"Effective use of resources to support ethnic minorities"

Illustrative photo. (Source: VNA)

Policies for ethnic minority and mountainous areas have always received special attention from the Party and State. However, at present, a part of the people in ethnic minority and mountainous areas still face many difficulties.

Minister and Chairman of the Ethnic Committee Giang Seo Phu answered people's concerns related to the progress of implementing policies to support ethnic minorities and mountainous areas and the issue of mobilizing socialized capital, contributing to helping people eliminate hunger, reduce poverty and stabilize their lives.

Support policies are not enough to turn the situation around.

Regarding the implementation of newly issued policies for ethnic minority and mountainous areas, Minister and Chairman of the Ethnic Minority Committee Giang Seo Phu said that as the State management agency for ethnic affairs and implementation of ethnic policies of the Party and State, the Ethnic Minority Committee has proactively coordinated with ministries and branches to develop and implement new projects, programs and policies to support ethnic minorities and mountainous areas.

In 2013, the Ethnic Committee submitted to the Government and the Prime Minister the Ethnic Work Strategy and the Action Program on Ethnic Work until 2020; developed a number of support policies on residential land, production land and domestic water for ethnic minorities; continued to implement Program 135, helping ethnic minorities in particularly difficult areas escape poverty, contributing to the construction of new rural areas.

The policies of the Party and State for ethnic minority and mountainous areas have had a great effect, helping people have conditions to strive, reorganize production, and eliminate hunger and reduce poverty.

However, Minister and Chairman of the Ethnic Committee Giang Seo Phu said that these policies still have many shortcomings and are not strong enough to change the situation. The lives of a part of ethnic minorities still have many difficulties.

The reason is that some policies have been issued for a long time, are outdated, and have not been amended or supplemented to suit the current situation. The division of management and operation of programs is still overlapping, and the division of responsibilities is unclear. Some policies have not been allocated budgets in a timely manner...

Promoting the potential and internal strength of each region

Agreeing with the opinion that improving the lives of ethnic minorities and mountainous areas depends largely on promoting the economic potential of each region, the Minister and Chairman of the Ethnic Committee emphasized: each locality and area has its own advantages, and ethnic groups also have very distinct customs, so it is necessary to base on the development situation of each region to have appropriate policies and strategies.

In addition to issuing general policies for the whole country, the Ethnic Committee has issued specific policies for each region and provided specific support for some ethnic groups with special difficulties and few people.

Regarding the issue of mobilizing capital to support ethnic minority and mountainous areas, Minister and Chairman of the Ethnic Minorities Committee Giang Seo Phu stated that currently, the resources allocated to some policies for ethnic minority and mountainous areas are at a low rate.

The policy on sedentarization and settlement; the policy on supporting employment for ethnic minorities has only reached over 30%. The policy on residential land, production land, and domestic water for ethnic minorities is expected to reach only about 7% in 2014.

Faced with the difficulty of domestic resources, the issue of socialization and mobilization of resources outside the state budget is extremely important.

Recently, authorized by the Prime Minister, on behalf of the Government, the Ethnic Committee signed an investment agreement between the Irish Government and the Vietnamese Government, worth nearly 15 million euros for the 2013-2015 period.

The Minister affirmed that in 2014, the Ethnic Committee will allocate resources to localities, ensuring that the support will reach the beneficiaries. However, the Minister noted that due to limited capital, localities need to use it effectively, avoiding the mentality of waiting and relying on the State's subsidies.

In addition to support from the State budget and international organizations, localities need to promote internal resources and proactively strive to eliminate hunger and reduce poverty./.

According to Vietnam+