Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has asked ministries, departments and localities to thoroughly grasp Party and State’s development policy in ethnic and mountainous regions, considering it a key task to bridge the development gap among Vietnamese ethnic groups.
At a national conference in Hanoi on April 11 to review and launch policies for ethnic and mountainous areas, Dung stressed that the regions are critical to the country in terms of economics, politics and national defence.
Ethnic and mountainous regions make up nearly three quarters of the country’s total area. The regions are home to 54 Vietnamese ethnic groups - 53 of which are ethnic minorities – and 12.3 million people, accounting for 14.27 percent of the national population.
Following the first stage of Programme 135, policies for the 2006-2012 period helped ethnic and mountainous areas ease difficulties, especially in infrastructure, poverty reduction, housing and water supply, lending and resettlement, which cost over 54.7 trillion VND (2.6 billion USD) in State budget.
The areas also saw remarkable progress in education. As many as 99.5 percent of communes have primary schools, 93.2 percent and 12.9 percent possess junior high schools respectively.
Healthcare networks spread rapidly with 99.39 percent of communes boasting healthcare centres. In 2011, up to 94.2 percent of villages had medical staff.
Meanwhile, radio and television coverage topped 90 percent and 80 percent respectively. Educational campaigns on law saw positive developments and political systems are strengthened on a regular basis, especially those at grassroots levels.
Despite encouraging results, these areas have the highest rates of poor households. Infrastructure frequently hit by natural disasters so it remains weak and inadequate.
Basic services like education, healthcare and mass media have yet to meet development demand, and the quality of human resource remains low.
Prime Minister Dung requested relevant agencies to perfect mechanisms and policies for ethnic and mountainous areas to bring them in line with the present situation and renovate the implementation to improve their effectiveness.
They were also required to focus efforts on poverty reduction, prevent famine in natural disaster-hit areas, and assist locals develop family-based economies like farming and animal husbandry.
At the same time, it is necessary to make it easier for locals to protect and enrich themselves from forests, Dung said.
He urged them to pay heed to providing locals with housing, capital, healthcare services, education and vocational training. Additionally, resources should be mobilised to ramp up socio-economic infrastructure.-VNA
At a national conference in Hanoi on April 11 to review and launch policies for ethnic and mountainous areas, Dung stressed that the regions are critical to the country in terms of economics, politics and national defence.
Ethnic and mountainous regions make up nearly three quarters of the country’s total area. The regions are home to 54 Vietnamese ethnic groups - 53 of which are ethnic minorities – and 12.3 million people, accounting for 14.27 percent of the national population.
Following the first stage of Programme 135, policies for the 2006-2012 period helped ethnic and mountainous areas ease difficulties, especially in infrastructure, poverty reduction, housing and water supply, lending and resettlement, which cost over 54.7 trillion VND (2.6 billion USD) in State budget.
The areas also saw remarkable progress in education. As many as 99.5 percent of communes have primary schools, 93.2 percent and 12.9 percent possess junior high schools respectively.
Healthcare networks spread rapidly with 99.39 percent of communes boasting healthcare centres. In 2011, up to 94.2 percent of villages had medical staff.
Meanwhile, radio and television coverage topped 90 percent and 80 percent respectively. Educational campaigns on law saw positive developments and political systems are strengthened on a regular basis, especially those at grassroots levels.
Despite encouraging results, these areas have the highest rates of poor households. Infrastructure frequently hit by natural disasters so it remains weak and inadequate.
Basic services like education, healthcare and mass media have yet to meet development demand, and the quality of human resource remains low.
Prime Minister Dung requested relevant agencies to perfect mechanisms and policies for ethnic and mountainous areas to bring them in line with the present situation and renovate the implementation to improve their effectiveness.
They were also required to focus efforts on poverty reduction, prevent famine in natural disaster-hit areas, and assist locals develop family-based economies like farming and animal husbandry.
At the same time, it is necessary to make it easier for locals to protect and enrich themselves from forests, Dung said.
He urged them to pay heed to providing locals with housing, capital, healthcare services, education and vocational training. Additionally, resources should be mobilised to ramp up socio-economic infrastructure.-VNA
