The agreement was reached at a conference of the Steering Committee for Central Highlands Affairs to review work done in the first six months of the year, which was held in the resort city of Da Lat on July 16.

The conference was chaired by Le Hong Anh, Politburo member, Minister of Public Security and head of the committee.

Provinces in the region will focus on disbursement of capital from Government programmes to assist businesses and farmers to speed up programmes and projects being implemented in the region to accelerate business and production and maintain economic growth in each locality and the whole region.

The conference agreed to accelerate policies which benefit ethnic minority people and poor households, such as assisting production, allocating land, building houses and ensuring a safe water supply system, in order to fulfill 2009 targets.

The committee assigned relevant ministries, sectors and economic groups to help the provinces implement a number of projects, which are vital to the region at present and in the future. The projects include replanting forests with 100,000 ha of rubber, assigning forest management and protection to the community, building roads to communes, improving vocational training and generating jobs, as well as mobilising funds for projects to give all communes and villages access to electricity.

Ministries, sectors and localities suggested such solutions as adjusting funding to execute projects, revising related legal documents, and curbing internal migration.

According to Le Hong Anh, the simultaneous implementation of these measures would help ensure stability in the region, as well as its sound development through the second half of the year, and in the years to come.

According to the committee, despite many difficulties in the first six months of the year, the Central Highlands remained politically stable and secure, and the region’s economy saw a GDP growth rate of 11.35 percent and an export value of US$647.9 million. Over 43,000 people got jobs and over 2 million ha of forests were allocated to people for management and protection.