At a national conference in Hanoi on July 29, Ms Khiet, who is also chairwoman of the Party Commission for Mass Mobilisation, said that a basic infrastructure has gradually been built up in mountainous and ethnic-inhabited areas, thereby facilitating economic development and meeting the local people’s basic requirements for business and everyday life.

She said the major socio-economic development programmes have proven effective in disadvantaged areas, helping to reduce poverty, improve ethnic people’s well-being and encourage efficient models of economic development.

She reported that all communes in serious difficulty now have primary schools, kindergartens and part-time boarding schools run by the people. Between 90-95 percent of children now attend school at the recommended age, 90 percent of disadvantaged communes have built secondary schools and 100 percent of districts have built high schools. Between 70-80 percent of disadvantaged communes have accomplished the task of primary and secondary school universalisation.

In addition, nearly 100 percent of the communes have built cultural houses or cultural-cum-post offices and nearly 90 percent of communes have access to telephone services. The number of ethnic people holding positions in grassroots-level administrations has also increased considerably.

Ms Khiet said that a greater effort should be made to step up poverty reduction, improve the physical and material lives of ethnic people, upgrade the basic infrastructure and inject more investment into the 61 poorest districts. Localities should tap into their full potential to develop household economies with a focus on restructuring crops and the livestock breeding industry which is closely linked to food processing and consumption.  

She said priority should be also given to developing vocational training and employment services and restoring traditional craft villages to generate jobs and increase local people’s incomes. Another task is to develop the education and healthcare system, train ethnic teachers and introduce policies to encourage teachers to work in disadvantaged areas.