Over the past years, the Party and the State of Vietnam have paid special attention to and prioritized investment and development in the ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

The promulgation of the Resolution aims to achieve the goal that everyone has food and clothing, everyone can go to school, helping the mountainous areas to keep up with the plains, and all people have a prosperous and happy life. 

Over the past years, the Party and the State of Vietnam have paid special attention to and prioritized investment and development in the ethnic minority and mountainous areas, but currently these areas are still in the most difficult conditions, where the quality of human resources, socio-economic development and access to social services are at the lowest level; the poverty rate is high; the gap between the rich and the poor tends to widen, with potential risks of social disorder and insecurity.

On November 26, the Conference of Implementing Resolution of the National Assembly approving the overall scheme of socio-economic development of ethnic minority and mountainous areas in the period of 2021 – 2030 was held in Hanoi.

Opening the conference, General Secretary and Chairman of the National Assembly's Office Nguyen Hanh Phuc announced the content of the Resolution, which was passed by the National Assembly on November 18, 2019 with 89.44% ayes.

Resolution No. 88/2019/QH14 of the National Assembly approving the Master Plan on socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas in 2021-2030 was approved in November with 89.44% ayes.

In general opinion, the promulgation of this important Resolution is in accordance with guidelines and policies of the Party and the Constitution, which continues to carry out President Ho Chi Minh's instructions to implement ethnic affairs, especially ethnic minorities in highland, mountainous, border and revolutionary base areas so that everyone will have food, clothes, can go to school, so the mountainous region can catch up with the plains and ethnic people have a better life.

It gives priority to investment in extremely difficult areas, in ethnic minority and mountainous areas. Beneficiaries are communes and villages in ethnic minority and mountainous areas; ethnic minority households and individuals; Kinh ethnic households and individuals belonging to poor and near-poor households, living in extremely difficult communes and villages, and enterprises, cooperatives, economic and social organizations in the region of especially difficult conditions.

Accordingly, the plan identifies specific targets up to 2025, in which the average income of ethnic minorities will increase over two times compared to 2020. The target to 2030 is that the average income of ethnic minorities will be half of the national average; reducing the rate of poor households to below 10%; basically there is no more difficult communes and villages; 70% of communes in ethnic minority areas meet the standards for new rural areas.

Chairman of the Committee for Ethnic Minorities Affairs Do Van Chien presented the draft Action Plan of the Government to implement the Resolution of the National Assembly on the overall scheme of socio-economic development of ethnic minority areas and mountainous areas in the period of 2021-2030. Chien said that after the conference, the draft will be completed for the comment of the cabinet members, and report to the Prime Minister for official promulgation.

Promoting socio-economic development in remote areas for the purpose of "leaving no one behind"

Speaking at the conference, National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan affirmed that Vietnam always strives to make responsible investments in sustainable development in all three pillars: equal socio-economic development, fairness and environmental protection; in which, attaching importance to the decisive and supervisory role of the National Assembly and People's Councils at all levels, accompanying the Government in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals, ensuring the principle of fairness - solidarity - mutual assistance for the development of ethnic minorities.

Currently, there are many policies for ethnic minorities. It is estimated to have up to 118 related policies that are issued by different ministries, agencies in various fields. This is an opportunity to integrate 118 policies into a national target program to invest in sustainable development for ethnic minorities in mountainous areas.

Therefore, the national target program specifies the targets, focuses, and key priorities. The goal of this program is to avoid overlapping, duplication, loss, waste and transparency. This is also a practical content to implement the Self-Assessment Toolkit to implement the sustainable development goals that the United Nations and the World Parliamentary Union have identified and selected Vietnam as the country for implementation.

Observing the political determination to prepare for the implementation of this important resolution, it can be said that this is a clear demonstration of Vietnam's efforts and responsibilities in investing in sustainable development of the pillars for human rights assurance: equal socio-economic development, fairness and environment.

Tran Hang