Correctly assessing difficulties, effectively allocating: Decree 272/2025/ND-CP paves the way for investment in ethnic minority and mountainous areas

(Chinhphu.vn) - With 12 criteria, the approach of Decree No. 272/2025/ND-CP ensures objectivity, comprehensiveness, and accurately reflects the difficult situation of each commune in ethnic minority and mountainous areas to implement investment and support policies in the right areas and for the right subjects.

Lesson 1: Identify clearly to invest successfully

On October 16, 2025, the Government issued Decree No. 272/2025/ND-CP on the delimitation of ethnic minority and mountainous areas for the period 2026-2030. In addition to the criteria for determining ethnic minority and mountainous areas, the Decree stipulates criteria for delimiting communes according to development levels and criteria for determining particularly disadvantaged villages.

For the commune level, with a system of 12 new criteria, Decree No. 272/2025/ND-CP is an important step forward compared to the criteria for the 2021-2025 period in Decision No. 33/2020/QD-TTg. This is the basis for determining the current difficulties of each locality, thereby organizing the implementation of ethnic policies in the coming period, especially allocating appropriate investment resources in the common national target program for the period 2026-2035.

The policy passed before reaching the "lowland"

Dak Me village, Bo Y commune, Quang Ngai province (before merging with Po Y commune, Ngoc Hoi district, Kon Tum province) is the only concentrated residential area of ​​the Brau people - one of the 5 ethnic groups with a population of less than 1,000 people in the country (along with the Pu Peo, Si La, O Du and Ro Mam ethnic groups).

According to the results of the third socio -economic information survey of 53 ethnic minorities in 2024, announced by the Ministry of Ethnic Minorities and Religions in July 2025, the Brau ethnic group currently has 146 households with 459 people. The Sila ethnic group has 233 households/808 people; the Pu Peo have 212 households/714 people; the O Du have 142 households/624 people; and the Ro Mam have 176 households/591 people.

In the 2021-2025 period, Brau was included in the list of 14 ethnic groups with specific difficulties, in Decision No. 1227/QD-TTg. This is the basis for implementing investment and support policies under Sub-project 1, Project 9 under the National Target Program on Socio-Economic Development of Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas in the 2021-2025 period according to Decision No. 1719/QD-TTg (National Target Program 1719).

However, Dak Me village belongs to Po Y - a commune that has met the new rural standards (NTM) for the period 2016-2020, according to Decision No. 366/QD-UBND, dated May 13, 2019 of the People's Committee of Kon Tum province (old). Therefore, Dak Me is outside the investment scope of the National Target Program 1719. Lacking investment resources and support from the National Target Program 1719, Dak Me village is lagging behind in the overall development of Po Y commune.

On July 11, 2025, data at the 1st Party Congress of Bo Y Commune (formerly Po Y), term 2025-2030 showed that the average income of the commune in 2025 is expected to reach 70 million VND/person; the poverty rate will decrease to 1.18%; people will have access to basic social services.

But in Dak Me village, the average income of the Brau ethnic group is less than 30 million VND/person/year. In addition, many Brau families do not have access to the minimum living conditions in the 4.0 era.

According to the results of the third socio-economic survey of 53 ethnic minorities, in Dak Me village, 52/146 households still use firewood for cooking; 84/146 households do not have internet connection at home; 7/146 households do not have access to clean water;...

The desire for the National Target Program 1719 to directly invest in the Brau people has been proposed by the local Party Committee and government since Po Y had not yet merged into an administrative unit. And in the National Assembly, delegate Nang Xo Vi (delegation of the former Kon Tum province), born and raised in Dak Me village, also proposed adjusting the criteria so that the Brau people could benefit from the policy.

"National Target Program 1719 is a major policy to help people improve their lives. For people who are still facing many difficulties like Brau, no matter where they are, they need to enjoy the most suitable policies," delegate Nang Xo Vi emphasized.

"Qualified" does not mean "strong enough"

According to Decision No. 33/2020/QD-TTg on the delimitation of ethnic minority and mountainous areas according to the development level in the period 2021-2025, communes in area 1 are those that have been recognized as meeting the new rural standards or have a poverty rate of less than 10%. Because they are classified as having more favorable conditions for development, communes in area 1 are not included in the investment scope of the National Target Program 1719.

In fact, there are still many communes that have "reached the finish line" of the new rural area but do not really have a strong enough "internal foundation" to escape poverty sustainably. This leads to a situation where some localities, despite many difficulties, are not on the list to benefit from necessary investment policies.

Before the merger, Phan Lam was a mountainous commune of Bac Binh district, Binh Thuan province (now Phan Son commune, Lam Dong province). This is home to more than 700 households, including 8 ethnic groups living together; of which more than 80% of the population is Raglay, the rest are K'Ho, Cham, Kinh, Nung, Hoa, Chau Ro...

