Dien Bien proposes orientations to focus on implementing the National Target Program for ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

After 5 years of implementation, the projects and policies of the National Target Program on Socio-Economic Development for Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas have covered all areas of social life and have had an impact on promoting socio-economic development in ethnic minority areas of Dien Bien province.

Comrade Le Thanh Do, Chairman of Dien Bien Provincial People's Committee inspected and directed Muong Luan commune to focus on implementing component projects under the National Target Program on socio -economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

Not only that, the results of implementing projects and sub-projects from the Program also contribute to ensuring security, politics , social order, national defense, and border stability in Dien Bien province...

Changing the lives of people in mountainous and border areas

Affirming the effectiveness and humanity of the program, comrade Lo Van Cuong, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Dien Bien province, said: The program is a correct policy of the Party and State for ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

For Dien Bien, although the program was implemented in a context of many impacts and difficulties due to natural disasters and epidemics, with the attention of the Party and State leaders; the timely assistance and guidance of the central ministries and branches, the drastic participation of the entire political system and the unanimous efforts of the business community and people of all ethnic groups, the organization and implementation of the program achieved comprehensive results, contributing to promoting socio-economic development and improving the lives of ethnic people in the area.

In addition to the support resources from the National Target Program for Socio-Economic Development of Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas, each completed house of ethnic minorities in the border area also has the efforts of officers and soldiers of the Dien Bien province armed forces.

Comrade Lo Van Cuong added that the implementation of the program has been linked to the general socio-economic development planning and plan of the province, focusing on areas such as: transportation, irrigation, rural electricity, culture, education, health, agriculture, etc., creating a premise to attract people to participate in economic development, improving the lives and income of people in the province.

During the 2021-2025 period, Dien Bien's annual economic growth rate will reach 7% or more (2 years reaching and exceeding the target of 10% or more); average income per capita will reach 47.87 million VND/person/year. By the end of 2024, the poverty rate of Dien Bien province has decreased to 21.29% (down 13.61% compared to 2021); the poverty rate in ethnic minority areas will be only 27.39% (down 17.56% compared to 2021).

Also from the results of implementing projects and sub-projects under the National Target Program for Socio-Economic Development in Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas in the past 5 years, there has been a positive impact on the environment and ecology. The most noticeable is that the results of economic development always go hand in hand with environmental protection, so the environmental indicators, living conditions, and forest cover ratio of Dien Bien increase in proportion to the economic indicators.

Citing the percentage of rural population using hygienic water and forest coverage, comrade Lo Van Cuong stated: in 2021, only 87.12% of the population in rural, border and mountainous areas in the province had access to hygienic water. Up to now, after 5 years of implementing the program, dozens of new and repaired domestic water works have been invested in, contributing to raising the percentage of rural population using hygienic water to 91.32%.

Also during this period, the forest coverage rate of Dien Bien in 2021 was only 42.96%, but now it has reached 44.5%, putting Dien Bien in the group of mountainous provinces with a fairly good forest coverage rate, contributing significantly to environmental protection and protecting water sources for production and business for Dien Bien and many provinces in the region. Not only that, the results of the National Target Program on Socio-Economic Development of Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas also have a positive impact on the customs and awareness of beneficiary groups.

Comrade Nguyen Thanh Son, Director of the Department of Ethnic Minorities and Religions of Dien Bien province, said: The design of the program according to the support mechanism with the participation and response of the people has gradually raised the awareness, role and responsibility of the people in economic development, increasing the income of the households themselves. From there, attracting people to actively participate in the work of discussing, planning and monitoring the implementation of projects throughout the program implementation period.

Propose many suitable directions

To continue to deploy and effectively implement the program in the communes and villages of ethnic minorities and mountainous areas, in the period of 2026-2030 in the area, Dien Bien province has recently proactively proposed orientation on the subjects, adjusted and integrated the contents of sub-projects according to the same group of subjects to avoid overlap, ensuring the program brings about multi-faceted effectiveness.

Comrade Nguyen Thanh Son, Director of the Department of Ethnic Minorities and Religions of Dien Bien province, said: Regarding beneficiaries and areas of investment support, Dien Bien proposed communes and villages in ethnic minority and mountainous areas; ethnic minority households and individuals; Kinh households and individuals who are poor and near-poor households living in communes and villages with special difficulties.

Comrade Nguyen Van Tang (third from right), Secretary of the Party Committee of Tia Dinh commune, visited and encouraged local people to actively implement production support projects to sustainably eliminate hunger and reduce poverty.

Regarding the projects under the program, Dien Bien has proposed to adjust and integrate the contents, sub-projects, and projects with the same objects and implementation methods to avoid duplication and overlap. Specifically, projects with propaganda content should be considered to be arranged into a sub-project or project to avoid overlapping contents and objects between national target programs.

Along with that, it is necessary to evaluate and research to expand the beneficiaries in some component projects of the program. Specifically, for the housing support content of Project 1, it is necessary to add the subjects of near-poor ethnic minority households; near-poor Kinh households living in extremely difficult communes and extremely difficult villages; Project 2 needs to research and add the subjects of households and individuals living in ethnic minority areas, areas with frequent natural disasters or at risk of natural disasters that need to be arranged and stabilized.

For Sub-project 1 and Project 3, it is necessary to add the supported subjects in the ethnic minority and mountainous areas; Sub-project 2 and Project 3 add the subjects of ethnic minority households; Sub-project 1 and Project 5 need to add the content of investment in facilities for primary, middle and high schools in the ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

Regarding the capital structure for project implementation, Dien Bien province proposed to increase investment capital, reduce career capital, increase entrusted loan capital through social policy banks (converting the content of production development support under sub-project 2, project 3 to the form of interest rate support for value chain production linkage projects/plans, community production projects/plans); increase the quota of projects with direct support for people such as housing support, production land support (job conversion), forest protection support, forest protection contract support, vocational training support, job creation; increase the quota of support for projects using development investment capital such as: supporting infrastructure investment in extremely difficult communes, extremely difficult villages, investing in roads to commune centers, inter-commune roads, commune roads, investing in commune health stations, etc.

To ensure the overall resources of the program in the period 2026-2030, Dien Bien province estimates the capital demand to be about 15,731 billion VND. Of which, the central budget capital is more than 14,727 billion VND; local budget capital is 736 billion VND; other legally mobilized capital is more than 80 billion VND and policy credit capital is 187 billion VND.

In particular, the proposal and recommendation of Dien Bien province has requested the Ministry of Ethnic Minorities and Religions to promptly advise the Government to issue a Decree on the delimitation of ethnic minority and mountainous areas according to the level of development as a basis for determining priority investment targets and locations. At the same time, it is requested to have guidelines on rewarding localities, agencies, units and individuals with outstanding results in organizing and implementing the program by issuing criteria for determining, rewarding structures and allocating funds to promptly encourage and reward agencies, units, organizations and individuals with outstanding achievements in organizing and implementing the program.

Article and photos: LE LAN-HANH PHUONG

Source: https://nhandan.vn/dien-bien-de-xuat-cac-dinh-huong-tap-trung-thuc-hien-chuong-trinh-muc-tieu-quoc-gia-vung-dong-bao-dan-toc-thieu-so-va-mien-nui-post913783.html