Former Deputy Minister Hoang Xuan Luong evaluates the implementation of Uncle Ho's advice to Western Nghe An

The paper was presented by former Deputy Minister Hoang Xuan Luong at the scientific workshop "Nghe An - 50 years of implementing President Ho Chi Minh's sacred testament and his last letter to the Provincial Party Committee" organized by Nghe An Provincial Party Committee on the morning of August 31.

Former Deputy Minister Hoang Xuan Luong presented a paper at the Workshop. Photo: Thanh Cuong

If we consider the contents of Uncle Ho's Letter to the Western Nghe An region, we can see three main contents:

1. Uncle Ho hopes that Nghe An will soon become one of the best provinces in the North. He mentioned: vast land, rich resources, and golden forests.

2. Sedentarization for ethnic minorities.

3. Good ethnic minority cadres to mobilize the people.

Dr. Hoang Xuan Luong - former Deputy Minister, Vice Chairman of the Ethnic Committee

The picture of the West has many outstanding features compared to the mountainous regions of the whole country.

Let's look back at 50 years of doing these 3 things in Western Nghe An.

Throughout its history, the Nghe An Provincial Party Committee has paid great attention to assessing the potential of the Western region. Since the 1960s, Nghe An has established a Western Region Committee headed by a member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee.

After the 70s, when the Western Committee was dissolved, the Ethnic Committee was established, equivalent to a department, to help the province manage the State in ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

In particular, over the past 20 years, we have advised the Government to approve the development plan for Western Nghe An twice. This proves that the Party Committee and the Government of Nghe An see the potential and are very interested in the development of the Western region and the ethnic minority areas.

Traffic in Western Nghe An is rated by comrade Hoang Xuan Luong as one of the best compared to other regions in the country. In the photo is Na Loi intersection on the border of Western Nghe An, the right direction goes to Muong Ai, Muong Tip (Ky Son), the left direction is branch road 10 leading to the top of Pu Xai Lai Leng mountain. Photo: Nguyen Sach

If we look at the picture of the West over the past 50 years, there are several highlights compared to the mountainous regions of the whole country: infrastructure, especially the traffic infrastructure of the West of Nghe An, is one of the best regions in the country; seeing the potential, an industrial zone for processing agricultural and forestry products has been initially formed to exploit the vast land and rich resources...

In addition, the lives of ethnic minorities have improved, and poverty in ethnic minority areas has been reduced quite rapidly. At the end of 2018, the poverty rate in ethnic minority areas in Nghe An was approximately 17%, while the national average poverty rate in ethnic minority areas was 23%; the health, cultural and educational systems in Western Nghe An are quite good, approximately on par with the average of mountainous areas in Vietnam.

Regarding the settlement of ethnic minorities, over the past 50 years, the province has paid attention, and basically, people in 11 mountainous districts and towns have settled down. Sedentary farming can be achieved by half because in sedentary farming there is the factor of stabilizing production to ensure life, this part Nghe An has not done completely, and still has to strive.

As for the idea of ​​“good ethnic minority cadres to mobilize the people” - this is profound. Following Uncle Ho’s ideas, Nghe An has a tradition of taking care of building a team of ethnic minority cadres, always having ethnic minority cadres participating in the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee, there was a period when there were cadres serving as Vice Chairmen of the Provincial People’s Committee… Commune and village cadres in ethnic minority areas are all held by ethnic minorities, this is a success. In addition, the cadre team is rejuvenated…

It can be affirmed that the work of building a team of ethnic minority cadres in Nghe An is a successful model. It is a common lesson for the work of training, interwoven arrangement, fostering and using ethnic minority cadres.

Focus on eliminating poverty in the Western region

… "Although many important achievements have been made, looking back we still see that the Western region still has many concerns, especially this is still the poverty center of the whole province, more than 70% of the poor households of the whole province are concentrated in ethnic minority areas; in the forecast, the next generation of ethnic minority cadres is gradually thinning...

Therefore, the province should continue to pay attention to preserving and developing ethnic culture and have ethnic minority cadres to manage political life at the grassroots level - where ethnic minorities live in communities.

Leaders of the Party Committee of Tri Le commune, Que Phong district inspect agricultural production. Photo: Thanh Duy

In particular, the Government and the National Assembly have agreed on the policy and will soon develop and issue a national target program on sustainable development of ethnic minority and mountainous areas, including 9 projects in 9 fields.

Therefore, the province should review what issues need to be promoted to include in the 9 projects of the above national target program, and how to effectively solve the problems of ethnic minority areas.

I think that for Nghe An to become a rich and powerful province, one of the best provinces in the North, it is necessary that the Western region of Nghe An also reaches approximately the general level of the province.