Many policies for ethnic minorities

In recent years, the Party and the State have paid great attention to the socio-economic development of mountainous ethnic minority areas. In addition to the two national target programs being implemented, there are many investment policies specifically supporting ethnic minority areas. Thanks to that, the material and spiritual life of the people has been improved.

Support “production land 04”

The implementation of the policy of supporting the settlement of production land for ethnic minority households according to Resolution No. 04-NQ/TU of the Provincial Party Committee in recent years has contributed to helping people gradually stabilize their lives and escape poverty. The production land area granted according to Resolution No. 04-NQ/TU is more than 5,000 hectares/4,415 households, most of the granted land area has been put into production by the people. At the same time, through the implementation of the advance investment policy, it has contributed to helping people have enough seeds and production materials on the allocated land area. Thereby promoting the efficiency of land use. However, recently, there has been a situation of buying and selling, transferring land use rights, mainly buying and selling, transferring land by hand, although the government has regularly disseminated and propagated legal policies for ethnic minority people. Up to now, the area of land for sale and transfer granted under Resolution No. 04-NQ/TU is 688.7 ha/586 households (accounting for 13.64% of the total area of land granted).

lua(1).jpg — The ethnic minority people harvest hybrid corn (photo: N. Lan - document).

Explaining the reason, the Provincial Ethnic Committee said that because the land area for ethnic minorities is mainly taken from degraded forestry land, the initial efficiency is not high; the area is not concentrated, far from residential areas, leading to many difficulties in surveying, reclaiming, and investing in irrigation to improve land use efficiency, and high investment costs... Therefore, irrigation water is not proactive, cultivation is not effective, depends a lot on weather and climate factors, prolonged drought, often has crop failures, and people cannot accumulate capital to invest in production. In addition, the work of propaganda and mobilization for buying, selling, transferring, and receiving land transfers granted to ethnic minorities in some localities has not received regular attention. A part of ethnic minorities still rely on investment from the State, and there are many forms of land purchase and sale and land lease subjects to persuade them to receive land use rights transfers.

Participating in forest protection contracts contributes to job creation, increasing income, and improving the lives of local households.

Efficiency from forest management and protection contracting

In addition to supporting “land 04”, the implementation of forest management and protection contracts is also one of the effective policies, contributing to job creation, increasing income, and improving the lives of ethnic households participating in forest protection contracts. Thanks to that, the forest area continues to be better managed and protected, limiting the situation of deforestation for farming and illegal exploitation of forest products. The ethnic people have more income, stabilizing their lives; the relationship between the ethnic people and the forest protection force is increasingly close, and the awareness of the ethnic people about forest management and protection is raised.

Forest areas continue to be better managed and protected, limiting deforestation.

From 2011 to 2021, the area of forest management and protection contracted to ethnic minority households was more than 86,000 ha/2,379 households (an average of 36.3 ha/household), the contracted labor cost was 200,000 VND/ha/year, the total implementation cost was more than 192 billion VND. From 2016 to present, the Central Government has supported the implementation of forest management and protection contracted to ethnic minority households according to Decree No. 75/2015/ND-CP of the Government. For households in communes in Region II and Region III that receive forest protection contracts, they will be paid 400,000 VND/ha/year, with a total capital of more than 66 billion VND/72,000 ha/2,408 households. In 2019, through the "Social Forestry" coordination program between the Provincial Ethnic Minorities Committee and Binh Thuan Forestry One Member Co., Ltd., 63 ethnic minority households were assigned to receive more than 2,000 hectares with a contract rate of about 300,000 VND/ha/year. Not only that, implementing Resolution No. 18 of the Provincial People's Council, in 2022, the forest protection contract for ethnic minority households was 50,000 hectares/1,304 households (an average of 38.42 hectares/household), the contracted labor cost was 200,000 VND/ha/year, the total implementation cost was more than 10 billion VND. Regarding the budget for 2023, the Provincial Ethnic Minorities Committee is currently consulting the Provincial People's Committee to allocate forest protection budget (phase 1) to ethnic minority households.

National target program

Notably, in addition to continuing to implement the two national target programs on new rural construction and sustainable poverty reduction, the 15th National Assembly issued Resolution No. 120 approving the investment policy, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 1719/QD-TTg approving the national target program on socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas for the period 2021 - 2030. To concretize this program in the province, the Provincial People's Committee has urgently directed the establishment and promulgation of the operating regulations of the Provincial Steering Committee for National Target Programs. At the same time, resolutely directed the Provincial Ethnic Committee to coordinate with departments, branches and localities to complete documents, speed up the assignment of capital plans, and actively disburse funds to implement the program. Strengthen the supervision of the implementation of the program in localities; promptly grasp difficulties and obstacles, and propose solutions. Up to now, the Provincial People's Committee has submitted to the Provincial People's Council 6 related Resolutions, and the Provincial People's Committee has issued 5 Decisions.

Regarding the capital allocated to implement the Program in 2023, the Provincial People's Committee has directed and urged the departments, branches, sectors and localities assigned to be in charge of the Projects and sub-projects to actively and urgently implement procedures to allocate the allocated capital sources. Currently, the People's Committees of the districts are also developing and completing the submission to the District People's Councils to issue Resolutions on the allocation of implementation funds. Accordingly, the disbursement of the capital plan for 2022 by August 5, 2023, development investment capital: 15.5 billion VND/51.9 billion VND (30%), public service capital: 17.6 billion VND/35.8 billion VND (49%).

It can be seen that with many policies for ethnic minorities, it has been proven that ethnic work and implementation of ethnic policies are the tasks of the entire Party, the entire people, the entire army and the entire political system. Mobilizing all investment resources to develop the socio-economy of ethnic minorities and mountainous areas, and disadvantaged areas. Thereby, gradually narrowing the gap in living standards compared to developed areas, preserving and promoting the fine cultural identities of ethnic groups, pushing back social evils, improving the intellectual level of the people, especially ethnic minority cadres, to meet the development requirements in the new period.

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