Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Ha Noi, Mar. 29 (VNA) -- Viet Nam's hunger eradication and poverty reduction programme has been implemented in all communes and wards of the Central Highlands Gia Lai province, said Ha Son Nhin, Deputy Chairman of Gia Lai's People's Committee during an interview with the newspaper Quan Doi Nhan Dan.

Nhin said that although programme had helped to decrease Gia Lai province's poor household rate from 35 percent in 1995 to 22.4 percent in 2001, work still needed to be done on narrowing the gap between the province's wealthy and poor areas.

Gia Lai province covers more than 1.5 ha and has a population of more than 1 million people belonging to 34 ethnic minority groups. Seventy-seven communes in the province have been ranked as facing special difficulties.

The provincial Party Committee and authorities have well implemented the Party and State's incentive policies on developing mountainous areas and improving the living conditions of ethnic minority people.

The poverty reduction programme, by 2000, had provided about 21,000 households in the province with loans totalling VND 39.8 billion (USD 2.84 million), Nhin noted, adding that the programme also focused investment on infrastructural projects.

Nhin said the province has assisted farmers by providing them with a variety of crops, sapplings, young animals, and fertilisers, it has also made efforts to teach residents new farming techniques. The province supplies free-of-charge kerosene and clothes to people in communes not having access to electricity, and subsidises the payment of electricity for lighting in other communes. It has annually used local budgets to repair and build houses for about 3,000 families. As many as 1,800 ethnic minority families have been granted 30 roofing sheets each.

In addition to a scholarship programme provided by the State, each student in boarding schools for ethnic minority people has also been provided with VND 30,000 per month. The province has opened many semi-boarding schools for ethnic minority students and granted VND 45,000 to each student at these schools.

The province has also compiled Viet-Jai and Viet-Bahnar bilingual textbooks for primary schools.

Nhin said that thanks to these efforts, the number of ethnic minority students has increased every year, with the number of students per every 10,000 people in the province increasing from 1,700 in 1995 to 1,920 in 2000.

He noted that communual medical stations have been well equipped and that the ethnic minority people have been granted health insurance and given free-of-charge medical services, with the province paying for the meals of ethnic minority patients.

Regarding the policy on developing a contingent of ethnic minority cadres, the province has, since 1999, annually trained 100 ethnic minority cadres for commues and districts. It has also given priorities and allowances to public employees and cadres in communes with difficulties. At present, 15 percent of State employees and more than 9,000 workhands in State farms and plantations in Gia Lai are ethnic minority people.

About the fact that a number of ethnic minority people were deceived by malefactors into illegally crossing the border to Cambodia, Nhin affirmed that the illegal departure is violating the law.

He went on: "However the law violation was the result of their credulity-mindedness, therefore, we don't see these people as having committed an offence. The province has sent a delegation to Cambodia to provide food and medicine for the Vietnamese ethnic minority people who are temporarity living there. The province will continue to send delegations to Cambodia to deliver relief to these people."

He said the living conditions of the Vietnamese ethnic minority people in these temporary camps in Cambodia are horrendous and that their homeland is always ready to welcome them home and provide them with foods, medical care, and loans so that they can develop production. -VNA