Van Chinh Thang in Pu Don village, Dong Tien commune, Bac Quang district leads an independent life after getting married. Despite his hard work, he was still haunted by poverty.

Thanks to Program 1719, which is the first stage (2021-2025) of the national target program for socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas in the 2021-2030 period, his family was given a financial support of VND 14 million to buy a buffalo. Upon receiving the news, Van Chinh Thang and his wife pro-actively repaired the barn and planted grass on their land that had been abandoned for a long time.

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With financial support from Program 1719, the family of Do Thi Quyen in Doi 5 village, Ngoc Linh commune, Vi Xuyen district has escaped poverty.

Expressing his happiness when getting the State support, Thang confirmed that his wife and he would try to raise the buffalo well since it is their livelihood and motivation to escape poverty.

In a conversation, Nguyen Van Mach, Chief of the Division of Ethnic Affairs of Bac Quang district said that in 2022 and 2023, in realizing Program 1719, the district has allocated more than VND 2.6 billion to support people in production and husbandry. The local authorities have let local people make decision on suitable breeds based on their real demands, then made evaluations, approved and disbursed the capital.

In communes in Vi Xuyen district, attention was paid to the implementation of production support sub-projects of Program 1719’s project 3 which focuses on sustainably developing agri-forestry production, promoting each locality’s potential and strengths to produce products according to chain value because most of the recipients are poor or near-poor households.

To help people feel secure in production and economic development, localities have built connectivity teams whose members often share husbandry and production experience with each other. The teams have encouraged middle-income households to participate in to not receive support from the project but guide poor members on how to develop economy effectively.

According to Vi Huu Quynh, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Tung Ba commune, Vi Xuyen district, after implementing economic development support projects, connectivity teams were set up. Families with good economic, production, and business conditions have acted as team leaders and “locomotives” to provide farming techniques to disadvantaged households and develop product consumption orientations.

While implementing Program 1719, together with production support projects, Ha Giang province has also conducted connectivity projects to support production according to value chains and diversify livelihoods for people.

Currently, Ha Giang province is conducting 49 value chains with five at the provincial level and the remaining at the district level. These value chains have helped local people have more sustainable livelihoods, driving poor households to develop household economy.

Duong Van Thanh, Deputy Chief of the Ethnic Committee of Ha Giang province, said that production projects have focused on developing key local products.

With flexible and creative solutions from local authorities, the pro-activeness and activeness of ethnic minority groups in economic development, and the capital support from Program 1719, people in Ha Giang province have been able to access production support models according to the value chains. Those models are expected to help poor and near-poor households quickly escape poverty sustainably.

Translated by Mai Huong