Comrade Tong Thi Phong: Building ethnic policies to meet general realities and in Nghe An in particular

Continuing the workshop program "Implementation of policies and laws on socio-economic development in ethnic minority areas" in Nghe An, on the afternoon of June 24, the National Assembly's Ethnic Council and the Government's Ethnic Committee continued to deploy many important contents.

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

On the side of Nghe An province, there were 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.

Conference scene. Photo: Thanh Quynh

Many urgent issues related to ethnic work

Continuing to contribute opinions at the Workshop, representatives of ministries, branches, managers, and local leaders presented many papers and opinions related to the implementation of ethnic work.

Regarding the issue of solving the problem of land for production for ethnic minorities with very few people, the representative of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said that currently, the whole country has 378,634 ethnic minority households lacking land for production with a total area of ​​over 211,000 hectares. The average land for production for ethnic minorities is still very low, approximately 0.1 ha/person, while the land quality is not high, farming conditions are difficult, and the slope is steep.

The reason for this situation is that many ethnic minority people have transferred or mortgaged their land and are unable to reclaim it or have had it reclaimed for socio-economic development projects. In addition, the review and arrangement of land by farms, forestry farms, and agricultural and forestry companies is slow and ineffective.

Comrade Do Van Chien -Member of the Party Central Committee, Minister, Chairman of the Government's Ethnic CommitteeSpeaking at the Workshop. Photo: Thanh Quynh

To overcome the above situation, Comrade Do Van Chien - Minister, Chairman of the Government's Ethnic Committee affirmed the urgency of perfecting the provisions of land law related to the right to access land of ethnic minorities.

It is necessary to supplement regulations on the conditions for recipients of agricultural land transfers from ethnic minorities to receive support for residential land and production land in order to limit the transfer of land for the wrong purpose; create land funds to support production for ethnic minorities through planning adjustments, stable arrangement of residential areas and production areas for ethnic minorities and support for land reclamation to create production land and promote the dissemination of land laws and policies to ethnic minorities.

In addition, the issue of preserving and promoting ethnic cultures also needs more attention, starting from the viewpoint: preserving and promoting good customs and practices, eliminating backward customs in ethnic minority areas is an important and urgent task. The implementation needs to be synchronous, supporting resources to create conditions for economic, cultural and social development, stabilizing the political situation, ensuring security and national defense.

Currently, the average land area for ethnic minorities is very small, only 0.1 ha/person, with low land quality, difficult farming conditions, and steep slopes. Photo courtesy of Dao Tuan

Building national development policies in the new period

In her concluding remarks at the workshop, Permanent Vice President of the National Assembly Tong Thi Phong affirmed that in recent years, in thoroughly grasping the Party's viewpoints, policies and guidelines, ethnic work has received special attention from all levels and sectors. The Resolution of the 12th National Party Congress determined: "Continue to perfect mechanisms and policies, ensure equality, respect, solidarity among ethnic groups, harmoniously resolve relations between ethnic groups, help each other develop together, create clear changes in economic, cultural and social development in areas with ethnic minorities...".

In addition to institutionalizing the 2013 Constitution on ethnic affairs, the State continues to allocate resources for development investment through programs and projects such as: The program for rapid and sustainable poverty reduction for 69 poor districts and 23 districts with high poverty rates; the policy of settling down; the policy of supporting residential land, production land, and domestic water for poor ethnic minorities and poor households in especially difficult communes, villages, and hamlets, which has created a driving force for comprehensive development for ethnic minorities in general and ethnic minorities with very few people in particular.

Comrade Tong Thi Phong delivered a concluding speech at the workshop. Photo: Thanh Quynh

However, in addition to the achievements, ethnic work still has many shortcomings, in which the coordination between levels and sectors is not yet synchronized. For example, the issue of capital allocation, monitoring policy implementation, ensuring production land and domestic water for people has many shortcomings.

Faced with changing realities, it is necessary to develop specific policies suitable for the development of ethnic minorities with very few people in the new period with many key tasks.

Specifically, it includes creating livelihoods, ensuring residential land, production land, ensuring security and national defense, taking care of the health and education sectors, and preserving and promoting the cultural identity of 16 ethnic minorities across the country.

"Right after this conference, I see the need for specialized monitoring programs whose content will be reported and recorded in the draft Resolution. It is necessary to work with ministries, branches, localities, policy beneficiaries, policy experts and to be more rigorous, it is necessary to have a joint working session between the National Assembly Standing Committee and the Government, reporting to competent authorities before submitting to the National Assembly" - National Assembly Permanent Vice Chairwoman Tong Thi Phong emphasized.

Regarding Nghe An, the Standing Vice Chairman of the National Assembly highly appreciated the efforts of the Party Committee, government, organizations and people of the province in unanimously implementing ethnic policies and work in the past time. The work of Party building, building new rural areas, and maintaining security and national defense has been implemented synchronously and effectively.

In the coming time, Nghe An needs to continue to effectively implement the Party's Resolution and the State's policies with the highest responsibility, with patriotism and love for the people; continue to affirm the correct policies of the Party and the State on ethnic issues and ethnic work to maintain, develop and enhance the position of very small ethnic minorities, consolidate the great solidarity of ethnic groups, and contribute to building and defending the Fatherland.

Comrade Tong Thi Phong visited and presented gifts at Con Cuong Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities. Photo: Tuong Vi

In the afternoon of the same day, the delegation visited and presented gifts at Con Cuong Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities.