Vietnam Strives Improve Life of Ethnic Minorities

Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved a document aimed at improving the life of ethnic minorities by raising investment in socio-economic development and intensifying care to residents in remote areas. First and foremost will be reducing the poverty rate among ethnic minorities by between 3% and 4% annually. Increasing investment in education and healthcare to reduce the death rate of newborns per 1,000 residents lower than 19%, decrease malnutrition rate among children below five lower than 8% and cut the illiteracy among ethnic women below 10%. The government targets to raise the rate of households using safe water to at least 50% and that having hygienic latrines to 60%. The targets are within the country’s Millennium Development Goals applied for ethnic people for the 2015-2020 period. Vietnam has 54 groups of people with the Kinh people being the largest group accounting for 87%, followed by Tay people with 1.9%, and Thai people 1.8%. Most of ethnic people reside in mountainous and remote areas like the northern region, north central region, and Central Highlands. Vietnam has been criticized by rights groups for having policies prioritizing the Kinh people while most of the ethnic minorities are facing difficulties due to disadvantaged conditions. (Phap Luat Viet Nam Sept 10 p3, cand.vn Sept 10)