Mong women in Phu Son commune of Quan Hoa district, Thanh Hoa province, work on brocades. Local have developed crafts and cultivated high-value crops to improve income. (Photo: VNA)

Thanh Hoa – Home to over 19,500 Mong ethnic people, the central province of Thanh Hoa has carried out a number of socio-economic development programmes and projects to give a facelift to areas where they live.

Che Lau, over 10km from the centre of Na Meo commune of Quan Son district, is currently home to 65 households with 300 Mong people. It used to be a particularly disadvantaged village isolated from other localities due to its remote location and poor road conditions.

In 2020, under the Government’s Programme 30a on supporting fast and sustainable poverty reduction in poor districts, the People’s Committee of Quan Son district built a 5.1km road from Son village to Che Lau. Two years later, it sped up the construction of a road within Che Lau and another in Mua Xuan village of Son Thuy commune. The roads have been completed to facilitate locals' travelling.

In 2021, a pilot bamboo planting project covering 170ha was launched in Che Lau and has generated positive results so far. Under a sow farming project launched last year, 40 local households were provided with nearly 200 million VND (8,100 USD) in total financial assistance to participate in the farming. Thanks to such projects, per capita income has reached 28 million VND per year.

Thao Van Lau, Secretary of the Party cell and head of Che Lau village, said that from a village of “four no’s” (no electricity, no roads, no schools, and no clinics), the life of local residents has improved gradually.

Secretary of the Party Committee of Na Meo commune Pham Duc Luong noted Che Lau is the first Mong ethnic village in Quan Son district to be recognised as the “village of culture”. Many households here have earned hundreds of millions of VND in annual income from animal farming.

Communal authorities have encouraged people to cultivate two crops of wet rice each year to guarantee food supply, he said, adding that Che Lau is expected to become a new-style rural village by 2025.

In Phu Son commune of Quan Hoa district, Suoi Ton village was almost inaccessible about 10 years ago, but now people can reach this rural area through a concrete road.

Over the last 10 years, thanks to the provincial administration’s strong investment, the active engagement of district and communal authorities and the efforts of local residents, Suoi Ton has gradually gained a facelift. The roads to and within this village have been paved, infrastructure increasingly upgraded, while the site for preschool and primary education well-built to meet local educational demand.

In the past, locals earned their living only from small-scale crop and animal farming. At present, the cultivation of wet rice and high-value crops has been promoted, resulting in higher economic value.

A number of houses are being repaired and built here. In 2022, three houses were constructed under the programme on building houses for the underprivileged of the provincial Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee. This year, 16 more houses have been repaired or built thanks to the funding for the poor in particularly disadvantaged areas.

Nguyen Tuan Anh, Secretary of the Phu Son communal Party Committee, said that authorities have promoted mass mobilisation activities, especially in Suoi Ton village. Thanks to increased communications, locals have complied with the Party's guidelines and the State's policies and laws, and adopted civilised practices in their funeral and wedding customs.

With 1.5% of its population being Mong people, Thanh Hoa has fruitfully implemented many of the State’s programmes and policies for ethnic minorities, including the national target programme on socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas for 2021 - 2025. Besides, it has also issued a number of specific plans and policies such as those aiding the development of Mong people-inhabited areas.

As a result, a number of households in Mong ethnic villages across the province have enjoyed a better quality of material and spiritual life.