Bac Giang (VNA) ꧙– The northeastern province of Bac Giang will strive to well implement policies related to ethnic affairs and improve the livelihood of the people in mountainous areas and ethnic minorities in the locality, according to Vi Thanh Quyen, head of the provincial Committee for Ethnic Affairs.

It will continue effectively realising the dual goal of containing the pandemic and recovering the economy, ensuring social security in ethnic minority and mountainous areas. Quyen said the committee will conduct dissemination campaigns to raise awareness for cadres and people about the COVID-19 prevention and control, sustainable socio-economic development in ethnic minority areas as well as resolutions, guidelines and policies of the Party and State on ethnic affairs in 2021-2025 period. Attention will be paid to popularising the purposes and contents of the programmes and policies to Party members and residents in various forms so that they can actively participate in and supervise the implementation, thereby maximising the involvement of the community in the effective implementation of projects and policies related to ethnic minorities in the locality. The quality of the projects will also be improved thanks to the strengthening of supervision from the community. The committee has submitted a plan of action and directed the implementation of projects and policies which have been approved by the Government and provincial People's Committee, focusing on the socio-economic development programme for ethnic minorities in 2021-2030, and the implementation plan for the construction of underground works and bridges in ethnic minority and mountainous areas of Bac Giang province for the 2022-2024 period. This year, the province will intensify the mobilisation of all resources, call for funding from international organisations and social investment from economic sectors to invest in developing socio-economic infrastructure in the ethnic minorities areas, combining capital sources of programmes and projects in the locality to improve the efficiency of investment and avoiding waste. Favourable conditions will be created for all economic sectors to encourage them to pour capital in infrastructure, socio-economic development, and social security in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, he said. The province will strengthen inspection and supervision of the realisation of projects and policies related to ethnic affairs, promptly detect wrongdoings and strictly handle unlawful acts that cause waste or loss as well as remove obstacles in the implementation. Bac Giang is a mountainous province in the northeast region of Vietnam with a total area of 3827.4 sq.km. It comprises nine districts and one city, including six mountainous districts and one highland one. The province has 73 communes belonging to ethnic minorities and mountainous areas. It is home to 45 ethnic minorities. The six dominant ethnic minorities in the province are Nung with 95,806 people, Tay 59,008, San Diu 33,846, Hoa 20,225, San Chi and Cao Lan 30,283, and Dao 12,379. Last year, the provincial Committee for Ethnic Affairs in coordination with the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Planning and Investment received five foreign non-governmental aid and two official development assistance (ODA) projects worth 96.4 billion VND (4.2 million USD) to support ethnic minority groups. This amount of capital was spent on building roads and houses for people with difficult circumstances, granting scholarships for students with excellent academic achievements in mountainous districts, contributing to improving the living and study conditions for disadvantaged people and students. In addition, aid was poured into the construction of clean water supply, rural and school sanitation works. In compliance with the policy of supporting infrastructure investment for the 36 most difficult villages and hamlets in Bac Giang province, last year the committee directed the investors to expeditiously build and complete 13 traffic and irrigation projects in 12 villages and hamlets. All of them have been put into operation in December last year. The province plans to pour capital in building 73 underground works and bridges in 68 villages in ethnic and mountainous areas of four districts of Son Dong, Luc Ngan, Luc Nam and Yen The, with a total investment of 165.5 billion VND./.