National Target Program 1719 contributes to changing the face of ethnic minority and mountainous areas. (Illustration photo)

New development opportunities

With large resources (about 5,487 billion VND in the period of 2022-2024), Son La province has invested in key projects and sub-projects of the National Target Program on socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas for the period of 2021-2030; Phase I: from 2021-2025 (National Target Program 1719).

With investment resources from the National Target Program 1719, Son La province has solved the problem of residential land and production land for 640 households; built 85 centralized water supply works for over 8,200 households. Arranged, organized, and stabilized residents at 17 locations for 956 households; renovated and built over 160 new rural traffic works; provided vocational training for over 7,800 poor and near-poor people...

Thanks to that, up to now, over 98% of communes in Son La province have concreted roads to the center, 78.3% of villages have hardened roads, 99.5% of households use safe electricity; 97.5% of the rural population has access to clean water.

Similarly, in Thai Nguyen province, the most outstanding achievement of the National Target Program 1719 is poverty reduction. By the end of 2024, the poverty rate in ethnic minority and mountainous communes of Thai Nguyen province will decrease to 3.16%, an average annual decrease of 2.18%.

Along with the poverty reduction achievements, the income of ethnic minorities in Thai Nguyen province has improved significantly. If in 2020, the average income of ethnic minorities was only over 28 million VND/year, by the end of 2024 it reached over 51 million VND/person/year.

It can be affirmed that, with the drastic participation of the Party Committee, the government and the consensus of the people, the initial success of the National Target Program 1719 is the premise, opening up new opportunities for ethnic minority and mountainous areas to develop sustainably.

National Target Program 1719 contributes to promoting socio-economic development in ethnic minority areas of Gia Lai province. (Photo: Ngoc Thu)

Strengthening the deep trust of ethnic minorities in the Party and State

After 5 years of implementation, with the flexibility of localities, the integration of ethnic policies and National Target Programs for the 2021-2025 period has made an important contribution to hunger eradication, poverty reduction, vocational training, health care, education and training, gradually improving the material and spiritual life of ethnic minorities.

Along with that, investment resources from the National Target Program 1719 are actively contributing to the economic restructuring of ethnic minority and mountainous areas. Through production support, vocational training, and livelihood creation, many ethnic minority households have paid attention to and invested in commodity production, applied scientific and technological advances, and linked to value chains; at the same time, gradually eliminating the mindset of waiting and relying; proactively opening a way out of poverty and moving towards getting rich.

The report of the Central Steering Committee for National Target Programs for the period 2021-2025 clearly shows that the target for poverty reduction in ethnic minority areas is an average of 3.4%, and is expected to reach 3.2% for the whole period (reaching over 3% of the assigned plan target). The target for the average income of ethnic minorities is 43.4 million VND, an increase of 3.1 times compared to 2020; it is expected to reach 45.9 million VND by the end of the period, an increase of 3.3 times compared to 2020 (the target is to increase over 2 times).

According to the assessment of the Central Steering Committee, the national target programs for the period 2021-2025, the National Target Program 1719 have effectively solved a number of fundamental, root-rooted, urgent issues such as: livelihoods, housing support, residential land, planning, population stabilization... Thereby, contributing to significantly changing the appearance of ethnic minority and mountainous areas; encouraging the spirit of self-reliance of ethnic minorities; gradually laying the foundation, arousing the potential and strengths of localities. At the same time, strengthening the great national unity bloc, consolidating the deep trust of ethnic minorities in the Party and State.