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Vietnam: Tay Nguyen development booms
(Thai Press Reports Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)Section: Regional News - The Congress of Great Solidarity of Ethnic Minorities in Tay Nguyen (the Central Highlands), to be held from March 27-28 in Pleiku, Gia Lai Province, will serve to manifest the Tay Nguyen people's patriotism, revolutionary tradition and belief in the Party and Uncle Ho.
President of the Fatherland Front of Vietnam Central Committee, Pham The Duyet, made the statement recently while talking with some local newspapers.
Duyet said the Tay Nguyen people have in the past 60 years made great contributions to the revolutionary progress under the Party leadership.
In the years of doi moi (renewal), the Party and State have issued many policies to build and develop Tay Nguyen. In particular, they focused on stimulating investment for building traffic, irrigation, cash crop areas and hydro-electricity infrastructure. The construction of health care stations and schools has also helped boost Tay Nguyen's fortunes, he said.
The Government's Programme 135 (for socio-economic development for poor communes, ethnic minority areas, border areas, remote and isolated areas) and Programme 134 (to give farm land, land for housing and clean water to poor ethnic minorities) have eradicated poverty and hunger in Tay Nguyen.
Duyet highlighted the Fatherland Front's efforts to establish cultured residential areas and the "Day for the Poor" movement, as well as the recovery of the region's gong culture, opening boarding schools for ethnic minorities to train cadres, and providing care for religious followers. All these policies have made the Tay Nguyen people happy and contributed to building great solidarity between Tay Nguyen and the rest of the nation, he said.
Duyet also said shortcomings in some areas should be rectified quickly, such as the allocation of land for cultivation, and assistance for the Tay Nguyen people to overcome the effects of natural disasters.
Right after the liberation of the South in 1975, the Government of Vietnam invested in developing Tay Nguyen into an important economic region. This policy has created solid economic strength and changed the face of the region.
In Tay Nguyen, many plantations and workshops have been established for planting, processing and trading in strategic products for the national economy, such as coffee, rubber and tea. These enterprises have created a significant export value not only for Tay Nguyen, but the country as a whole.
Previously, Vietnam's coffee output was small and insignificant on a global scale. But now, with its famous Buon Ma Thuot coffee trademark, Vietnam has become the second biggest coffee exporter in the world.
From 2001 to 2005, implementing the Politburo's Resolution on "socio-economic development of Tay Nguyen from 2001 to 2010," the local economy has seen progress in many fields. The average growth in the region's GDP has averaged more than 11 per cent annually for a number of years. The local economy has been transformed by raising the ratio of industry, basic construction and services.
Tay Nguyen is the region that recorded the fastest poverty reduction speed in Vietnam, with the percentage of poor people dropping from 51 per cent in 2002 to 28 per cent last year. The poverty rate is still high compared to the rate countrywide, but this is a good result for the region, where poverty has been endemic for ages.
Total investment in the economic sectors has climbed by VND34 trillion, increasing by 18 per cent per year. Capital from the State budget has mostly been invested in building socio-economic infrastructure. Facilities have been remarkably improved, especially in the fields of electricity provision, transport, schools and health care.
So far, 99 per cent of communes in the region have roads to their centres, 98 per cent of communes have access to the national electricity grid, 52 per cent of households have clean water and all the communes now have access to radios and telecommunication. In the last five years, about 1,500 post offices have been built in communes across the region.
The State has in the last five years spent VND200 billion to help local people resettle, involving nearly 160,500 ethnic minority households.
The Tay Nguyen provinces established and upgraded nearly 8,000 households, and gave accommodation and farm land to 3,000 households last year.
Thirty per cent of communes now have achieved universal junior-secondary education.
The whole region has 54 boarding schools for ethnic minorities, with a total of 8,000 students. Tay Nguyen University and Da Lat University have become two large training centres serving the whole region. By the end of the last academic year, 5,600 students graduated from Tay Nguyen University.
Tay Nguyen now has more than 750 health care stations with a total of 9,200 medical workers. Malaria, leprosy, goitre and children's diseases have been reduced from 92 per cent in 2001 to 80 per cent last year.
A health care project for Tay Nguyen people has been implemented in 2004 to run until 2009, at a total cost of US$30.5 million. The project, with assistance from the Swedish International Development Agency, is to build communication centres, hospitals and health care clinics. It will also buy equipment and train health care staff. - VNS
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