Vietnam: State policies pay off in ethnic areas.

Section: General News - Progress has been made in putting into action policies for ethnic minority groups since a Party resolution on ethnic affairs was adopted five years ago, said Ha Thi Khiet, a Party Secretary.

At a national conference in Hanoi on July 29, Ms Khiet, who is also chairwoman of the Party Commission for Mass Mobilisation, said that a basic infrastructure has gradually been built up in mountainous and ethnic-inhabited areas, thereby facilitating economic development and meeting the local people's basic requirements for business and everyday life.

She said the major socio-economic development programmes have proven effective in disadvantaged areas, …