Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang admitted his shortcomings before the National Assembly and ethnic people because the national target program for socio-economic development in this region was not implemented as required.
On the morning of June 7, Minister and Chairman of the Ethnic Committee Hau A Lenh had an additional hour to answer questions from National Assembly deputies. Participating in explaining more about the content of deputies' concerns, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang frankly accepted responsibility and raised many concerns.
"As the person assigned to command and organize the implementation of three national target programs, I would like to admit my shortcomings before the National Assembly, especially to the people in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, because the national target program for socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas and the two remaining programs have not been implemented as required, or simply put, very slowly," said the Deputy Prime Minister.
Mr. Quang stated that as of May 31, the capital for 2022 for this program only reached 58.49% of the development investment capital. The capital for 2023 alone only reached 17%. Phase one of the program has only 2.5 years left to implement. Many areas, many ethnic minorities, beneficiaries of this program are living in the country's border areas, trying to endure many difficulties to keep every inch of the sacred land of the Fatherland, "so we realize that our responsibility is very heavy".
Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang. Photo: National Assembly Media
Since yesterday afternoon, many delegates have raised questions about overlapping policies and conflicting wording, but Mr. Quang said that is not very important, the important thing is how to resolve it so that the program can run and run quickly in the coming time.
One of the difficulties in implementing the program is that there are many documents. The three national target programs have up to 73 documents. The socio-economic development program for ethnic minority and mountainous areas alone is integrated from 118 policies, 10 projects, 22 sub-projects and 55 components, under the management of 23 central ministries. Therefore, overlapping and conflicting documents "are something that can be shared".
After requesting local reports, the Government recorded 339 questions at the grassroots level because they did not know how to do it properly. The ministries and branches then had 59 documents responding, resolving 261 questions, accounting for 70%. The remaining content is being resolved by amending regulations and adjusting some circulars, of which amending Decree 27 is the most difficult, striving to issue it before June 15.
"To be honest, I promised the Prime Minister and the National Assembly Chairman that this would be completed in the first quarter, but it took another 2.5 months to be able to report on the deadline," Mr. Quang said.
When he went to the locality, he found that only 44% of the central capital had been disbursed, but nearly 99% of the local counterpart capital. This shows that if the problem is under local authority, it can be resolved very quickly, but with the regulations on using central capital, it is "very complicated". The Deputy Prime Minister said that he will make efforts to complete some regulations, with the goal that the program can disburse capital as planned.
Moreover, not all localities are interested in this program. Reality shows that wherever there is interest, it is implemented. Up to now, there are still 6 localities that owe guidance under their authority. The level of staff directly implementing the program is also a concern for Mr. Quang because they are in remote areas, have many limitations, while the procedures are complicated, leading to errors.
The Deputy Prime Minister said that through a survey, this program and three national target programs, the projects implemented in many places are very fragmented and spread out. Resources are not much but local officials see that everywhere is difficult, so "each person enjoys a little bit of the fragrance" to be happy together. There is a locality that receives 200 billion VND but has up to 400 projects, each project costs 500 million VND. In mountainous areas, it is difficult to promote the value of such infrastructure projects.
In addition, the large number of applications makes it take localities several months to a year to process. "Honestly, with such a level of staff, the risk is very high, we may even lose staff," said Mr. Quang, adding that he will step up decentralization to localities so that they can do what they think is best.
Trillions of dong not only spent on conferences
Previously, Minister Hau A Lenh spent a lot of time answering the debate of delegate Vu Thi Luu Mai (Deputy Chairwoman of the Finance and Budget Committee). Yesterday afternoon, delegate Mai said that the use of capital for the National Target Program for the Development of Ethnic Minority Areas was not stable when, in addition to very low disbursement (only reaching 4,600 billion VND, 51%), a large part was disbursed for seminars and training.
Ms. Mai cited that the gender equality workshop cost 64 billion VND, marriage counseling cost 102 billion VND, and workshop inspection cost 88 billion VND; but building a grassroots network only cost 38 billion VND. "I would like to ask the Minister to let me know if this is reasonable or not?", Ms. Mai asked.
Minister, Chairman of the Ethnic Committee Hau A Lenh. Photo: National Assembly Media
Explaining this morning, Mr. Hau A Lenh said that the project of the Vietnam Women's Union, to implement gender equality, solve urgent problems for women and children to raise awareness, change prejudices, was allocated 2,382 billion VND. This amount of money is used to carry out many contents such as training, propaganda, and communication.
Based on the budget and tasks, the Women's Union has focused on communication and training in the first phase. Other activities will be organized in the next phase. "This is the capital of the Women's Union at all levels, not just at the central level," said Mr. Lenh, adding that these activities are not against the law.
