GREAT project supports green hemp production model in Song Khua commune.

The Provincial People's Committee closely follows the Government's decrees, proactively builds a legal framework, synchronous plans, and issues a program to strengthen cooperation and mobilize foreign non-governmental aid for the period 2020-2025. Actively coordinates with the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Working Committee on Foreign Non-Governmental Organizations and the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organizations to implement.

Mr. Nguyen Van May, Deputy Director of the Department of Foreign Affairs, informed: The Department has advised the province to build a list of projects to mobilize foreign non-governmental aid (NGO) in the province in Vietnamese and English, helping donors easily access and grasp the province's priority projects; increase transparency and accessibility to international organizations. Actively meet and exchange with NGOs, introduce the need to mobilize aid. At the same time, grasp the implementation status of programs and projects and promptly coordinate to remove difficulties and problems that arise.

In the period 2019-2025, the total value of aid from NGOs to Son La province reached 19,393,768 USD. NGO programs and projects are implemented in ethnic minority areas, remote and isolated areas of the province, focusing on the following areas: Enhancing livelihoods for ethnic minorities through community tourism; supporting production to increase income, developing rural agriculture; preventing climate change, environment, health, education - training; emergency relief; clean water; child care and protection...

Many projects have spread, becoming typical models for other localities to learn and replicate. Through the projects, good relationships between partners and people in the province are built, contributing to introducing and promoting the cultural identity, potential and strengths of Son La to international friends.

The GREAT Project is a technical assistance project with the overall objective of enhancing the power, socio-economic status and resilience of women in ethnic minority communities. In Son La province, phase 2 of the Project will be implemented from 2022 - 2027 in all localities in the province, with a total investment of more than 250 billion VND, of which non-refundable ODA capital from the Australian Government is more than 236 billion VND, and counterpart capital provided from the provincial budget is 14.5 billion VND.

In Ngoc Chien commune, with support from the GREAT2 project, local people are mobilized to participate in the tourism value chain, improve management capacity and effectively exploit tourism potential. Mr. Luong Van Xien, Director of Ngoc Chien Community Tourism Cooperative, said: The project helps us build tours based on cultural experiences, introduce the unique features of the Thai, Mong, and La Ha ethnic groups to tourists, create more income for cooperative members and contribute to preserving and promoting traditional cultural values. Thanks to that, community tourism in Ngoc Chien is creating jobs and improving the lives of many households, especially women and ethnic minorities.

Implementing the Program to enhance cooperation and mobilize foreign non-governmental aid in the coming period, our province continues to reform administrative procedures related to the process of receiving, appraising and approving, creating favorable conditions for foreign non-governmental organizations to implement sponsored programs and projects. At the same time, increase aid attraction for the local sustainable development goals.