Son La province has identified production linked to product consumption as one of its priorities.
especially strengthening product promotion and consumption, and developing e-commerce.

Promoting the digital economy

Son La province has a strong advantage in agricultural production. Currently, the province has the largest area of ​​fruit trees in the North with 84,000 hectares of various fruit trees, producing approximately 455,000 tons per year. The majority of fruit-growing areas in the province are managed by cooperatives, whose members are ethnic minorities.

According to data from the Son La Provincial Cooperative Union, the province currently has 838 agricultural service cooperatives. With the province's support policies, in recent years, cooperatives in Son La have actively applied science and technology to production, transforming the province's agricultural production from fragmented and small-scale to high-tech, VietGAP-compliant. To date, Son La province has more than 200 cooperatives applying high technology, creating sustainable agricultural, forestry, and fisheries value chains.

Mr. Le Tien Loi, Chairman of the Son La Provincial Cooperative Union, said that the province has identified production linked to product consumption as one of its priorities, especially strengthening product promotion and consumption, and developing e-commerce. Therefore, in recent times, the province has implemented many mechanisms and policies to support cooperatives in strengthening the application of information technology to proactively participate in the digital economy.

According to Report No. 170/BC-BDT dated June 7, 2024, from the Ethnic Affairs Committee of Son La province, in implementing state management in the field of ethnic affairs, 98% of the documents issued by the Ethnic Affairs Committee use digital signatures and digital certificates in electronic transactions; and regularly maintain a malware prevention and control software system based on a centralized management model. The Ethnic Affairs Committee is coordinating with the Committee for Ethnic Minorities Affairs to implement Content 1 - Sub-project 2 of Project 10 on digital transformation in the implementation of National Target Program 1719.

Since 2022, cooperatives in Son La province have continued to receive support from the National Target Program for socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas for the period 2021-2030; Phase I: 2021-2025 according to Decision No. 1719/QD-TTg (National Target Program 1719). Most recently (October 2023), approximately 200 ethnic minority members who are key leaders of cooperatives in the province received training to enhance their digital transformation capacity.

Strengthening support for ethnic minority areas.

During the digital transformation process, ethnic affairs work has been prioritized in Son La province, with many specific projects implemented. Since 2019, the People's Committee of Son La province has issued Plan No. 230/KH-UBND to implement the Project "Strengthening the application of information technology to support ethnic minority people in socio-economic development and ensuring security and order in ethnic minority areas of Son La province in the period 2019 - 2025" (hereinafter referred to as Plan 230).

According to Mr. Luong Van Toan, Deputy Head of the Ethnic Affairs Committee of Son La province, in implementing Plan 230, the Provincial Ethnic Affairs Committee was assigned to preside over and coordinate with relevant units to establish support points for ethnic minority communities to apply information technology to develop the economy and ensure security and order; build information technology applications for ethnic minority communities in the field of healthcare to support remote diagnosis, examination, and treatment; build information technology applications for ethnic minority communities to support disaster warning and response; create an information technology application system for propaganda and support of ethnic policies;...

“To serve the State management of ethnic affairs from the provincial to the local level according to Plan 230, the province has also invested in upgrading and building information systems, databases, and IT applications for sharing and exchanging data on ethnic affairs. At the same time, we have trained, disseminated, and raised awareness about the application of IT among ethnic minority people and officials working on ethnic affairs in the area,” Mr. Toán said.

From 2022 to the present, the National Target Program 1719 has provided additional resources to Son La province to strengthen the application of information technology in ethnic affairs, implement ethnic policies, and support ethnic minority communities in socio-economic development and ensuring security and order in ethnic minority areas of the province. Specifically in 2024, according to Plan No. 67/KH-UBND dated March 4, 2024, of the Provincial People's Committee, Son La allocated 48.537 billion VND to implement Project 10 of the National Target Program 1719; including Sub-Project 2: “Application of information technology to support socio-economic development and ensure security and order in ethnic minority and mountainous areas”.

Khanh Thi