The Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang is seeking to improve the incomes and lives of its ethnic people. (Photo: baokiengiang.vn) Nguyen Luu Trung, deputy chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, said KienGiang was soliciting investment in its socio-economic infrastructure in ethnicareas.
It had improved education and training, healthcare and social security, andreduced poverty rapidly and sustainably in these areas, he said.
It had preserved and promoted the traditional cultures and identities of itsminorities, he said.
The Mekong delta province has 27 ethnic groups comprising more than 261,000people, or 15% of its population, with the Khmer accounting for 228,200.
The province has several development targets for the minority-populatedregions.
They include doubling the 2020 average income by 2025, reducing the povertyrate by 0.4 percentage point annually, paving all roads with cement or asphalt,providing electricity to 99% of ethnic households, clean water to 88%, healthinsurance for 98%, and nursery schools for 99% of five-year-olds.
The province wants, by the end of this decade, 90% of ethnic minority communeswill be recognised as new-style rural areas and the poverty rate among ethnicpeople will be below 2%.
To achieve the targets, the province will promote the advantages and potentialsof ethnic-minority areas, train high-quality human resources for them, andapply technologies and digital transformation in the areas.
It will encourage start-ups.
It plans to spend 1.7 trillion VND (68 million USD) on socio-economicdevelopment in ethnic-minority and mountainous areas in 2021-25.
The money will be used to build infrastructure, provide housing and farminglands to ethnic people, develop agriculture and forestry production, andpreserve traditional ethnic cultures and customs together with developingtourism services.
In the last three years the province spent more than 40 billion VND (1.6million USD) to build bridges, roads, cultural houses, schools, clinics, andelectricity supply systems in ethnic areas.
It also helped hundreds of poor and near-poor ethnic households developlivelihoods and effective farming models to escape poverty.
It has mobilised more than 800 billion VND (32.2 million USD) from individualsand organisations to improve the lives of ethnic households./.
VNA
