Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Ha Noi, Sept. 8 (VNA) -- Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh said that the Communist Party of Viet Nam has always considered the task of building national unity between all 54 ethnic groups in Viet Nam a crucial part of the Party's revolutionary cause.

Mr. Manh also lauded the great contributions made by all ethnic groups to Viet Nam's revolutionary cause as well as the services rendered by those who have worked to help ethnic minority groupings over the past decades.

Mr.Manh was addressing a meeting of representatives of all 54 ethnic groups and those who have worked for ethnic minorities across the country, held in Ha Noi today, Sept. 8, to celebrate the 55th founding anniversary of the Bureau of Ethnic Minorities, the predecessor of the present-day Committee for Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas (Sept. 9).

"Viet Nam is a country with many ethnic groups living together in unity as one national community," Manh said, stressing that "In the past resistance wars, many people of all ethnic minority groupings laid down their lives for the fatherland."

"The recent ninth national Party congress again affirmed that the issue of ethnicity in Viet Nam and national unity is of great importance to Viet Nam's revolutionary course," he recalled, adding that the congress also laid emphasis on the successful implementation of the Party's policy on ethnic groups on the basis of equality, unity, mutual assistance, and development.

The Party leader called for more efforts to build socio-economic infrastructure, develop a commodity economy, take care of both material and spiritual lives, reduce poverty, and preserve all cultural identities and traditions of all Vietnamese ethnic groups.

"Social equity among ethnic groups as well as between the lowland and highland regions must be boosted, while special attention must be given to developing struggling areas, particularly those that were bases during Viet Nam's revolution and resistance wars," Mr.Manh said.--VNA