National Target Program 1719 phase 1 has removed capital and land barriers for ethnic minorities.
Removing "bottlenecks" in capital for policy implementation
Before the 14th National Assembly passed Resolution No. 120/2020/QH14 dated June 19, 2020 approving the investment policy of the National Target Program on Socio -Economic Development in Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas for the 2021-2030 period, there were 118 policies still in effect in the "poor core" areas of the country.
Of these, there are 54 direct policies for ethnic minorities, ethnic minority and mountainous areas, and 64 general policies with priority for ethnic minorities. In addition to the direct impact policies, there are also 21 target programs with indirect content affecting ethnic minority and mountainous areas.
Despite the large number, the vast majority of investment policies and support for socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas before 2020 have not achieved their set goals. One of the main reasons is the lack of separate capital to implement the policies.
When explaining to the 14th National Assembly on August 30, 2019 about the implementation of ethnic policies, Minister and Chairman of the Ethnic Minorities Committee Do Van Chien (currently Chairman of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front) expressed: "Most ethnic minorities are poor, and live in extremely difficult areas, in poor communes, poor districts, and poor provinces. If we keep avoiding capital and money, it cannot be done."
During the discussion of the Master Plan and National Target Program for Socio-Economic Development in Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas for the 2021-2030 period, many deputies of the 14th National Assembly requested competent authorities to review and balance resources to allocate sufficient capital to implement the policy; to avoid the situation where ethnic policies in the coming period are once again likened to "a beautiful fruit that cannot be eaten".
The delegation of the Central Coordination Office of the National Target Program 1719 inspected the durian tree support model for ethnic minority households in Ya Ly commune, Quang Ngai province - Photo: Ngoc Chi
The "bottleneck" in capital for implementing ethnic policies has been removed in Resolution No. 120/2020/QH14 dated June 19, 2020 of the 14th National Assembly approving the investment policy for the National Target Program on Socio-Economic Development in Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas for the 2021-2030 period. Accordingly, in Phase I (2021-2025), the National Assembly resolved to allocate at least VND 137,664 billion from medium-term public investment capital to implement the Program.
Pursuant to the National Assembly's resolution, on October 14, 2021, the Prime Minister approved the National Target Program on Socio-Economic Development in Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas for the 2021-2030 period; Phase I: 2021-2025 in Decision No. 1719/QD-TTg (National Target Program 1719). The total capital to implement 10 component projects in Phase I is determined to be VND 137,664,959 billion; of which the Central budget is VND 104,954,011 billion.
In the context of the country's economic difficulties, especially under the severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government is still interested in allocating resources to implement the National Target Program 1719. According to the report of the Ministry of Ethnic Minorities and Religions, as of May 31, 2025, the total capital allocated by the Central Government to implement the Program was VND 89,728,430 billion, reaching 85.5% of the capital plan; of which VND 49,163,505 billion was development investment capital (reaching 98.3% of the approved capital plan) and VND 40,564,925 billion was public service capital (reaching 75% of the approved capital plan).
One of the hallmarks of removing the "bottleneck" in capital for policy implementation in the National Target Program 1719 is that implementation resources are allocated in detail for each project, sub-project and component policy content. Thanks to that, the assessment of policy impacts is "inventoryed" specifically and transparently, which was a limitation in the implementation of ethnic policies in the past.
For example, the policy of supporting residential land, production land and domestic water for ethnic minorities, before the National Target Program 1719, this policy was stipulated in many Decisions of the Prime Minister (Decision No. 134/2004/QD-TTg; Decision No. 755/QD-TTg, Decision No. 2085/QD-TTg, ...). However, after many years of implementation, the shortage of residential land, production land and domestic water for ethnic minorities nationwide tends to increase. In addition to the lack of capital for implementation, the statistics and assessments are not specific, there are overlaps and duplications.
After being integrated into Project 1 of the National Target Program 1719, the policy of supporting residential land, production land and domestic water for ethnic minorities has been specifically "inventoryed" and unified. According to the report of the Ministry of Ethnic Minorities and Religions, implementing Project 1, up to now, the whole country has supported residential land for 10,549 households; supported housing for 42,567 households, directly supported production land for 13,387 households; supported job conversion for 54,899 households; supported decentralized domestic water for 479,358 households; invested in the construction of 809 centralized domestic water works...
Dong Giang Commune Cultural House, Da Nang City, invested from National Target Program 1719 - Photo: Huy Truong
Deploy and remove obstacles at the same time
Identifying the National Target Program 1719 as a breakthrough solution to eliminate the "core poverty" of the whole country, to "leave no one behind", central ministries and localities have made efforts to disburse capital for projects and sub-projects. Thanks to that, in the period of 2022-2024, the disbursement results of the National Target Program 1719 will be higher each year than the previous year.
According to the report of the Ministry of Ethnic Minorities and Religions, if in 2022, the disbursement of public investment capital from the central budget to implement the Program reached about 25.6% of the plan, then in 2023 and 2024 it will reach 82% and 83% of the plan, respectively. Calculated according to the absolute capital ratio in the 03 National Target Programs for the period 2021-2025, the disbursement of public investment capital to implement the National Target Program 1719 is nearly 1.03 times higher than the total capital of both National Target Programs in the same period.
