Despite clean-water infrastructure that has been built over the years, hundreds of ethnic minority households in Nghe An and Quang Tri provinces still lack water for daily domestic use.

Finding a stable water source is the key factor to ensure that water supply projects, after investment, do not fall into “having water in the rainy season, lacking water in the dry season” in the Central Highlands region.

As tourism and economic development reshape Vietnam's northern highlands, researchers warn that sacred rituals and indigenous beliefs must not become mere commercial attractions, urging greater community control over cultural heritage.

From around October through April, the Dong Van Karst Plateau in Tuyen Quang Province enters its dry season. For people in many areas, this is also the time when they are haunted by the need to save every drop of water for daily use.

Thirteen Nung households in Lang Son are trying a different approach to tourism. 

In a quiet mountain village in central Vietnam, the rhythmic clatter of wooden looms tells a story of cultural survival, as ethnic Thai families bring their weaving heritage into community tourism.

Vietnam is preparing a new resolution on ethnic minority affairs, seeking to address persistent policy barriers and set development targets for 2035, with a longer-term vision to 2045.

High among the jagged limestone mountains of northern Vietnam, reservoirs perched more than 1,000 meters above sea level offer rare patches of blue-green water. 

Vietnam has officially linked its ethnic and religious databases to the National Data Center, turning fragmented records into standardized datasets designed for sharing and use across the country's digital infrastructure.

For generations of the Hre ethnic community in central Vietnam, the Ra ngoi mouth harp was more than an instrument: its melodies let young men and women court, converse and express feelings that words could not.

Vietnam has released an updated list of villages in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, including those classified as extremely disadvantaged, across 27 provinces and cities for the 2026-2030 period.

For Co Tu village elder A Lang Doi, preserving culture means more than performing on festival stages: it means ensuring children in his community can play the gongs, perform traditional dances and carry those traditions into the future.

Vietnam is seeking to strengthen data systems and policy coordination as it reviews two years of efforts to implement the UN convention against racial discrimination and improve protections for ethnic minorities.

Vietnam aims to have all teachers of ethnic minority languages meet national training standards by 2030, as the country works to address shortages of teachers, textbooks and learning materials. 

Ho Chi Minh City is using data, digital skills and new “digital destinations” to modernize governance while preserving the cultural heritage of its diverse ethnic and religious communities.

For ethnic minority communities, digital transformation offers an opportunity to bring cultural values from villages and communities to wider society.

At 84, Hoih Plat still spends months weaving a single rattan tray in Vietnam’s Da Nang. Orders keep coming, but his greatest concern is finding someone to carry on the Co Tu craft.

Vietnamese priests and religious in the Vatican and Italy can serve as cultural and peace ambassadors, helping international communities better understand Vietnam, a government minister said during a visit to Rome.

1. For Thang Ga Lo and Vang Thi Mai, university meant leaving a remote La Hu community for Hanoi and navigating challenges they had never faced before. They finished four years later as joint top graduates.