Resolution No. 88/2019/QH14 the overall scheme on development of ethnic minority regions in 2021-2030

RESOLUTION

Approving the overall scheme on socio-economic development of ethnic minority and mountainous regions in the 2021-2030 period^[1]

THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Pursuant to the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam;

Pursuant to Law No. 57/2014/QH13 on Organization of the National Assembly;

Pursuant to Resolution No. 74/2018/QH14 of November 20, 2018, of the 6^thsession of the 14^thNational Assembly;

After considering the Government’s Report No. 473/TTr-CP of October 11, 2019; the Ethnic Council’s Verification Report No. 1016/BC-HDDT14 of October 17, 2019; the National Assembly Standing Committee’s Report No. 477/BC-UBTVQH14 of November 15, 2019, on assimilation and explanation of opinions of National Assembly deputies, and opinions of National Assembly deputies;

RESOLVES:

Article 1

The National Assembly approves the overall scheme on socio-economic development of ethnic minority and mountainous regions in the 2021-2030 period (below referred to as the scheme), with the following contents:

1. Viewpoints

- To review and revise to improve policies and laws toward people in ethnic minority and mountainous regions. Policies on socio-economic development, national defense and security of ethnic minority and mountainous regions must be comprehensive and aimed to sustainably develop and bring into full play advantages and potential of these regions and self-reliance of ethnic minority people. To intensify public communication in ethnic minority and mountainous regions; to enhance social consensus; to bring into full play internal strengths to overcome difficulties and challenges and integrate in the development process with the whole country; to consolidate the great national unity bloc and trust of ethnic minority people in the Party and the State;

- To bring into full play all resources, and tap all potential and advantages for developing ethnic minority and mountainous regions; to conserve and promote fine cultural identities of ethnic groups. To concentrate efforts on effectively addressing burning issues; to promote vocational training and employment. To ensure gender equality in the course of formulation and implementation of the scheme;

- To consider state resources the most important and decisive; to intensify international cooperation, mobilize and attract diverse social resources for rapid and sustainable development investment; to raise efficiency of and extend preferential loans for projects, households, individuals and organizations that develop production and business activities in ethnic minority and mountainous regions;

- To regard investment in socio-economic development of ethnic minority and mountainous regions as investment in sustainable national development and improvement of the people’s material and spiritual life; to gradually narrow the living standard and income gap between these regions and the whole country;

- To combine socio-economic development of ethnic minority and mountainous regions with building of a strong and firm grassroots political system; to strengthen the national defense and security potential for firmly protecting the national border sovereignty and building a peaceful, friendly, cooperative and developed borderline;

- To integrate and unify policies for fewer management focal points and clearer task assignment; to promote the role and functions of agencies in charge of ethnic minority work; to ensure and raise efficiency of investment resources; to prioritize selective and intensive investment in localities with extremely difficult conditions and ethnic groups meeting particular difficulties in ethnic minority and mountainous regions.

2. Objectives and targets

a/ Objectives:

To tap potential and advantages of localities in ethnic minority and mountainous regions, promote innovation for economic development and ensure social security and welfare; to ensure quick and sustainable poverty reduction, step by step narrowing the living standard and income gap between these regions and the whole country. To gradually reduce the number of communes and villages with extremely difficult conditions; to plan a stable population distribution and build a complete and inter-regional system of socio-economic infrastructure facilities connected with developed regions. To comprehensively develop education, training, healthcare and culture; to markedly improve the people’s living standards. To quantitatively and qualitatively improve the pool of ethnic minority cadres, civil servants, public employees and workers; to conserve and promote fine cultural identities of ethnic minority groups in parallel with elimination of backward traditions and customs. To realize gender equality and address burning issues related to women and children; to build a strong and firm grassroots political system, firmly maintain political security and social order and safety and ensure the national border security. To consolidate the great national unity bloc and consolidate trust of ethnic minority people in the Party and the State.

b/ Targets by 2025:

- A per-capita income of ethnic minority people will be more than twice that in 2020;

- The rate of poor ethnic minority households will be reduced by more than 3% year on year;

- All communes will have asphalted or concrete motor roads to their centers; 70% of villages will have solidified motor roads to their centers; all schools, class rooms and health stations will be firmly built; 99% of households will have access to the national power grid and other appropriate power sources; 90% of ethnic minority people will have access to clean water; all ethnic minority people will be covered by television and radio broadcasting;

- The farming and residence sedentarization work will be basically completed with 90% of unplanned migrating households resettled. Sixty percent of ethnic minority households scatteredly residing in special-use forests, remote areas and areas prone to flash floods and landslides will be removed to new resettlement areas. The situation of scarcity of residential land and production land for ethnic minority people will be basically addressed.