He said that Resolution 120 of the National Assembly sets the goal of focusing priority resources on localities. The socio-economic development program for ethnic minority and mountainous areas has designed 10 projects, decentralizing management authority to localities. The Central Government will issue guiding documents and inspect, supervise and handle difficulties.
During this period, the National Assembly has allocated VND104,000 billion, including VND50,000 billion in public investment capital and VND54,000 billion in public service capital. Public service capital is mainly used to solve direct support policies for people who benefit from policies from the 2016-2020 period that are still in effect. "This is a characteristic of this program, not unreasonable," he said.
Regarding the system of documents, in the 2022 period, ministries and branches will basically issue documents according to the authority assigned by the Government. However, Mr. Lenh admitted that the problem that has arisen is that the documents between ministries and branches stipulating standards, norms, and specialized regulations are still contradictory and overlapping. Typically, the circulars of the Ministry of Finance and the Ethnic Committee have inconsistent content "not that they are not in accordance with legal regulations". This is being reviewed for amendment.
Also concerned about the issuance of many documents and policies on economic development in ethnic minority areas, delegate Dang Thi Bich Ngoc (Permanent Vice President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front of Hoa Binh province) said that many contents and documents are still overlapping, contradictory and scattered. "I request the Minister to clarify what difficulties this situation causes and upcoming solutions," she asked.
Delegate Dang Thi Bich Ngoc. Photo: National Assembly Media
According to Minister Hau A Lenh, each document has the function of serving the management work for the specialized field. Therefore, the diverse system of documents in different sectors and fields is a completely objective cause. However, the system of documents is relatively synchronous, there is not much overlap and no policies or documents that violate regulations have been detected.
During the Government's review, the Committee will propose amendments and integration of policies. "Integrate what is appropriate, and implement what has its own regulations according to specialized laws," he said.
There is no strong policy to attract businesses to invest in ethnic minority areas.
Yesterday afternoon, delegate Phan Thai Binh said that the report of the Ethnic Committee stated that some localities have not yet promoted their strengths to attract investment resources for ethnic minority and mountainous areas. However, he realized that the issue of investment and attracting investment in essential infrastructure, including transport infrastructure to attract investment enterprises and create jobs for local people is facing many difficulties.
The delegates asked the Minister to let them know what solutions are available in the coming time to attract business investment in this region and create jobs for ethnic minority people.
Delegate Phan Thai Binh. Photo: National Assembly Media
Answering this question in the question-and-answer session this morning, Minister Hau A Lenh said that to attract investment, both local and central policies are needed. Central policies include laws and regulations that serve as a basis for localities to develop specific policies from the Land Law, Enterprise Law, and Investment Law. After that, localities will specify them to suit local conditions.
"Thus, there needs to be a unified policy system from the central to local levels to attract investment. However, ethnic minority areas are still facing difficulties, so there are not yet strong enough policies," Mr. Lenh said, hoping that in the coming time, many businesses will be attracted to invest here.
Regarding the proposal for a specific mechanism to develop livelihoods under the forest canopy, Mr. Lenh said that this issue is under the authority of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The Ministry is developing a project to promote the diverse values of the forest ecosystem, including the cultivation of medicinal herbs under the forest canopy and other livelihoods.
Delegate Trinh Thi Tu Anh said that in reality, with the current policy of streamlining the payroll and apparatus, it is very difficult to arrange jobs for people trained according to Circular No. 02 of the Ethnic Committee. She asked the Minister to share his views on this issue and solutions for effectively using trained human resources?
Minister Hau A Lenh said that the policy of arranging ethnic minority cadres in the political system has received attention from localities and ministries. Ethnic minority cadres are given priority in job placement after completing their studies. The Politburo also concluded that there should be a specific policy for recruiting civil servants and officials from ethnic minorities, especially ethnic minority groups, which still face many difficulties.
"The Government has assigned the Ministry of Home Affairs to develop documents to implement this policy, to have a specific policy for recruiting ethnic minorities," said Mr. Lenh.
Delegate Trinh Thi Tu Anh. Photo: National Assembly Media
The question-and-answer session with Minister Hau A Lenh from yesterday afternoon to this morning had 62 registered delegates, of which 28 raised questions and 7 debated; 27 registered but were not asked questions because time ran out.
National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue assessed that the Minister, Chairman of the Ethnic Committee, was answering questions for the first time but was very calm, confident, well-prepared, had a basic grasp of the issues, was close to reality, and focused on answering the questions of the delegates. The Minister also gave a fairly complete explanation, and at the same time proposed directions and some solutions to overcome shortcomings in the field of responsibility.
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