On July 10, the inspection team of the Ministry of Ethnic Minorities and Religions led by Deputy Minister Y Thong worked with the Thanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee to inspect and evaluate the implementation of the 2026 National Target Program (MTQG) in the area.
According to the report at the working session, Thanh Hoa's GRDP in the first quarter of 2026 is estimated to increase by 9.14%, ranking 12th in the country and 2nd in the North Central region. However, the province still faces many difficulties due to the large number of ethnic minorities living in mountainous areas.
By the end of 2025, the poverty rate in ethnic minority and mountainous areas is 3.81%, near-poverty is 10.92%; the poverty rate among ethnic minorities is 5.1%, near-poverty is 14.3%.
To implement the National Target Program for the period 2026 - 2030, Thanh Hoa has issued plans, developed capital allocation plans and allocated more than 254 billion VND of counterpart capital in the medium-term public investment plan.
In the period 2026 - 2027, the province proposes to implement 301 urgent projects with a total capital demand of more than 990.2 billion VND, including 150 centralized domestic water projects, 24 scattered domestic water projects, 121 domestic electricity projects and 6 other infrastructure projects to meet the essential needs of ethnic minorities and mountainous areas.
Vice Chairman of Thanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee Cao Van Cuong said that the locality still faces many difficulties, especially in border communes when transportation, electricity, and water infrastructure are not synchronized, many dams and underpasses are unsafe during the rainy and flood season. Meanwhile, the capital plan for 2026 has not been allocated, and the proportion of counterpart capital is still high.
The province proposed that the Ministry of Ethnic Minorities and Religious Affairs advise the Government to soon assign the capital plan for 2026, and at the same time consider reducing the proportion of counterpart capital and supplementing resources to invest in electricity and domestic water projects for ethnic minority and mountainous areas.
Concluding the working session, Deputy Minister of Ethnic Minority Affairs and Religious Affairs Y Thong acknowledged and highly appreciated the results Thanh Hoa province achieved in implementing the 1719th National Target Program and the preparation for the implementation of Component II of the 2026-2030 National Target Program.
The Deputy Minister requested localities to continue reviewing the remaining limitations, standardize data after arranging administrative units, correctly identify priority investment subjects and beneficiaries; and prioritize resources for essential needs of ethnic minorities and mountainous areas, accelerate disbursement, strengthen inspection and supervision to ensure effective use of capital.
Regarding the province's recommendations, Deputy Minister Y Thong said that the Ministry of Ethnic Minorities and Religious Affairs will coordinate with ministries and branches to consider and resolve them according to their authority, and at the same time summarize the contents beyond their authority to report to the Government for consideration.
