Son La Implements Ethnic Minority Policies

The northern mountainous province of Son La disbursed nearly VND90 billion ($4.12 million) in the first six months to invest in projects assisting ethnic minorities. In 2015, Son La received VND50 billion ($2.29 million) from the State budget to invest in 20 settlement projects constructing roads, clean water systems and schools. In addition, the Government also provided VND34.54 billion ($1.58 million) directly to the community in the form of seedlings, animals, fertilizers, animal medications and pesticides. As directed by policies on housing, land, farming land and clean water for daily use, Son La helped ethnic minorities build clean water systems and buy farming implements and machines with a total value of VND18 billion. The province also assisted 2,948 dignitaries in ethnic minority communities with VND4.26 billion. Besides economic policies, ethnic minority communities received 1.4 million copies of newspapers and magazines free of charge in the first six months of the year. (Vietnamplus.vn July 26)