Hanoi (VNA) - Legislators gave opinions on June 12 on the draftsocio-economic development programme for ethnic minority-inhabited and mountainous areasin the 2021-2030 period, identifying the need to initially allocate funding topriorities.

It was part of the ongoing ninth session of the 14th NationalAssembly in Hanoi.

Hoang Thi Thu Trang, a deputy from north-central Nghe An province, saidthe Government estimated the budget for the programme implementation in 2021-2025at 114.97 trillion VND (over 4.9 billion USD), including at least 104.95trillion VND from the central budget and more than 10 trillion VND from budgets of the targted provinces and cities.

She noted that funding from the central budget is already difficult but itis even harder for localities to arrange corresponding capital because most beneficiaryprovinces are poor and still subsidised by the central budget.

To ensure the implementation of the programme and prevent wastefulness, it isnecessary to select several key and urgent projects to carry out first, Trang said,suggesting that instead of concurrently implementing ten projects as proposedin the draft programme, focus should be paid to certain projects in the initialphase, such as those providing residential land, farming land, and drinkingwater for the people, re-arranging population distribution, and developingproduction, infrastructure, and education.

Echoing this view, Nguyen Huu Toan, representing the northernmountainous province of Lai Chau, asked the Government to list projectsaccording to their levels of priority.

He held that, in the first phase, efforts should concentrate on fundamentalissues such as education and training, dealing with the shortage of land forproduction activities, boosting development in ethnic minorities with thesmallest populations and those facing greater hardships, helping targetedcommunities settle down, developing infrastructure, and improving local livelihoods.

For other issues, the programme can provide less funding or integratethem into the national target programmes on new-style rural area building andsustainable poverty reduction, he added.

Toan noted that in the Government’s proposal, the programme will need atleast 137.66 trillion VND in the 2021-2025 period, of which 105 trillion VND,or 76 percent, will be sourced from the central budget. Other sources offunding are relatively modest, at about 3 trillion VND, or 2 percent.

Given this, he also called for more policies to be adopted to attract theparticipation of the public and businesses in the task./.