Vice Chairman of Giong Rieng District Huynh Van Thai Quynh: Continue to review to support and invest in solving urgent needs of people in ethnic minority areas

The 2025 military-civilian Tet to celebrate Chol Chnam Thmay will be held in Giong Rieng, promising many projects to change the face of the ethnic minority area.

Reporter: How has the implementation of the National Target Program 1719 been carried out in the district in recent years, sir?

Mr. Huynh Van Thai Quynh : Implementing the National Target Program on Socio-Economic Development of Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas according to Decision No. 1719/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister, from 2022-2024, the district is allocated 40 billion 875 million VND. Of which, the central budget is 35 billion 483 million VND; the local budget is 5 billion 392 million VND, to implement component projects of the Program towards the goal of comprehensive and sustainable development of ethnic minority areas.

In particular, the district has focused on fundamentally solving the shortage of production land, residential land, housing, and domestic water. Specifically, Project 1: Support for residential land, housing, and production land: Total capital is 5 billion 286 million VND, disbursed 5 billion 137.8 million VND, reaching 97.1%. Housing support has been provided to 106/106 households and residential land support for 05/05 households. The People's Committees of the communes are continuing to disburse to households due to the new adjustments; Support for centralized domestic water: Total capital is 10 billion 848.1 million VND, implementing 05 water supply station projects in Ngoc Chuc, Ban Tan Dinh, Vinh Thanh, Vinh Phu and Long Thanh communes, up to now disbursed 10 billion 087.1 million VND, reaching 92.9%. The People's Committees of the communes are approving the project's final settlement.

In addition to the support of the State, sectors at all levels focus on promoting propaganda and education, encouraging poor households to promote their internal strength, self-reliance, and rise up, overcome the situation of relying on the State's support, promote the spirit of solidarity and mutual love in socio-economic development, and gradually escape poverty sustainably.

The most remarkable thing is that the ethnic policy programs and projects that have been implemented have been effective, contributing to reducing the poverty rate in 2020, which was 1,938 poor households (accounting for 3.65% of the population) to 670 households (1.23% of the population) by the end of 2023. Of which, 244 are ethnic minority poor households, accounting for 2.34% of the total number of ethnic minority households (a decrease of 206 households compared to 2020).

Mr. Huynh Van Thai Quynh, Vice Chairman of People's Committee of Giong Rieng district

Reporter: What has Giong Rieng been doing to speed up the implementation of the National Target Program 1719?

Mr. Huynh Van Thai Quynh : Reality shows that projects and policy components are implemented promptly and effectively, meeting the requirements of tasks, contributing to socio-economic development and ensuring national defense and security in ethnic minority areas.

For example, the district has promoted the implementation of housing support policies, and has basically eliminated makeshift and dilapidated houses. Or the investment in developing economic and social infrastructure in ethnic minority areas is creating a new look for the village.

Therefore, based on the results achieved, the district continues to direct relevant professional agencies and People's Committees of ethnic minority communes to continue reviewing to support and invest in solving urgent needs for people's livelihood in ethnic minority areas. Based on reality, localities register their needs to implement projects under the National Target Program 1719. In particular, priority is given to resources for extremely disadvantaged hamlets in the district (Giong Da hamlet, Ban Thach commune).

Focus on solving the urgent needs of ethnic minority households for residential land; housing; job conversion and scattered domestic water. Build asphalt, concrete or harden rural roads to serve production and people's lives. Strengthen vocational training for ethnic minority workers, contributing to creating more jobs and increasing income for ethnic minority households and poor Kinh households, near-poor households in disadvantaged hamlets.

Project 6 under the National Target Program 1719 has strongly developed the dragon boat racing movement of Giong Rieng district.

Reporter: Are there any difficulties or problems in implementing the National Target Program 1719 in the district, sir ?

Mr. Huynh Van Thai Quynh : During the implementation process, Giong Rieng district is also facing some difficulties and obstacles. Specifically, in the implementation of Project 1: Support for residential land, housing, domestic water and job conversion, by the time capital was allocated for implementation, the households that were beneficiaries had escaped poverty and were no longer eligible for the policy; Project 3 Sub-project 2: Support for production development according to the value chain, the selection of investment households still encountered many difficulties, the project implementation time in the form of value chain linkage was prolonged, so there were difficulties in capital disbursement;

Content 1, sub-project 1, project 4: Investing in essential infrastructure in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, prioritizing communes and hamlets with special difficulties: Only support maintenance and repair costs, only used for minor repairs, renovations, and regular maintenance to maintain normal operation of the project; not used for new construction, upgrading, or major repairs of the project, while many roads that have been invested in for many years have not had funds for repair and new investment, and have now been severely degraded...

At the same time, the Central Government has not yet announced the source of career capital for the entire period of 2021 - 2025, so it is difficult to develop an implementation plan. Currently, there is no software to monitor, inspect and supervise, so the implementation of the contents according to Circular No. 01/2022/TT-UBDT dated May 26, 2022 of the Ethnic Committee; the indicators and data are very complicated and have not been guided or trained, so there are many difficulties in the implementation process.

Through emulation movements, many typical and progressive collectives and individuals have emerged, receiving Certificates of Merit from the Chairman of the District People's Committee.

Reporter: Based on the actual situation of the locality, what recommendations does Giong Rieng district have for leaders at all levels to remove obstacles and effectively implement the National Target Program 1719?

Mr. Huynh Van Thai Quynh : For the Central Government: At Point 2, Article 34 of Circular No. 02/2022/TT-UBDT dated June 30, 2022 of the Ethnic Committee "Funds to support maintenance and repair are only used for minor repairs, renovations, and regular maintenance to maintain normal operation of the project; not used for new construction, upgrading, or major repairs of the project"; the district recommends, considers, and amends in the direction of allowing the use of funds to support maintenance, repair, major repairs, and expansion upgrades to promote capital sources and serve the needs of the people.

For the province and district, we propose that the Provincial People's Committee, the Provincial Ethnic Committee and the provincial functional departments and branches consider allowing the district to transfer the career capital of Project 01 and Project 05 to implement Project 4: Repair and maintenance of roads and Project 06: Support for building and repairing Ngo boats for Khmer Theravada pagodas to preserve and promote the fine traditional cultural values ​​of ethnic minorities.

At the same time, it is recommended that the Ethnic Committee and the Provincial Department of Finance continue to organize training courses on the implementation of the Program and the payment and settlement of projects and sub-projects for accounting officials at the grassroots level to comply with regulations, because local officials are new to the program and are constantly changing.

Thank you very much!

Giong Rieng (Kien Giang): "Transformation" from promoting projects under the National Target Program 1719

Source: https://baodantoc.vn/pho-chu-tich-huyen-giong-rieng-huynh-van-thai-quynh-tiep-tuc-ra-soat-de-ho-tro-dau-tu-giai-quyet-nhu-cau-cap-thiet-ve-dan-sinh-trong-vung-dong-bao-dtts-1730895917696.htm