(VOVWORLD) - Ba Ria-Vung Tau has more than 25,700 people of 38 ethnic groups, including the Hoa, Khmer, Tay, Nung, and Chau Ro. They account for 2.3% of the provincial population and live mainly in Chau Duc and Xuyen Moc district. The local administration has worked to improve their living conditions.
 Ethnic minority people play the gongs. |
“The State cares for ethnic people, gives us houses and cattle, and builds roads to our hamlets. We’re trying to develop our production and raise cows and goats. We must be hardworking to improve our life,” said a local resident in Xuyen Moc district.
“My husband is a worker. Our family is poor. The old house had many leaks. The State financed us and relatives gave us some more money to build a concrete house,” a person in Chau Duc district told VOV.
Chau Duc district has more than 2,200 ethnic households with about 9,500 people in 13 ethnic groups. In the past their income came mainly from small-scale farming and animal husbandry. A lot of households were extremely poor because they lacked productive land.
Since the province implemented the national target program of socio-economic development for ethnic minorities from 2022 to 2025, most families have acquired concrete houses and have access to electricity. They have been given seedlings to develop their production. Infrastructure has been improved.
 Nguyen Tan Ban, Chairman of Chau Duc district’s People’s Committee inaugurates a display of Chau Duc's specialties in January, 2023. (Photo: baria-vungtau.gov.vn) |
Nguyen Tan Ban, Chairman of Chau Duc district’s People’s Committee, said policies for ethnic people have been integrated with the criteria for building new rural areas and civilized urban areas.
“The local administration has supported ethnic people and assigned specific activities and tasks to agencies and organizations. We promote the role of the village chiefs and influential people in the ethnic communities to help them raise their awareness,” said Ban.
Ba Ria-Vung Tau province has applied ethnic policies of the Party and State in developing its socio-economy and maintaining political security. It has mobilized resources and combined socio-economic projects to make full use of investment with priority given to extremely poor areas.
Every year Ba Ria-Vung Tau disburses an average 8.6 million USD to carry out hundreds of civil works in ethnic minority areas, such as upgrading roads and building electrical grids and irrigation works. It spends more than 1 million USD per year to support poor ethnic minority households, improve the clean water supply, and develop production.
Ethnic areas have met the new rural standard. Tong Van Chien of Xuyen Moc district said, “In the past we did not have electricity. There were no roads. The State has helped improve our life. Traveling is more now convenient. We are very happy.”
The province will spend over 9 million USD from the state budget to further develop the socio-economy in ethnic minority areas, focusing on health, irrigation, culture, education, transportation, and housing.
Do Dinh Quoc, Head of the provincial Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs, said: “The province has implemented a number of ethnic policies. By the end of 2022, there were basically no poor ethnic households according to the national standard. People's lives are constantly improving, and so is the infrastructure.”
Ba Ria-Vung Tau province’s goal is that by 2025 ethnic people will have twice the income they had in 2020.