Foreign NGOs pledged to carry out 261 charity programmes and development projects with a total budget of over 200 million USD in the next three years in mountainous and ethnic minority areas at a conference on December 8.

Meanwhile, the military-run telecom group Viettel and Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank) promised to provide 10.2 trillion VND (480 million USD) for the regions’ socio-economic development in 2015.

The conference was co-organised by the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs and the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisation (VUFO) with the aim of promoting investment and development aid for the disadvantaged regions.

Over 200 delegates from government agencies, economic sectors, foreign diplomatic missions, international organisations and foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) attended the event.

The participants contributed recommendations to the directions and ways to implement a project on enhancing international cooperation in support of socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous regions and the national programme to mobilise assistance from foreign NGOs in the period from 2013 to 2017.

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc thanked countries and international organisations for their spiritual, physical and technical assistance to Vietnam and expressed his hope to receive more help for the country’s sustainable poverty reduction programmes in ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

VNA/VNN