On this occasion, officials from the southwestern steering committee expressed their best wishes to the Khmer community and briefly introduced socio-economic and cultural developments in the Mekong Delta region.

Last year, many Khmer people in Soc Trang, Tra Vinh, Kien Giang, Ca Mau and Can Tho which were actively helped with production activities.

Nearly VND500 billion were spent on carrying out welfare projects in these localities and 8,700 Khmer poor households were provided with new houses thanks to the government’s programme 134.

As a result, the Khmer community’s poverty rate was reduced from 40 percent in 2007 to 34 percent in 2008 and 80 percent of the households had access to power and safe water under the State’s assistance programmes.

Currently, the number of ethnic minority children going to school accounts for 90 percent and a majority of remote and border communes has medical stations with ethnic minority doctors and nurses.