Festivities mark Daklak's 25th liberation day

A grand meeting was held on March 10, in Buon Ma Thuot township of Daklak central highlands province to celebrate its 25th liberation day. A parade by 5,000 people began shortly after the dawn with 25 trained elephants pulling artillery pieces, one method of delivering supplies to troop during the war. A parade of hundreds uniformed soldiers was stepping in patriotic music. More than 10,000 people lined the street in bright sunshine to watch the parades. Today they will watch firework first time in province. A lot of singing and dancing of ethnicities in province are performed. A very exiting mood is prevailing in the area.

In his opening speech, Secretary of the provincial Party Committee Nguyen Anh Vinh recalled that on March 10, 1975, the armed forces and people of Daklak launched the fight to liberate the township, beginning the military campaign to liberate the Central Highlands, thus contributing to accelerating the liberation of South Viet Nam and national reunification.

Buon Ma Thuot and surrounding Daklak province have undergone a transformation since the end of the war. The province is home to nomadic ethnic minority people who live mainly by slash-and-burn agriculture. However, they have expanded wet rice cultivation to 25,500 ha for the summer-autumn crop and 15,000 ha for the winter-spring crop from just 200 ha in 1975. The province now has medium irrigation projects, capable of supplying water for more than 100,000 ha of cultivated land.

From 1975 to 1999, the province expanded the area of coffee cultivation to 174,000 ha with an output of 260,000 tonnes from 6,000 ha and an output of 2,000 tonnes. During the same period, it has expanded the area of rubber to 27,000 ha, or five times more than 1975, with an output of nearly 10,000 tonnes of dried latex.

Additionally, Daklak has grown 9,300 ha of sugarcane with an output of 430,000 tonnes, and 10,140 ha of cotton trees with an output of 12,000 tonnes of cotton.

In the area of education, Daklak now has 766 schools with nearly 570,000 pupils and students. The province met the national standards for universal primary education and literacy eradication in 1999.

At present, the local people are actively participating in a patriotic emulation movement to fulfill the socio-economic tasks for 2000 and the following years with the aim of building a rich and beautiful province.

Politburo sends Liberation day message

The Politburo sent a message to cadres, people, soldiers, revolutionary veterans, war invalids, sick soldiers, families of fallen combatants and families who have made contributions to the revolution, with warm congratulations and best regards to mark the 25th anniversary of the south