During a meeting held on April 6 to celebrate the coming Khmer festival Chol Chnam Thmey, State President Nguyen Minh Triet praised Khmer cadres and compatriots for their contributions to the previous struggle for national independence and the current process of national construction and socio-economic development.

The meeting was attended by leaders from several ministries and more than 350 Khmer people, heroic Vietnamese mothers, and monks in southern Vietnam.

Currently there are about 1.3 million Khmers in the south. In recent years, their lives have improved considerably thanks to the Party and State’s support policies. The poverty rate among the group has dropped from 40 percent in 2006 to 28 percent in 2009.