Bac Kan (VNA) – Prime Minister NguyenXuan Phuc asked the northern mountainous province of Bac Kan to launch awidespread poverty reduction campaign and consider this a political task.

At a working session with the Standing Board of the provincial Party Committeein Bac Kan on November 19, the PM pointed out that the province’smulti-dimensional poverty rate stands at 26 percent, which still remains highas compared with the national average.

Attention should be paid to forestation, husbandry and medicinal plantcultivation in order to spur growth and raise locals’ living standards, hesaid.

The leader noted that the first task is to review the province’s socio-economictargets in 2017, striving to complete major objectives, especially growth andbudget collection targets. The long-term task is to select outstanding productsfor mass production.

PM Phuc gave a nod to the locality to open the Cho Moi (Moi market) – Bac Kanexpressway and assigned the Ministry of Transport to submit the project to theleader for approval.

He requested Bac Kan and relevant ministries to work on measures to fully taptourism potential of Ba Be lake.

The same day, the PM joined local residents of Tan Thanh hamlet, Bac Kan city’sNong Thuong commune, in the great national unity festival, an annual event heldnationwide to mark the founding anniversary of the Vietnam Fatherland Front(November 18, 1930).

He took note of attainments of the Party Committee and authorities of Bac Kanprovince, Bac Kan city and Tan Thanh commune, while hoping for locals’ moreefforts for their locality’s development.

He highlighted the important role of the Vietnam Fatherland Front at all levelsin gathering people in implementing the Party and State’s policies, the new rural-stylearea building programme, and caring needy people.

Bac Kan is home to seven ethnic groups of Tay, Nung, Kinh, Dao, Mong, Hoa andSan Chay, with ethnic minorities accounting for more than 80 percent of its population.

The province’s state budget collection in the first ten months of this year wasestimated at 560 billion VND (24.64 million USD), fulfilling 94 percent of theset target.

Its gross regional domestic product (GRDP) per capita in 2017 was around 26million VND, up 1.2 million VND against 2016.-VNA