Present at the event were First Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union Central Committee, Vo Van Thuong, and representatives from the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Mass Mobilisation, the Steering Committee for the North-western Region, central agencies, local authorities and young people from 14 northern mountainous provinces.

According to the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union Central Committee’s report, more than 4.8 million young people are living in the region, about 50 percent of them are from ethnic minority groups, mostly Thai, Muong, Tay and H’Mong in Son La, Hoa Binh, DienBien and Bac Kan.

Over the past years, young people in northern mountainous provinces played a key role in implementing socio-economic development movements. More than 38,000 young people attended short-term vocational training courses, nearly 15,000 people were employed and 16,500 people were sent to work abroad.

Young people in the region were provided with preferential loans totaling hundreds of billion of VND to boost economic development. They also took an active role in applying new technologies in production, promoting social activities such as building charity houses for the poor and providing aid to storm and flood victims.

To tighten solidarity among young people in the region, the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union Central Committee has worked out six measures: effectively implementing young people’s activities, promoting young people’s role in socio-economic development, improving the quality of education programmes for young ethnic minority people, building a strong youth union, boosting unity and solidarity among young people, and focusing the youth union’s assistance on northern mountainous and border areas.

On this occasion, the conference also honoured 39 outstanding young people and organised cultural exchange programmes.