Deputy To Van Tam of the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum speaks at the sitting on June 12 (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) - Legislators gave opinions on June 12 on the draft socio-economic development programme for ethnic minority-inhabited and mountainous areas in the 2021-2030 period, identifying the need to initially allocate funding to priorities.
It was part of the ongoing ninth session of the 14th National Assembly in Hanoi.
Hoang Thi Thu Trang, a deputy from north-central Nghe An province, said the Government estimated the budget for the programme implementation in 2021-2025 at 114.97 trillion VND (over 4.9 billion USD), including at least 104.95 trillion VND from the central budget and more than 10 trillion VND from budgets of the targted provinces and cities.
She noted that funding from the central budget is already difficult but it is even harder for localities to arrange corresponding capital because most beneficiary provinces are poor and still subsidised by the central budget.
To ensure the implementation of the programme and prevent wastefulness, it is necessary to select several key and urgent projects to carry out first, Trang said, suggesting that instead of concurrently implementing ten projects as proposed in the draft programme, focus should be paid to certain projects in the initial phase, such as those providing residential land, farming land, and drinking water for the people, re-arranging population distribution, and developing production, infrastructure, and education.
Echoing this view, Nguyen Huu Toan, representing the northern mountainous province of Lai Chau, asked the Government to list projects according to their levels of priority.
He held that, in the first phase, efforts should concentrate on fundamental issues such as education and training, dealing with the shortage of land for production activities, boosting development in ethnic minorities with the smallest populations and those facing greater hardships, helping targeted communities settle down, developing infrastructure, and improving local livelihoods.
For other issues, the programme can provide less funding or integrate them into the national target programmes on new-style rural area building and sustainable poverty reduction, he added.
Toan noted that in the Government’s proposal, the programme will need at least 137.66 trillion VND in the 2021-2025 period, of which 105 trillion VND, or 76 percent, will be sourced from the central budget. Other sources of funding are relatively modest, at about 3 trillion VND, or 2 percent.
Given this, he also called for more policies to be adopted to attract the participation of the public and businesses in the task./.
VNA
