Ethnic minority affairs have always been a focus in development policies of the Party organization and government of the southern province of Kien Giang, which is home to 249,000 ethnic minority people, accounting for 14.3% of the local population. According to Permanent Vice Secretary of the provincial Party Committee and Chairwoman of the provincial People’s Council Dang Tuyet Em, the provincial Party Committee has intensified educational activities to raise the political system’s awareness and sense of responsibility about ethnic affairs. At the same time, the Party Committee also paid attention to expanding the membership of the Party and other socio-political organizations among ethnic communities and training ethnic officials. The provincial government has concentrated resources on essential socio-economic infrastructure facilities in ethnic areas to assist with local development, thus increasing ethnic people’s incomes and reducing the poverty rate. Investment has also been poured into education and vocational training for ethnic people. The province currently boasts five boarding schools for ethnic students, while 35 schools in the locality offer Khmer language classes and two others teach Hoa (Chinese) language as part of their curricula. Besides, around 4,600 ethnic people receive vocational training each year, with some 3,000 of them finding jobs after graduation. As a result of those efforts, the poverty rate according to old criteria among the local 51,000-household Khmer community dropped to 6.5% at the end of 2015 from 18.5% in 2010. Lam Hoang Sa, head of the provincial Party Committee’s Mass Mobilization Board, said the province will continue to instruct the Vietnam Fatherland Front and other mass organizations in reforming their activities in the direction of assisting ethnic people in applying new farming and breeding techniques and developing household economy to escape poverty. (vietnamplus.vn Aug 16)
