Many suggestions have been made to address difficulties in implementing the National Target Program for ethnic minority areas.

The monitoring team worked with the Committee for Ethnic Minorities of Tra Vinh province.

On September 19th, a monitoring delegation from the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, led by Vice Chairman Nguyen Huu Dung, worked with the Committee for Ethnic Minorities Affairs of Tra Vinh province on the implementation of Project 1 of the National Target Program for socio -economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas in 2024.

The monitoring team will oversee the implementation of Project 1, including: leadership and direction in achieving Project 1's objectives; beneficiaries of Project 1; support for residential land; housing support; support for production land and vocational retraining; support for clean water; and the allocation, management, and use of budgets related to the implementation of Project 1 under the Program for the years 2022 and 2023 in the localities.

Vice Chairman Nguyen Huu Dung speaks at the working session.

According to Mr. Ha Thanh Son, Deputy Head of the Ethnic Affairs Committee of Tra Vinh province, the locality has three main ethnic groups: Kinh, Khmer, and Hoa. Of these, the Khmer ethnic group accounts for 31.53%, and the Hoa ethnic group accounts for nearly 0.66%. The province has 59 communes, wards, and towns where over 20% of the population are Khmer ethnic people, and these communes are implementing the National Target Program for Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas.

Reporting on the implementation results of Project 1, Mr. Ha Thanh Son stated that the relevant provincial departments and agencies, as well as the People's Committees of districts and cities, have developed plans to implement the program's tasks, and have initially achieved some of the set objectives.

Regarding land support, the People's Committees of districts and cities approved 91 beneficiary households in 2022 and 47 households in 2023 who lacked land. However, during implementation, only 50 households remained (as some households had already received support from other programs and projects and escaped poverty). 34 out of 50 households received financial assistance to stabilize their own housing, totaling over 1.56 billion VND. Regarding housing support, the People's Committees of districts and cities approved 846 beneficiary households in 2022 and 775 households in 2023 who needed housing construction support. 737 households received housing support, totaling over 33.94 billion VND.

508 households received support for vocational retraining, totaling 5.08 billion VND. The province did not implement a policy to support agricultural land. 418 households received support for access to clean water, totaling over 1.25 billion VND. Three communes received investment for the construction of centralized water supply systems. In addition, during the 2022-2023 period, the Provincial Social Policy Bank facilitated loans for 1,036 households, totaling over 47 billion VND.

Mr. Ha Thanh Son, Deputy Head of the Ethnic Affairs Committee of Tra Vinh province, spoke at the working session.

Mr. Ha Thanh Son, Deputy Head of the Ethnic Affairs Committee of Tra Vinh province, stated that implementing housing land support is difficult due to the high price of residential land compared to the amount of support provided. The central government provides 40 million VND in support, the local government contributes no more than 15%, and the Policy Bank provides loans of no more than 50 million VND. Therefore, with support amounts close to 100 million VND, it is difficult to purchase residential land, while the locality no longer has public land available.

Regarding land for production, the province does not implement a land reclamation program but instead provides direct support to households transitioning to other occupations. This is because the maximum support is 22.5 million VND per household for land reclamation, restoration, and improvement projects to allocate land suitable for production, and the Policy Bank provides loans up to 77.5 million VND per household. Currently, it is difficult to find land to purchase for production purposes.

The Ethnic Affairs Committee of Tra Vinh province has requested the Prime Minister to increase the housing support to 80 million VND per household and to consider increasing the support for residential and agricultural land, as land prices in the province are currently very high.

The Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front proposes that the National Assembly, the Government, and central ministries and agencies adjust the content of Project 4 regarding the maintenance and repair of infrastructure works… to “Maintenance, repair, renovation, upgrading and expansion of infrastructure works” to allow localities more flexibility in implementing infrastructure projects in communes and hamlets in ethnic minority areas (according to Decision 1719). The scope of Project 8 (Decision 1719) should be expanded because, according to regulations, it should be implemented in particularly difficult communes and hamlets (currently, Tra Vinh province no longer has particularly difficult communes and hamlets, only 59 communes in ethnic minority areas, therefore implementation is not possible).

In addition, the Ethnic Affairs Committee of Tra Vinh province proposed that the National Ethnic Affairs Committee consider adjusting the poverty reduction target for ethnic minorities to 0.5%, in accordance with the provincial resolution's target. They also requested the early issuance of a software system for reporting and evaluating the Program, enabling localities to input data and report implementation results in a unified and synchronized manner.

Organize training sessions to guide officials implementing the Program at all levels on how to record data summaries according to Circular No. 01/2022/TT-UBDT. Provide specific guidance on the conditions for identifying eligible recipients of pre-university and university training policies under Sub-project 2 of Project 5, in order to have sufficient basis for identifying eligible recipients and granting benefits.

Speaking at the working session, Vice Chairman Nguyen Huu Dung stated that the working group will directly monitor the implementation of Project 1 under the Program, thereby compiling and evaluating the implementation results of localities and units, contributing to proactively preventing and stopping negative violations. They will promptly identify difficulties, obstacles, and limitations, and propose solutions to competent authorities in accordance with regulations; commend, reward, and disseminate new factors, advanced models, and positive aspects; and promote the people's right to self-governance. They will also disseminate and guide the improvement of professional knowledge in monitoring and critical analysis of the Vietnam Fatherland Front at all levels; and promote the role of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and political and social organizations in monitoring the implementation of the Program.

Based on the report from the Ethnic Affairs Committee of Tra Vinh province, Vice Chairman Nguyen Huu Dung stated that the province has focused on directing and managing, issuing resolutions of the Provincial People's Council, decisions of the Provincial People's Committee, guiding documents, allocating capital, and developing plans for the period 2021-2025 and annually.

"Based on the report from the Provincial Ethnic Affairs Committee, I see that the Committee has followed the monitoring team's outline, providing very basic and complete data. It is very impressive that right from the start of the implementation, the Provincial People's Council issued 14 resolutions, the Provincial People's Committee issued 27 decisions and other guiding documents. The relevant provincial departments and agencies and the People's Committees of districts and cities have developed plans to implement the program's tasks," Vice Chairman Nguyen Huu Dung commented.

Following a working session with the Ethnic Affairs Committee of Tra Vinh province, the monitoring team surveyed several specific projects in Thuan Hoa commune (Cau Ngang district) and monitored the implementation of Project 1 in Cau Ngang district. Simultaneously, a post-monitoring conference will be held to gather feedback from delegates to finalize the report.

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