Listening to the voices of prestigious people among ethnic minorities in Nghe An

On the morning of August 26, the Provincial Fatherland Front Committee organized a seminar on "The Front listens to prestigious people among ethnic minorities in 2020" chaired by Mr. Le Van Ngoc - Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial Fatherland Front Committee. Attending the seminar were representatives of the Provincial Ethnic Committee, the Provincial People's Council Ethnic Committee and the Provincial Border Guard Command and nearly 80 prestigious people from ethnic minority and mountainous areas of the province. Photo: Thanh Quynh

Ensure policies and benefits for prestigious people

It has been nearly 10 years since he was elected as a prestigious person of Lang Bong village (Thanh Son commune, Anh Son district), Mr. Ngan Van Chinh is also the person who takes on the role of Head of the Veterans Association of the village. After implementing the policy of merging villages, Lang Bong village, village 8 and village 1 were established under the name Hung Thanh hamlet with more than 70% of the population being Thai ethnic people.

After the merger, the area was almost 3 times larger, the number of households that needed to be communicated and mobilized increased to more than 250. Traveling, holding meetings, conciliating, and communicating ethnic policies to the people in the area therefore required more time and effort.

Faced with practical difficulties that need to be solved, what Mr. Ngan Van Chinh is concerned about is which specific agency, department or sector directly manages a team of prestigious people like him so that he can be guided and accompanied in a more specific and close way.

Mr. Ngan Van Chinh, a prestigious person in Lang Bong, Thanh Son commune, Anh Son district, expressed his concerns regarding the criteria, policies and management agencies for prestigious people during their operations. Photo: Thanh Quynh

Regarding the issue of ensuring policies and benefits for prestigious people among ethnic minorities, Mr. Lau Xay Ho in Nam Can commune, Ky Son district said that recently, prestigious people in the province have received more and closer attention from the Party Committee, government and departments and branches.

However, there are still many shortcomings and limitations such as: some Party committees and authorities have not fully recognized the importance of promoting the role of prestigious people, so they have not paid attention to directing, assigning management, and mobilizing prestigious people effectively. The work of mobilizing prestigious people is still overlapping, the rights and responsibilities of prestigious people have not been clearly assigned, and attention has not been paid to training and providing information for prestigious people in propaganda and community mobilization work...

From the above concerns, many delegates proposed to strengthen the training and promote the role and influence of prestigious people in ethnic minority communities according to more specific and clear criteria, standards, and competencies. At the same time, it is necessary to define the management level, extent, and scope of influence of prestigious people to have a mechanism to promote their role appropriately and effectively.

Comrade Le Van Ngoc - Standing Vice Chairman of the Provincial Fatherland Front Committee directly explained the groups of contents related to the recommendations and reflections of prestigious people at the Dialogue. Photo: Thanh Quynh

In the immediate future, the prestigious people in our province have responsible agencies, including the Provincial Fatherland Front, the Provincial Ethnic Committee and the Provincial Border Guard. Along with that, the Party committees and authorities at all levels are also a solid "support" to ensure the rights and obligations of the prestigious people.

The regime and policies for prestigious people have also been clearly stipulated in the above Decision of the Prime Minister. This is an important basis for delegates to understand their rights and responsibilities.

There were nearly 20 comments focusing on many people's issues from a group of prestigious people raised at the discussion. Photo: Thanh Quynh

Pay attention to many people's issues

At the seminar, the issue that many delegates were concerned about was the inadequate infrastructure system in mountainous areas. Mr. Lo Van Hien, Veu village, Phuc Son commune, reflected that recently, people in the village have boldly changed the crop structure, building a concentrated tea growing area. At the same time, this place is also an attractive tourist destination for visitors from all over the country when coming to Anh Son. However, the village's key roads are seriously degraded. This has significantly affected the development of local tourism as well as the transportation of agricultural products for consumption during the harvest season.

Sharing the same opinion, the group of prestigious people also mentioned many difficulties when there is a lack of electricity and water for daily life and production. In addition, a sad reality still exists when people in mountainous areas near the forest do not benefit from the forest. In particular, many families live next to forests in conservation areas or protected forests but still lack land for production, lack stable livelihoods, and family life is always difficult.

The lack and weakness of electricity, roads, schools and stations are issues that many village elders and prestigious people have reported. Illustrative photo by Dao Tho

In response to the above reflections, representatives of the Provincial Ethnic Committee, the Provincial People's Council Ethnic Committee and the Provincial Fatherland Front Standing Committee also gave specific answers. Accordingly, although the ethnic minority and mountainous areas of the province have received attention for investment in infrastructure development, they have not yet met the desired requirements.
To overcome this situation, in the coming years, the province will focus resources, integrate programs well, promote the strength and contributions of local people to build more essential infrastructure works; mobilize capital from the Central Government's target programs for poverty reduction investment; prioritize investment arrangements for areas with high poverty rates and difficult conditions.

In the coming time, village elders and prestigious people need to continue to promote their roles and responsibilities to propagate and mobilize people to respond to the policies of the Party, State and locality on poverty reduction, with the hope that people's lives will develop and the appearance of rural mountainous areas will improve.