Ministries and authorities of localities should take actions to narrow the development gap among ethnic groups in Vietnam, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has said. The PM made the request while speaking at a national conference to review the implementation of policies for ethnic and mountainous regions in Hanoi on April 11. All ministries and authorities of all levels must master and follow the Party’s and State’s policies on the development of ethnic and mountainous regions, PM Dung said. Accordingly, concerned agencies must research, review, adjust and initiate the policies that help promote the social and economic development of ethnic minority, remote and mountainous areas. These areas make up nearly three quarters of the country’s total area and are critical to the country in terms of economics, politics and national defense, Dung said. Possible sources should be mobilized to build infrastructure in mountainous and remote areas, and improve healthcare, education and vocational training in those areas. Hunger eradication and poverty reduction in ethnic and mountainous regions must be carried out in effective and sustainable manners to prevent households from relapsing into poverty, the PM said. Vietnam has 54 Vietnamese ethnic groups, 53 of which are ethnic minorities, totaling 12.3 million people, or 14.27 percent of the national population.

In the 2006-2012 period, many policies that cost over VND54.7 trillion (US$2.6 billion) have been implemented to help ethnic and mountainous areas overcome difficulties and improve their living conditions, according to reports released at the conference.  About 99.5 percent of communes in those areas have primary schools, and healthcare networks have developed rapidly with about 99.4 percent of communes having healthcare centers. Nonetheless, these areas have the highest rates of poor households and its infrastructure remains weak and inadequate. In addition, important services like education, healthcare and mass media have yet to satisfy development demand, and the human resource quality falls behind standards.