Nhan Dan – As of late May 2008, about 181,600 ethnic minority households with nearly 767,000 people in the whole country still suffered hunger. This is announced at a conference held in Hannoi on July 1 on deploying the Government's Decree 60/2008/NÐ-CP.

Accordingly, the state of suffering hunger in-between crop period is quite severe, especially in 58 ethnic minorities districts with poverty rate of over 50%.

The main reasons are natural calamities, epidemic diseases, higher agricultural materials prices and consumer price that affected the lives of the ethnic minorities people.

After a very damaging cold spell early this year, over 140,000 cattle and thousands of hectares of rice seeds died, causing a loss of estimated VND hundreds of billions.

The central and local relevant agencies have supported people in extreme difficulties in time, taken measures to control their nomadic way of life.

The local branches and organisations have supported around 23,000 tonnes of rice and VND 9.6 billion to eradicate hunger for the ethnic minorities people.

In addition, the Committee for Ethnic Minorities has given guidance to local authorities to implement the policy of giving farming lands, houses and clean water to the poor ethnic minorities people; giving loans to the ethnic minorities households in extreme difficulties to stabilize their lives and develop production.

At the conference, Giang Seo Phu, Minister, Chairman of Committee for Ethnic Minorities announced an Action Programme for Ethnic Minorities Work in the 2007 – 2010 term.