LookAtVietnam – By 2020 there will be no substantially disadvantaged villages or hamlets among ethnic minorities living in mountainous areas of the expanded Ha Noi.

Ha Noi has nearly 60,000 ethnic minority people accounting for 0.9 per cent of the city’s population, belonging to 34 ethnic groups. The largest group is the Muong with nearly 44,000 people, followed by the Tay with about 5,000 people, and the Hoa people numbering about 4,000.

In addition, the delegates set targets to annually reduce poor ethnic households by 2-3 per cent and increase by 1.2 times the average per capita income from now until 2020 compared with the figures of 2008.

To achieve these targets, eight key tasks have been defined by the city leaders, of which socio-economic development in regions inhabited by the ethnic minorities and mountainous areas are top priorities.

A year after the capital city’s expansion, the city leadership has concentrated human and material resources to give support and assistance to poor communes, particularly those inhabited by the ethnic minorities to improve their infrastructure, including electricity, roads, schools and health clinics.

At present, only 97 out of 409km of communal roads are asphalted or concreted; 65.3 per cent of the cultivated land is irrigated and 70 per cent of the households are connected to the national electricity grid.

The city has raised VND137 billion ($7.4 million) to build nearly 2,300 houses for the poor, particularly ethnic minority families, over the past year.

During the event, the Ha Noi People’s Committee presented Certificates of Merit to six socio-political and economic units and 72 individuals who have excelled in production and social activities.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News