Phan Lam has "reached the finish line" of the NTM according to the criteria for the 2016-2020 period. But by 2024, the commune's income will only reach about 36 million VND/person/year; the rate of poor and near-poor households is nearly 40%, according to the poverty standard for the 2021-2025 period.

Phan Lam's difficulties became more apparent after merging with Phan Son commune to form the new Phan Son commune. Data at the 1st Party Congress of the commune, term 2025-2030 (held on July 29) showed that in the period 2021-2025, the total budget revenue in Phan Lam commune (before the merger) only reached 41,570 billion VND, an average of 8.35 billion VND/year.

But anyway, Phan Lam has better socio-economic conditions than Phan Son commune. Before "coming together", although it was recognized as meeting the NTM standards, in the past 5 years, the local budget revenue of Phan Son only reached more than 3,725 billion VND, the commune only collected an average of 745.15 million VND per year.

Having been recognized as meeting NTM standards, both Phan Son and Phan Lam are not in the investment area of ​​the National Target Program 1719. Therefore, after the merger, the foundation for the socio-economic development of Phan Son commune (new) is very weak.

Regarding infrastructure, both communes are using projects that have been invested in previous phases, mainly from Program 135 capital. In the 2021-2025 period, not falling within the investment area of ​​the National Target Program 1719, both communes do not have many infrastructure projects allocated capital for implementation.

In Phan Son alone, in the 2021-2025 period, the commune plans to concretize 3.7km of roads in the villages, but in 2024, only 960m will be completed, the rest is still "plan".

In terms of production, the two communes combined have a total of 1,723 households. Data from the 1st Party Congress of the commune, term 2025-2030, shows that the whole commune has only over 2,350 cows, 50 buffaloes, over 12,380 pigs... The total natural area of ​​Phan Son commune (new) is up to 584.52 km2, but there are only over 458 hectares of fruit trees, including tangerines, mangoes, grapefruits, bananas...

Not only Phan Lam and Phan Son of Binh Thuan province (old) but also many communes in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, because of "immaturity" in building new rural areas, the 2021-2025 period is outside the investment scope of the National Target Program 1719.

According to data from the Ministry of Ethnic Minorities and Religions, after Decision No. 861/QD-TTg dated June 4, 2021 approving the list of communes in Region 1, Region 2, Region 3 of ethnic minority and mountainous areas for the period 2021-2025 took effect, by the end of 2024, the whole region had 223 communes recognized as meeting NTM standards. However, many communes, although "meeting" NTM standards, in reality do not have "enough strength" to develop.

Khang Ninh Commune, Ba Be District (now Ba Be Commune, Thai Nguyen Province) was recognized as meeting the NTM standards according to Decision No. 224/QD-UBND dated February 19, 2021 of the People's Committee of Bac Kan Province (old). In the period of 2021-2025, Khang Ninh will have 6/12 extremely disadvantaged villages.

Therefore, when the People's Committee of Ba Be district (old) assigned the target of "finishing" the advanced NTM by the end of 2024, it was a difficult challenge for Khang Ninh to overcome. By the end of 2024, not counting other criteria, the average income of the commune would only reach about 40 million VND/person.

Meanwhile, according to the set of NTM criteria for the 2021-2025 period in Decision No. 318/QD-TTg dated March 8, 2022, to achieve advanced NTM, the average income of communes in the Northern Midlands and Mountains must reach at least 55 million VND/person/year.

Communes in ethnic minority and mountainous areas in the 2021-2025 period such as Phan Lam, Phan Son, Khang Ninh, etc. have been "excluded" from the investment scope of the National Target Program 1719, due to the criterion of "recognized as meeting NTM standards" in Decision No. 33/2020/QD-TTg. This limitation has been resolved in Decree No. 272/2025/ND-CP.

Accordingly, in the 2026-2030 period, the classification of communes in ethnic minority and mountainous areas according to development level will be carried out based on a set of 12 new criteria, not using the criteria of whether or not the commune has met the NTM standards as a basis for classification.

Instead, Decree No. 272/2025/ND-CP has "quantified" the difficulties of each locality, with very clear indicators. These are the rate of poor households; the rate of households with electricity purchase contracts; the rate of households using clean water according to standards; traffic infrastructure, schools;... This approach aims to assess more substantially the development capacity of each locality, instead of relying only on "titles" or results achieved at a certain point in time.

According to the report of the Ministry of Ethnic Minorities and Religions, compared to the 2016-2020 period, in the 2021-2025 period, the ethnic minority and mountainous areas will have a reduction of 406 communes in area 3; a reduction of 6,954 villages with special difficulties after applying the delimitation criteria according to Decision No. 33/2020/QD-TTg.

Lesson 2: 'Measuring' the level of difficulty from infrastructure

Son Hao

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/danh-gia-dung-kho-khan-phan-bo-hieu-qua-nghi-dinh-272-2025-nd-cp-mo-loi-cho-dau-tu-vung-dtts-va-mien-nui-102251113193347906.htm