The Ethnic Minority Committee of the southern province of Binh Phuoc has proposed that the Central Committee for Ethnic Minority recognize “Ta Mun”, the name of an ethnic minority community in the province, as the nation’s 55th ethnic group. The proposal was made at a seminar on the Ta Mun ethic group held in Binh Phuoc yesterday. The province now has 234 households with 1,143 people of the Ta Mun ethic minority group, mainly living in Tan Hiep Commune, Hon Quan District, the provincial authorities reported.

Ta Mun has not been listed an official ethic group of Vietnam, but a number of local and foreign researchers have mentioned it in their studies, the provincial Ethnic Minority Committee said. The Ta Mun group does not have its own written characters, but it does have its own language that belongs to the Mon Khmer languages, which are a purported language family of Southeast Asia. The group's language is also close to the Choro ethnic minority group. For many years the Ta Mun people in Binh Phuoc have proposed that competent agencies recognize them as an official ethnic group of Vietnam, the committee said. There are now 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam, of which the Viet (or Kinh) is the largest group (making up 86.2% of the country's population). The Viet people mainly live in the Red River Delta, the central coast region, the Mekong Delta and major cities. The other 53 ethnic minority groups are scattered over mountain areas or plains spreading from the North to the South.