In recent years, mountainous and ethnic minority areas of the central province of Quang Ngai have seen remarkable socio-economic development.

Total investment capital for developing mountainous regions exceeded 3.2 trillion VND (152 million USD) and was sourced from the State budget.

Average growth rate in the period reached 16.48 percent annually while average food production per capita hit over 360 kilograms in 2014, up 10 percent from 2010.

The economic structure in mountainous areas is comprised of nearly 50 percent agro-forest-fishery, over 30 percent industry-construction and 19 percent commerce-service.

The rate of impoverished households decreased from 60.87 percent in 2009 to 33.85 percent by the end of 2014, decreasing by an average of 6.75 percent per year.

Average income per capita increased from under five million VND (238 USD) per person a year in 2010 to 8.6 million VND (410 USD) in 2014. More than 90 percent of households in mountainous and ethnic minority regions have access to power from the national grid and over 84 percent have access to clean water.

School systems, houses for teachers and healthcare services in mountainous areas have improved considerably.

The province has also focused on manpower training in a bid to meet the area’s socio-economic development demand, including training programmes for ethnic minority officials in communes.

Looking forwards, the province has targeted a 15-16 percent annual average growth rate of economic development and a 5-7 percent annual decrease in the rate of poor households in mountainous and ethnic minority areas by 2020.

Quang Ngai is home to over 180,000 ethnic minority people from the Ca Dong, Hre, Cor and others groups living in the six mountainous districts of Son Ha, Tra Bong, Minh Long, Ba To, Son Tay and Tay Tra.-VNA