Prioritize resources and finance with focus and key points to develop ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired the conference.

According to the Central Steering Committee for National Target Programs, Vietnam has 53 ethnic minorities with a population of over 14.4 million people, residing in areas that account for about three-quarters of the country's natural area. After the arrangement of administrative boundaries and the organization of a two-level local government apparatus, the country has about 1,516 communes in ethnic minority and mountainous areas in 32 provinces and cities.

The National Assembly and the Government have issued resolutions approving the master plan and the National Target Program for Socio -Economic Development in Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas for the 2021-2030 period. According to the resolutions of the National Assembly and the Government, the total capital to implement the program for the 2021-2025 period is over 137,000 billion VND.

After 5 years of implementing the program, 6 basic task groups have achieved or exceeded the set plan. In particular, the target of poverty reduction rate in ethnic minority areas reached an average of 3.4%, exceeding the program's target of 3.2%; average income of people reached an average of 43.4 million VND, 3.1 times higher than in 2020; the target group of education , laborers of working age received vocational training suitable to the needs and conditions, exceeding the program's target by 50%; preserving and developing the values and good traditional cultural identities of ethnic groups; strengthening medical work so that people can access modern health care services, continuing to control and eventually eliminate epidemics...

However, there are 3 groups of targets that have not been achieved: improving technical infrastructure and social infrastructure in particularly difficult communes and villages (of which the rate of newly built solid schools and classrooms is 94.6%, the rate of people watching television is 97%, the rate of people listening to the radio is 98.3%); the target group of communes and villages leaving particularly difficult areas; the target group on sedentarization and resettlement, fundamentally solving the shortage of residential land and production land for people...

Speaking at the conference, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that implementing the national target program for socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas is not only a responsibility and obligation, but also a deep sentiment, a command from the heart, with a noble humanity for ethnic minorities and mountainous areas - where there are still many difficulties in terms of transportation, education, health care, environmental sanitation, livelihoods, and many backward customs...

The Prime Minister said that the implementation of this national target program is still fragmented, divided, lacking synchronization, lacking cohesion, and lacking focus and key points.

According to the Prime Minister, the socio-economic development of ethnic minority and mountainous areas must have a comprehensive approach for all people, the whole political system must participate. The Prime Minister suggested the need to innovate thinking, thinking, and working methods; promote decentralization and delegation of power along with resource allocation, improve implementation capacity and design tools, strengthen supervision and inspection. Along with that, perfecting institutions for socio-economic development of ethnic minority and mountainous areas; prioritizing resources and finance with focus and key points; training and fostering human resources; planning development, production of typical products... to bring benefits to the community, raising the level of enjoyment for the people.

For localities with typical products (OCOP), it is necessary to build brands, plan material growing areas systematically; apply science and technology, innovation, digital transformation; link with businesses to supply goods and materials for production and product consumption; mobilize banks to support capital; promote links between households and cooperatives; develop business households into enterprises, small enterprises into large enterprises, large enterprises into multinational enterprises, participate in the global value chain...

LAM NGUYEN

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/uu-tien-nguon-luc-tai-chinh-co-trong-tam-trong-diem-de-phat-trien-vung-dong-bao-dan-toc-thieu-so-va-mien-nui-post808124.html