The first National Ethnic Minority Congress opened in Hanoi on May 12 in the presence of Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Phu Trong, Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee Huynh Dam, other former Party and State leaders and more than 1,700 ethnic minority representatives.

In an opening speech, Deputy Prime Minister and Head of the Congress Steering Board, Nguyen Sinh Hung said that this is the first time a national ethnic minority group has been held to affirm the Party and State’s consistent guidelines on ethnicity and great national unity as well as highlighting significant contributions by ethnic minority groups to the Vietnamese revolution’s victory.

The congress is an exchange forum for ethnic minority people to reach unanimity and put their strong confidence in the Party leadership on the threshold of the 11^th National Party Congress.

On addressing the congress, Party leader Nong Duc Manh praised the efforts made by people throughout the country, particularly the ethnic minority population in helping rebuild mountainous and remote areas for the development of the Vietnamese ethnic community and the cause of national construction and defence.

Mr Manh asked ministries, sectors, and local administrations to carry out major tasks with a focus on raising public awareness of ethnicity issues, promoting Party and State policies and guidelines, boosting socio-economic development and ensuing national security and defence.

The Party leader underlined the need to implement policies on equality and solidarity, develop infrastructure projects and provide vocational training and jobs for ethnic minority people to ensure social welfare.

Mr Manh called on the ethnic minority population to uphold patriotic traditions, self-reliance and the will to overcome every challenge and fulfill the set target for socio-economic development towards 2020.

In a political report presented at the congress, Minister and Director of the Ethnicity Committee Giang Seo Phu said over the past few years, drastic changes have been seen in socio-economic development in areas inhabited by ethnic minority communities thanks to the Party and State’s due attention.  The proper economic restructuring has helped to improve local people’s living standards with the number of poor households dropping by 4-5 percent annually.

Meanwhile, remarkable progress has been made in education and training in ethnic minority areas. Eradication of illiteracy and universalisation of primary education have been achieved as most communes, hamlets and villages now have schools and kindergartens.

Closer attention has been paid to healthcare activities for the ethnic minority communities by providing free health insurance and medical treatment for poor people and sending medical workers to remote and mountainous areas.

Ethnic cultures have been preserved and developed through ethnic minority cultural festivals held in different regions across the country.

The political system has been reinforced with an increasing number of ethnic minority cadres. The proportion of ethnic minority cadres in the Party and State agencies, the Vietnam Fatherland Front and socio- political organisations are all on the rise.

However, the report also pointed out weaknesses and limitations as the number of poor households and households returning to poverty in ethnic minority areas remains high compared to the national average.

Poor infrastructure has failed to meet requirements for production and business while the quality of human resources is still low, leading to a shortage of qualified cadres.

Key targets for ethnicity work towards 2020 will focus on improving ethnic minority people’s material and spiritual lives, narrowing the income gap among ethnic minority groups, accelerating poverty reduction, developing essential infrastructure facilities, improving the quality of healthcare and human resources, achieving secondary education integration and preserving ethnic cultures.

The congress will close on May 13.