Tra Vinh spends billions of dong on improving minority groups’ life

Tra Vinh (VNA) – The Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh spent over 413 billion VND (17.8 million USD) from the central and local budgets for implementing policies for local ethnic minority groups in the 2016-2020 period, creating remarkable improvements in the living conditions for local Khmer communities.  

TraVinh is home to over 300,000 Khmer people, or more than 31.5 percent of the province’s population.

It is expected that by the end of 2020, the poverty rate among Khmer households will be brought down to 3.92 percent, a decrease of 20.73 percent compared to 2015.

As part of the Government’s Programme 135, over 250 billion VND was spent on building infrastructure works, promoting production activities, diversifying livelihoods and replicating models for poverty reduction, building capacity for communities and officials in special communes and hamlets.

In 2016-2017, over 20 billion VND were disbursed to build small water supply projects, benefiting over 15,000 poor and Khmer households.

Meanwhile, under a special policy on socio-economic development support for ethnic minority areas under Decision 2085/QD-TTg, the province spent over 49 billion VND on creating jobs, providing loans and land for housing, and implementing clean water projects in Khmer communities.

Particularly, a non-refundable grant of nearly 30 billion VND sourced from the Irish Government was invested in constructing 34 rural infrastructure works.
The provincial authorities also provided support for Khmer pagodas in building crematoriums, and granted publications to local prestigious people.
By the end of 2019, Tra Vinh has only 9,214 poor households, including 5,395 Khmer families./.