Party Chief Nong Duc Manh has urged to strengthen the national unity in a bid to fulfill the socioeconomic targets set for 2010 and annul any plots by hostile forces, state media reported. Manh made his call at a meeting on ethnic minorities in Hanoi, the first of its kind, with the participation of 1,702 delegates from 54 groups nationwide. The general secretary urged the government to focus its policy on ethnic groups to ensure equal treatment and he called for a great unity against outside hostile forces. Meanwhile, the chairman of the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs (CEMA) noted that the country will focus on improving intellectual standards of ethnic people who account for 14.5% of total population. The country has poured more than VND3.7 trillion into infrastructure projects in the ethnic communities during 2006-2010, the chairman said. However, the CEMA’s statistics showed that up to 26.7% of ethnic people are living below poverty line and about 40% of ethnic children under five years old have not got access to education. Local media reported that the ethnic communities are facing hunger, illiteracy, unsound customs and child marriage, particularly social discrimination. In March, the Vietnamese Institute for Studies of Society, Economy and Environment (iSEE) did a research funded by the U.K.’s Oxfarm on this issue to ensure the ethnic minorities’ rights.
