(VOVworld) – The Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs opened a conference on the implementation of the Prime Minister’s decision on Ethnic Minority Affairs Strategy until 2020. Participants from areas inhabited by ethnic groups and central agencies stressed the importance of the Prime Minister’s decision 449, which helped boost socio-economic development in ethnic-inhabited areas. Kso Phuoc, Chairman of the National Assembly’s Committee for Ethnic Minorities, urged for the changed awareness of implementing policies for ethnic minority groups: “The urban living standards, environment and society are at a higher level. Production forces develop more. People’s knowledge and health care are better. This is a natural inequality resulted from the market economy. So I propose specific policies for ethnic minorities, which are different from policies for regions”.

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that the Party and State give priority to developing ethnic-inhabited areas. He urged for efforts to fulfill targets set by the Ethnic Minority Affairs Strategy until 2020: “Ethnic minority affairs are an issue of era that needs further attention. Three fourths of Vietnam’s total area are mountains, where 14% of ethnic minority people are living. The socialist-oriented market economy and the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam will derail if the ethnic groups and remote areas are ignored”.

Kso Phuoc, Chairman of the National Assembly’s Committee for Ethnic Minorities