Creating a foundation to improve the lives of ethnic minority communities.

After more than three years of implementing the National Target Program 1719, giai đoạn 2021-2025, Yen Bai province has achieved encouraging results in addressing the shortage of residential land, housing, and production land for ethnic minority communities. These efforts have created an important foundation, contributing to improving the lives of ethnic minority people in the province.

Ethnic minority people in Yen Bai province participate in building rural infrastructure under the National Target Program 1719. Photo: Thach Phong.

Yen Bai is a mountainous province in the North, located in the heart of the Northern mountainous and midland region, with a higher poverty rate than the national average. Yen Bai currently has 46 particularly disadvantaged communes, and the central government still has to cover over 80% of the province's expenditures.

Therefore, over the years, Yen Bai province has paid special attention to supporting housing and production land for ethnic minority and mountainous areas. This is considered an important step, creating momentum for people to have the conditions to rise out of poverty sustainably in many localities in the province.

Tram Tau, a mountainous district in Yen Bai province, has a hilly and steep terrain where ethnic minority communities live scattered on high mountain slopes. Over the past period, the district has implemented many specific measures to address the shortage of housing and land for local people. The Tram Tau District People's Committee established a Steering Committee for the Program, assigned tasks, and developed a detailed plan. In 2023, the district completed the construction of 369 houses with a total cost of over 19 billion VND.

In 2024, the district plans to continue building 386 houses with a budget of over 20 billion VND. Besides housing support, Tram Tau district also focuses on relocating households living in protected forests, special-use forests, or areas frequently affected by natural disasters, flash floods, and landslides to safer areas. Local authorities have also actively sought land for relocated households and encouraged people to donate land or exchange residential land for agricultural land.

In Luc Yen district, the District People's Committee reviewed households eligible for Project 1 and selected the most disadvantaged households with the most urgent needs. They encouraged these families to mobilize all available resources to eliminate temporary and dilapidated houses and issued an implementation plan. The district approved support for 183 houses with a total funding of over 8 billion VND from various sources, including the Program, the provincial budget, and other legally mobilized funds.

To overcome difficulties and achieve the set goals, Luc Yen district continues to thoroughly implement and promote propaganda work to raise awareness about sustainable poverty reduction, creating unity among Party committees, Party organizations, government agencies, and the entire society, especially at the grassroots level. From there, it strongly promotes the tradition of solidarity and the spirit of "mutual support and compassion" of the nation.

However, during the implementation of Project 1, Yen Bai province, like many other localities nationwide, faced numerous difficulties, especially regarding the availability of clean land for allocating residential and production land to ethnic minority communities. Currently, this land is scarce, fragmented, and far from people's homes, making it difficult to allocate land suitable to the customs and living practices of the ethnic minorities. The process of land transfer and exchange between households also faces obstacles due to the small, fragmented land plots, which fall below the permitted subdivision limits, thus prolonging the project's implementation.

To address this situation, the Yen Bai Provincial People's Council recently convened and passed Resolution 75/2024, which stipulates land support policies for ethnic minority communities in the province. The resolution applies to households and individuals belonging to ethnic minority groups who have already received land support as stipulated in Clause 1, Article 4, but whose land has been lost due to natural disasters, landslides, subsidence, or other natural calamities, rendering them unable to use the land. They will continue to be considered for support under the provisions of Clause 1, Article 4 of this Resolution.

Specifically, during the process of developing land support plans, the district-level People's Committee must prioritize supporting households and individuals without residential or production land first, before considering support for households and individuals lacking residential or production land. Households and individuals who have already received support in the form of agricultural land for production will not be exempt from land rent when leasing land for non-agricultural production facilities.

According to Tran Xuan Thuy, Head of the Ethnic Affairs Committee of Yen Bai province, in implementing National Target Program 1719, Yen Bai province has issued many support policies to eradicate hunger and poverty, and improve the living standards of ethnic minorities and people in mountainous areas. In particular, Project 1 addresses the shortage of land for housing, production land, and clean water. Many ethnic minority households in difficult circumstances have received support to build new houses and access clean water, contributing to poverty reduction and providing a foundation for people to have more motivation and confidence in developing their economy .

Therefore, Yen Bai province proposes that the Government decentralize the authority to the locality in deciding on the allocation of central government budget funds for the contents, sub-projects, and component projects, so that it can flexibly adapt to the actual needs of the locality and the disbursement capacity to improve the efficiency of capital utilization of the Program. This will provide flexibility for the locality in the process of implementing projects, ensuring the livelihoods of people in remote and disadvantaged areas.

Source: https://daidoanket.vn/tao-nen-tang-nang-cao-doi-song-vung-dong-bao-dan-toc-10293717.html