Over the past years, local departments and sectors at all levels have focused on implementing synchronous ethnic policies, gaining important achievements...
Over the past years, local departments and sectors at all levels have focused on implementing synchronous ethnic policies, gaining important achievements, contributing to improving residents’ income and living standards towards sustainable poverty alleviation among ethnic minorities.
Improvements in ethnic minority communities
Much improvement has been seen in Song Cau, the first commune in Khanh Vinh District having fulfilled new rural standards. In the commune, there is Song Cau Industrial Zone, which has created many jobs for locals, together with concrete roads and spacious schools and clinics. Many models of raising goats, cows, chicken and pigs have helped improve residents’ income; models of growing high-tech vegetables and safe vegetables have been effectively developed, helping increase income and thus improve living standards. The poverty rate of the whole commune is down to 1.76% at the present.
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Like Song Cau, other communes with a large population of ethnic minority people in the 2 mountainous districts of Khanh Son and Khanh Vinh have experienced significant improvement thanks to many effective policies and action programs targeting at poverty alleviation and improvement of ethnic minority people’s living standards, gradually narrowing the gap between remote, mountainous and urban areas. Since 2016 - 2020, implementing the Program 135, the province has invested more than VND87 billion in infrastructures in ethnic minority areas, contributing to production development and life improvement, creating opportunities for ethnic minorities to get out of poverty and gradually enhance the appearance of rural mountainous areas.
In addition to investment in infrastructures, the province has also focused on economic development in ethnic minority areas. In the 2016-2020 period, under the socio-economic development program in ethnic minority communities and mountainous areas, the province provided assistance totaling more than VND20 billion for 1,740 households to develop production models; funded the construction of 33 dug wells, 34 drilled wells with storage and filtration tanks; installation of 10 water pumping systems, pipes and water meters for 1,731 households; house construction and repair for 197 poor ethnic minority households (90 houses funded by the provincial budget and 82 others by the district budget); vocational training for 3,260 ethnic minority workers; and the construction of 34 roads leading to production zones, facilitating travel and production growth with a total investment of more than VND105 billion.
Currently, there are nearly 72,000 ethnic minority people in Khanh Hoa (accounting for 5.8% of the province's population) with 35 ethnic minorities, including Raglai with the largest population (accounting for 77.62%) mostly in the 2 districts of Khanh Son and Khanh Vinh.
Policies synchronously implemented
The Bank for Social Policies has disbursed more than VND45 billion in loans to 1,393 disadvantaged ethnic minority households for economic development with interest rates for the poor and marginally poor funded by the provincial budget. Thanks to the State support and loans from the Social Policy Bank of Khanh Vinh District, Cao Van Que (Hon Du Village, Khanh Nam Commune) has planted 200 grapefruit trees together with goat farming which has brought stable income, helping his family out of poverty.
Besides, thousands of other ethnic minority families in the province have received practical assistance to increase income and escape from poverty. By the end of 2019, the average income of ethic minority people reached more than VND14 million/ year, an increase of more than 1.7 times compared to 2015; and the poverty rate decreased to 35.25%, an average decrease of 9%/year. Up to now, 15/48 ethnic minority communes and mountainous areas have been recognized to have met new rural standards.
Along with economic support policies, the province has provided social security assistance, granted scholarships to students; strengthened health care in ethnic minority communities and mountainous areas; gave aid to inpatients, purchased health insurance for 100% of ethnic minorities, poor and marginally poor households. In addition, the province has looked to preserving and promoting ethnic groups’ tangible and intangible cultural values such as building community houses for cultural activities; publishing 300 books about Raglai culture in Khanh Hoa, restoring Raglai longhouses, providing sets of traditional Raglai musical instruments for musical bands and teaching epic singing. Particularly, Raglai’s traditional grave-leaving rituals have been recognized as a national intangible heritage by the Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism.
At the recent ethnic work conference, Dinh Van Thieu, Vice-Chairman of Khanh Hoa Provincial People’s Committee highly appreciated the provincial ethnic work over the past time and requested the provincial Ethnic Board together with local departments and agencies to continue implementing effectively ethnic policies, boosting sustainable poverty alleviation and improving ethnic minority people’s life, focusing on building and expanding effective agricultural models to increase income and narrow the gap between lowland and mountainous areas.
M.P
Translated by N.T