- More than 98% of five-year-old children will go to preschool classes, 97%, 95% and 60% of children of school age will go to primary, lower secondary and upper secondary schools, respectively; over 90% of ethnic minority people aged 15 years or older will be able to fluently read and write Vietnamese language;

- Healthcare activities will be intensified so that ethnic minority people will have access to modern healthcare services; epidemics in ethnic minority and mountainous regions will be controlled and eliminated; 98% of ethnic minority people will be covered by health insurance; more than 80% of pregnant women will receive regular prenatal care checkups and be able to give birth at medical establishments or with help of medical workers; the rate of malnourished underweight children will be reduced to under 15%;

- Half of ethnic minority laborers of working age will receive job training suitable to their needs and conditions;

- Fine traditional cultural values and identities will be conserved and promoted; 80% of villages will have communal houses; 50% of villages will have their own folk culture and art performance clubs which can give regular and quality performances;

- The pool of ethnic minority cadres, especially those of local ethnic groups, will be trained, planned and built to ensure the rate of cadres, civil servants and public employees from ethnic minority groups is reasonably in proportion to the population of these groups in each locality.

c/ Targets by 2030:

- A per-capita income of ethnic minority people will be equal to half of the whole country’s average level;

- The rate of poor ethnic minority households will be reduced to under 10%; basically, there will be no longer communes and villages with extremely difficult conditions; 70% of communes of ethnic minority and mountainous regions will reach new-countryside standards;

- Rural workforce in ethnic minority regions will be restructured, with 3% of total workforce annually shifted to industrial, cottage industry and handicraft, tourist and service sectors; and 40% of ethnic minority laborers will be able to work in these sectors;

- Up to 80% of ethnic minority farmer households will be engaged in commodity agriculture-forestry;

- There will be no makeshift and dilapidated houses; the eco-environmental degradation will be prevented; forest coverage rate will be maintained and increased;

- Over 85% of ethnic minority and mountainous communes and villages will have sufficient infrastructure facilities to meet requirements of socio-economic development and improvement of the people’s living standards;

- Unplanned migration of ethnic minority people will be basically controlled. All ethnic minority households scatteredly residing in special-use forests, remote areas and areas prone to flash floods and landslides will be removed to resettlement areas;

- Targets set forth as the national sustainable development goals until 2030 will be basically achieved.

3. Scope and subjects of regulation

a/ Scope of regulation:

The scheme shall be implemented in ethnic minority and mountainous communes and villages in the 2021-2030 period, with priority given to investment in localities with extremely difficult conditions in ethnic minority and mountainous regions.

b/ Subjects of regulation:

- Communes and villages in ethnic minority and mountainous regions;

- Ethnic minority households and individuals;

- Households and individuals of Kinh ethnic group that are poor or living just above the poverty line in communes and villages with extremely difficult conditions;

- Enterprises, cooperatives, and economic and social organizations operating in localities with extremely difficult conditions.

4. Major tasks and solutions

a/ To formulate a national target program on socio-economic development of ethnic minority and mountainous regions in the 2021-2030 period, which includes the following projects:

Addressing scarcity of residential land, houses, production land and daily-life water;

Planning, resettling and stably distributing population in localities in need;

Developing agricultural and forestry production, bringing into full play potential and advantages of localities and regions to produce commodities in value chains;

Building essential infrastructure facilities for production and daily life in ethnic minority and mountainous regions and public non-business units engaged in ethnic minority affairs;

Developing education and training and raising quality of human resources;

Conserving and promoting fine traditional cultural values of ethnic minority groups associated with development of tourism;

Providing healthcare for the people, improving physical strength and stature of ethnic minority people; preventing and controlling child malnutrition;

Realizing gender equality and addressing burning issues related to women and children;

Investing in development of ethnic minority groups with very small populations and those meeting with great difficulties;

