Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has asked the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang to focus on reducing poverty among ethnic minorities by facilitating farming and production.
At a recent working session with local officials in Hanoi, Dung suggested that they combine agricultural restructuring with the building of new-style rural areas, and pay more attention to the application of science and technology in agriculture in order to increase productivity.
The province was also urged to roll out suitable investment policies for rural areas including those that encourage development of the processing industry for agricultural and marine products. The officials told the PM that in the first half of this year, Soc Trang, home to the largest number of Khmer ethnic minority people in the Mekong Delta, had grown by 11.9%.
The province has formed 163 large-scale rice fields with the participation of nearly 15,000 households, according to the officials. During the first six months, its seafood output was 49,000 tons, that of rice, 1.5 million tons, while industrial production value amounted to nearly VND4.3 trillion ($202 million). However, the rate of poor households remains high in the province at nearly 17%. (Vietnam News Jun 21)
