First national ethnic minority congress opens

Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh addresses at the congress. Photo: VOV

The first national ethnic minority congress opened in the capital of Hanoi on May 12, drawing the participation of 1,702 delegates from ethnic minority groups throughout the country.

Prominent among the invited guests were Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong and President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee Huynh Dam.

Opening the two-day congress, Deputy PM Nguyen Sinh Hung said this is the first time the Party and State have held an ethnic minority congress on a national scale.

The congress aims to review and evaluate ethnic minority-related affairs, confirm the Party and State’s consistent policy on ethnic groups’ issues and great national unity, and honour huge contributions of ethnic groups to the Vietnamese revolution’s victory, the deputy PM said.

Hung, who is also head of the steering committee for the congress, added that the event serves as a forum for exchange as well as creating consensus and solid confidence of ethnic minority people in the leadership of the Party on the threshold of the XIth National Party Congress.

In his speech, Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh stated, throughout the past struggles for national independence and stages of the Vietnamese revolution, ethnic minority people, together with compatriots nationwide, have faithfully followed the Party and Uncle Ho, devoting their services and even blood to the common cause.

The Party chief stressed that, despite various difficulties facing the nation in recent years, the Party and State have reserved remarkable resources to foster socio-economic development in the ethnic minority-inhabited and mountainous areas.

As a result, the living conditions of ethnic minority groups have been improved gradually, both materially and spiritually, while efforts have been made to preserve their traditional cultural identity, he said.

The Party leader asked the government, ministries, centrally-run agencies and mass organisations, Party committees and administrations at all levels and the entire people to continue improving public awareness of ethnic minority-related affairs, effectively implement the Party and State’s guidelines and policies on ethnic minority groups.

He also stressed the need to turn these guidelines and polices into action programmes in an effort to further bolster the development in terms of economy, socio-culture, security and national denfence in ethnic minority people-inhabited and mountainous regions.

Well performing policies regarding equality and solidarity, improving access to education, developing human resources, creating more stable jobs, ensuring social security for ethnic minority groups and preserving their traditional cultural values are also major tasks for the years to come, Manh noted.

The Party general secretary called upon ethnic minority people to join efforts with the entire nation in ensuring security and national defence in important, remote and border regions, and preventing reactionary forces’ attempts to abuse ethnic minority-related and religious issues to undermine the country’s social order, national security, and great unity among ethnic groups.

Minister and Chairman of the Committee for Ethnic Affairs Giang Seo Phu presented a report at the congress, pointing out the fact that the ethnic minority groups-inhabited areas have got a facelift thanks to the Party and State’s policies as well as socio-economic development programmes.

The number of poor households in these areas has dropped 4-5 percent each year, while the univeralisation of secondary education is underway and the poor are provided with health insurance, free medical check-ups and treatment, he said.

The targets through 2020 will include speeding up hunger eradication and poverty reduction, building more necessary infrastructure in communes, improving the quality of human resources, providing vocational training for ethnic minority people, completing the universalisation of secondary education, and maintaining political security, social order and national defence in ethnic minority-inhabited and mountainous areas.