Carrying out public communication and mobilization in ethnic minority and mountainous regions; examining, supervising and assessing the implementation of the program.

b/ To elaborate and promulgate criteria for comprehensive, objective, scientific and accurate classification of ethnic minority and mountainous regions by development level to serve as a basis for identifying subjects and localities that need intensive investment.

c/ To intensify scientific research and technology transfer; to develop a complete database on ethnic minority and mountainous regions to serve the work of forecasting, planning and managing the implementation of ethnic minority policies.

d/ To mobilize all resources for investment in socio-economic development of ethnic minority and mountainous regions, among which state resources play the important and decisive role in mobilizing other resources. To step up international cooperation in ethnic minority affairs and implementation of ethnic minority policies.

dd/ To raise efficiency and effectiveness of the state management of ethnic minority affairs and implementation of ethnic minority policies, and fight every phenomenon of corruption, waste or negative practices; to adjust or add functions and tasks of the Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs as the focal point to monitor and summarize ethnic minority policies; to propose and participate in appraising policies and investment projects related to ethnic minority and mountainous regions.

e/ To plan, train, further train, arrange and employ in a reasonable manner ethnic minority cadres under the Political Bureau’s Conclusion No. 65-KL/TW of October 30, 2019, on further implementation of Resolution No. 24-NQ/TW of the Party Central Committee (the 9^thCongress) on ethnic minority affairs in the new situation, and the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 402/QD-TTg of March 14, 2016, approving the scheme on development of the pool of ethnic minority cadres, civil servants and public employees in the new period. To adopt special policies to recruit ethnic minority people to be civil servants and public employees, particularly those from ethnic groups with very small populations or meeting great difficulties. To attach importance to finding out, planning and training high-quality human resources and properly implementing policies to employ and preferentially treat ethnic minority cadres.

g/ To intensify building and consolidating the political system, build the firm all-people national defense and people’s security posture in ethnic minority and mountainous regions. To promptly commend, honor and encourage prestigious high-profile people, businesspeople and scientists in the ethnic minority community who have made great contributions to national construction and protection.

h/ To renew and increase credit policies of social policy banks toward increasing loan limits and loan-eligible subjects for production and business projects that facilitate livelihood of ethnic minority people.

5. Funds for implementation

Funds for implementation of the national target program on socio-economic development of ethnic minority and mountainous regions in the 2021-2030 period shall be incorporated in a public investment item in budgets of all levels in accordance with the Law on the State Budget and Law on Public Investment as proposed by the Government to the National Assembly for consideration and decision.

Article 2

The National Assembly assigns the Government to organize the performance of the following tasks:

1. To review legal documents relevant to ethnic minority and mountainous regions and ethnic minority policies, thereby promptly proposing amendments and/or supplementations to, or replacement or annulment of, documents that are no longer appropriate in order to ensure consistency and completeness of the legal system for effective implementation of the scheme.

2. To formulate the national target program on socio-economic development of ethnic minority and mountainous regions in the 2021-2030 period, then submit it to the National Assembly for consideration and decision at its 9^thsession (May 2020) for implementation from 2021.

3. To establish the Steering Committee for the national target program on socio-economic development of ethnic minority and mountainous regions in the 2021-2030 period, which shall be composed of a Deputy Prime Minister as its head, Minister-Chairperson of the Ethnic Council as permanent deputy head and representatives of related ministries and sectors as members, to direct the implementation of the program.

4. To base itself on the scope, eligible subjects, norms and specific tasks of the program to summarize, balance and estimate funding sources for the implementation of the national target program on socio-economic development of ethnic minority and mountainous regions in the 2021-2030 period, then submit them to the National Assembly for decision in accordance with law.

5. To annually report on results of the implementation of the national target program on socio-economic development of ethnic minority and mountainous regions in the 2021-2030 period to the National Assembly; organize a 5 years’ review of implementation of the program and propose mechanisms and policies to the National Assembly for adoption for further implementation in the 2026-2030 period.

Article 3

The Standing Committee, Ethnic Council, and Committees of the National Assembly, delegations of National Assembly deputies and National Assembly deputies shall, within the ambit of their responsibilities and powers, oversee the implementation of this Resolution.

This Resolution was adopted on November 18, 2019, by the 14^thNational Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam at its 8^thsession.-

Chairwoman of the National Assembly
NGUYEN THI KIM NGAN