's Ethnic Committee and Nghe An province.

Attending on the Central side were comrades: Tong Thi Phong - Politburo member, Permanent Vice President of the National Assembly; Ha Ngoc Chien - Party Central Committee member, National Assembly Standing Committee member, Chairman of the National Assembly Ethnic Council; Do Van Chien -Member of the Party Central Committee, Minister, Chairman of the Government Committee for Ethnic Minorities; Nguyen Thuy Anh -Member of the Party Central Committee, Member of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Social Affairs; representatives of central ministries, departments and branches.

On the side of Nghe An province, there are comrades:Nguyen Dac Vinh - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation;Thai Thanh Quy - Alternate Member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; representatives of provincial departments, branches and sectors and Con Cuong district.

Comrade Tong Thi Phong - Politburo member, Permanent Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly and other comrades chaired the workshop. Photo: Thanh Quynh

Difficulty in allocating capital when implementing ethnic policies

Entering the workshop, comrade Do Van Chien - Minister, Chairman of the Government's Ethnic Committee briefly presented the socio-economic development situation of ethnic minority areas currently living in 37 districts of 12 provinces across the country.

In recent years, with the attention of the Party and the State, many policies, programs and projects have been implemented in ethnic and mountainous areas. Thanks to that, the lives of ethnic people have changed and improved, especially in particularly difficult areas.

Programs and projects such as: 135, 134, 167, 30a... have focused on investing in infrastructure systems in disadvantaged localities, mountainous and ethnic minority areas. In particular, 6 projects supporting socio-economic development for 5 ethnic groups with very small populations with a total budget of more than 76,000 billion VND have contributed to significantly changing the lives of people, contributing to stabilizing the socio-economy in the regions.

The workshop was attended by representatives from provinces and cities with very small ethnic minority populations.Photo: Thanh Quynh

In addition to the achievements, comrade Do Van Chien pointed out the difficulties that still exist in implementing socio-economic development policies for ethnic minorities and ethnic groups with very small populations. Specifically, most localities do not develop separate policies to support the development of these ethnic groups but instead implement them according to general programs and policies, so the difficulties arising from practice have not been thoroughly resolved.

The process of allocating capital to implement programs and projects is still limited, many projects are slow to be implemented due to slow capital arrangement.

For example, the budget allocation for implementing Decision No. 1672/QD-TTg dated September 26, 2011 of the Prime Minister on the Project "Socio-economic development of the Mang, La Hu, Cong, and Co Lao ethnic groups" as of December 31, 2018 only reached 40.19%; Decision No. 2086/QD-TTg dated October 31, 2016 of the Prime Minister on the Policy to Support Socio-economic Development of Very Small Ethnic Minorities in the 2016 - 2025 period has not been allocated investment capital, the expected allocation of medium-term investment reserve funds only reached less than 40%...

Limited budget conditions have led to delays in the implementation of many programs and projects. Therefore, for many years, ethnic minorities with very few people have remained the poorest community, facing the most difficulties; the poverty rate is high, in some places reaching over 83% (La Hu ethnic group); the number of households lacking electricity in some places is over 40% (Lo Lo ethnic group); more than 3,300 households lack land for production...

Improving the effectiveness of ethnic policies in Nghe An

Speaking at the workshop, Comrade Nguyen Dac Vinh - Secretary of Nghe An Provincial Party Committee expressed his joy when Nghe An was chosen by the National Assembly's Ethnic Council as the venue for the workshop. This is an opportunity for scientists, managers, and local leaders to meet, discuss, and propose practical solutions to increase the effectiveness of implementing policies on mountainous and ethnic areas.

Nghe An Provincial Party Secretary Nguyen Dac Vinh speaks at the conference. Photo: Thanh Quynh

Regarding the implementation of policies and strategies for socio-economic development in the ethnic minority areas in Nghe An, many important results have been achieved in recent years. The lives of the people have been increasingly improved, the poverty rate has decreased by an average of 3-4% per year. The average income per capita in 2019 is estimated at 29.09 million VND/person/year. The infrastructure system has been invested quite synchronously, over 90% of households have used the national grid, 100% of communes have car roads to the center.

Early marriage and incestuous marriage are the causes of poverty, backwardness and racial degradation. In the photo: A Dan Lai father in Bung village, Mon Son commune (Con Cuong). Photo courtesy of Dao Tuan

Provincial Party Secretary Nguyen Dac Vinh also pointed out the challenges facing ethnic communities with very few people. That is, the lives and economies of the people mainly rely on exploiting natural resources, specifically forest products. The quality of the population is still low, especially in Nghe An, the O Du ethnic group (Tuong Duong district) and the Dan Lai ethnic group (Con Cuong). These communities still maintain many backward customs; early marriage and incestuous marriage still occur; the rate of malnutrition and maternal and child mortality is still high...

Permanent Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Tong Thi Phong talks with delegates attending the workshop. Photo: Thanh Quynh

Provincial Party Secretary Nguyen Dac Vinh also emphasized that in order to improve the effectiveness of implementing policies and programs for ethnic minority communities, in the coming time, Nghe An province will focus resources and synchronously implement many sustainable and practical solutions, thereby both supporting and accompanying ethnic minority communities to rise up.

The conference will complete its content program by the end of today. Nghe An Newspaper will continue to inform.