In the first months of 2025, ministries, central and local agencies focused mainly on the work of perfecting, rearranging, and reorganizing administrative units at all levels and building a 2-level local government organization model, which affected the organization, implementation progress, and capital disbursement of the Program in localities. However, the disbursement progress of the National Target Program 1719 still achieved positive results.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the estimated disbursement of public investment capital (including capital transferred from previous years to 2025) by June 30, 2025 of the National Target Program 1719 reached about VND 5,331,803 billion, equal to 36% of the plan. The disbursement of public investment capital from the central budget (including funds from previous years transferred to 2025) by May 31, 2025 was VND 2,302,233 billion, reaching 13.5% of the plan.
New look in the highlands of Quang Ngai - Photo: Ngoc Chi
The results of the implementation of the National Target Program 1719 up to this point can be considered a crystallization of great efforts and determination of the entire political system at all levels. In fact, during the implementation of the Program, many problems arose, affecting the progress of implementation.
The implementation period of the National Target Program 1719 Phase I is determined to be 5 years (2021-2025). However, the allocation and allocation of capital will not be completed until mid-2022. This means that the actual implementation time of Phase I by ministries, branches and localities is only about 3.5 years.
The reason for the slow implementation is that the National Target Program 1719 was approved on October 14, 2021, Decision No. 39/2021/QD-TTg stipulating the principles, criteria, and norms for allocating central budget funds and the proportion of local budget counterpart funds to implement the National Target Program 1719 was issued on December 30, 2021. Therefore, the competent authority has no basis to arrange the budget estimate to implement the National Target Program 1719 in 2021.
According to the assessment of the Ministry of Ethnic Minorities and Religions, one of the biggest difficulties in implementing the National Target Program 1719 is that this is the first National Target Program for ethnic minorities, with the principle of concentrated investment, prioritizing "core poor" areas; has broad content, large scale, related to many fields; experience from previous stages is almost non-existent.
Therefore, the National Target Program 1719 is operated with the motto: Implementing and removing arising obstacles to provide practical experience. This is clearly demonstrated in the number of documents issued by all levels and sectors to implement the Program.
New look in the highlands of Quang Ngai - Photo: Ngoc Chi
Data from the Ministry of Ethnic Minorities and Religions in the document serving the National Conference summarizing Phase I of the National Target Program 1719 to be held tomorrow, July 12, shows that up to now, 89 documents have been drafted, issued/submitted for issuance by the Government, the Prime Minister, and ministries and branches assigned to preside over the development and issuance to implement Resolution No. 120/2020/QH14 of the National Assembly.
In terms of content, there are 19 documents regulating the work of organization, management and direction; there are 70 documents regulating the policy mechanism, guiding the implementation of the Program (including 02 Resolutions of the National Assembly; 04 Decrees of the Government; 15 Decisions of the Prime Minister; 49 documents regulating and guiding the implementation of the Program issued under the authority of the Minister, Head of the ministerial-level agency).
However, in the process of implementing regulations and guidance documents, many localities are still confused; some contents of the National Target Program 1719 still encounter difficulties related to regulations and guidance on policy mechanisms; beneficiaries of some investment support policies from the Program tend to narrow (the rate of poor households decreases according to the roadmap for communes to achieve new rural areas);... In particular, the spirit of "dare to think, dare to do" at the grassroots level has not been fully promoted to speed up the implementation of the National Target Program 1719.
In that context, the Government has developed and submitted to the National Assembly for promulgation Resolution No. 111/2024/QH15 on a number of specific mechanisms and policies for implementing the National Target Programs. The Resolution has created a breakthrough in handling and removing difficulties and obstacles related to decentralization and delegation of authority, and created favorable conditions for localities to accelerate the implementation and disbursement of capital for the National Target Programs, especially the National Target Program 1719.
The obstacles and problems in the implementation process need to be thoroughly analyzed by ministries, branches and localities at the National Conference to summarize the first phase of the National Target Program 1719 scheduled to be held on July 12, from which to draw experiences for implementation in the 2026-2030 period. In fact, although many urgent problems in ethnic minority and mountainous areas have been basically resolved, this is still the "core poor" area of the whole country.
From the beginning of December 2023 to the end of June 2025, the Government and the Prime Minister have directed ministries and central agencies to complete and promulgate, under their authority/submit for promulgation, 23 documents regulating policy mechanisms and guidelines for the implementation of the National Target Program 1719; including: 2 Resolutions of the National Assembly; 1 Decree of the Government; 4 Decisions of the Prime Minister; 17 documents of ministries and central agencies to supplement and amend the framework policy mechanism and guidelines for the implementation of the Program to remove difficulties and obstacles for missing or inappropriate content, strengthen decentralization, decentralization, simplify administrative procedures, invest and use capital with focus, key points, not spread out or prolonged.
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Son Hao
Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/xoa-loi-ngheo-vung-dong-bao-dtts-va-mien-nui-bai-2-no-luc-lon-quyet-tam-cao-102250710233608886.htm
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