The Central Highlands provinces have provided financial assistance and language training, and allocated land to local ethnic minority households in a bid to improve their living conditions. By 2013, as many as 231 households in Krong Nang district, Dak Lak province, which is home to more than 15,000 ethnic minority residents, were given 200ha of farmland and residential land. Vice Chairman of the district’s People’s Committee, Nguyen Ky, said the move helped stabilize residents’ lives, increasing their incomes and reducing the local poverty rate to 10.37 percent in 2013. In addition, local residents also received financial assistance and technical guidance on cultivation, husbandry and forest protection. Since 2002, the Central Highlands provinces of Gia Lai, Kon Tum, Dak Lak, Dak Nong and Lam Dong have allocated over 30,000ha of land to nearly 80,000 ethnic minority households. Meanwhile, Kon Tum province has implemented measures to preserve spoken and written ethnic minority languages. The Central Highlands are home to 6.5 million people, with ethnic minorities accounting for 45 percent of the region’s population, including the Bahnar, Jrai, Ede, and Sedang ethnic groups. Kon Tum, Gia Lai and Dak Lak provinces have added Bahnar, Jrai and Ede languages to their primary and high school curricula. The Central Highlands provinces also worked with ministries and research institutions to publish Ede-Vietnamese and Bahnar-Vietnamese dictionaries and bilingual books that were distributed to local communities. (vietnamplus.vn Nov 1)
