THE GOVERNMENT

DECREES:

Article 1.- Position and functions

The Committee for Nationalities is a ministerial-level agency of the Government, which functions to perform the State management over the ethnic work throughout the country; the State management over public services and acts as representative of the owner of State capital portions at State-invested enterprises under its management as prescribed by law.

Article 2.- Tasks and powers

The Committee for Nationalities shall have to perform the tasks and powers prescribed in the Government’s Decree No. 86/2002/ND-CP of November 5, 2002 defining the functions, tasks, powers and organizational structures of the ministries and ministerial-level agencies as well as the following specific tasks and powers:

1. To submit to the Government and/or the Prime Minister bills, draft ordinances and other legal documents on ethnic affairs;

2. To submit to the Government and/or the Prime Minister the development strategies and plannings, long-term, five-year and annual plans, national target programs, action programs and important projects on ethnic work;

3. To promulgate decisions, directives and circulars falling within the scope of its State management;

4. To direct, guide, inspect and take responsibility for the implementation of approved legal documents, strategies, plannings and plans within the scope of its management; to propagate, disseminate and educate in the legislation on ethnic affairs;

5. To conduct surveys, study and synthesis of the historical origins and development of various nationalities, ethnoses and clans; the characteristics and compositions as well as socio-economic conditions, cultural life, customs and habits, and other matters of various nationalities;

6. To coordinate with the ministries, ministerial-level agencies, agencies attached to the Government, provincial/municipal People’s Committees as well as central socio-political organizations and social organizations in realizing the Party’s and the State’s ethnic undertakings and policies on the right to use languages and scripts; the educational development, the raising of people’s intellectual standard and the priorities given to the training and fostering of ethnic minority cadres; and healthcare for ethnic minority people;

7. To assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with the ministries, ministerial-level agencies and agencies attached to the Government in formulating, and organizing the implementation of, national programs on ethnic work; to organize and direct the realization of the policies of equality, solidarity and social justice among various nationalities, combating all acts of ethnic discrimination and division;

8. To assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with the ministries, ministerial-level agencies, agencies attached to the Government and local administrations in directing the implementation of experimental models and projects and the execution of preferential policies for areas meeting with exceptional socio-economic difficulties as assigned by the Government; to organize final reviews thereof and widely expand effective development models.

To coordinate with the ministries, ministerial-level agencies and agencies attached to the Government in realizing specific policies and measures, giving priorities to the all-sided development, political, economic, cultural, social, security and defense, in areas inhabited by ethnic minority people and mountainous areas; to prioritize the investment in the construction of infrastructures as well as programs and projects on socio-economic development and commodity economy development in areas inhabited by ethnic minority people, remote and deep-lying areas;

9. To direct, guide and inspect the implementation of work of sedentary farming and settlement by ethnic minority people;

10. To organize and direct the application of specific measures to maintain, conserve and develop various ethnoses;

11. To assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with the concerned ministries and branches in assisting the Government in determining the criteria for classifying areas inhabited by ethnic minority people and mountainous areas according to their development levels and adjusting these criteria to suit the development tempo in each period;

12. To receive and pay visits to ethnic minority people; to coordinate with the ministries, branches and localities in solving their legitimate aspirations strictly according to regimes, policies and law provisions.

To organize meetings among people of various nationalities in order to exchange experiences, thus strengthening the Vietnamese national solidarity bloc.

To direct and guide the building of model collectives and individuals of ethnic minorities, that have set good examples in realizing the Party’s and the State’s undertakings and policies, to act as the core in the movement for maintaining social order and consolidating national defense and security;

13. To assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Education and Training in organizing the execution of plannings and plans on training and fostering cadres being ethnic minority people;

14. To participate in the appraisal of investment schemes and projects related to socio-economic development in areas inhibited by ethnic minority people; to appraise and inspect the implementation of investment projects in the ethnic domain;

15. To assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with concerned ministries and branches in renewing and enhancing the work of propagating and mobilizing ethnic minority people to abide by the ethnic undertakings, policies and legislation;

16. To effect international cooperation in the field of ethnic work according to law provisions;

17. To organize and direct the implementation of plans on scientific research in the field of ethnic work;

18. To perform specific tasks and powers of the representative of the owner of State capital portions at State-invested enterprises under its management according to law provisions;

19. To examine, inspect and settle complaints and denunciations, to combat corruption and negative acts and handle law violations in the field of ethnic work according to its competence;

20. To decide and direct the implementation of its administrative reform program according to the objectives and contents of the State’s administrative reform program already approved by the Prime Minister;

21. To manage its organizational apparatus and payroll; to direct the realization of wage policies as well as policies on preferential treatment, commendation, rewards and disciplines towards State officials and employees under its management; to provide professional training and fostering to officials, employees, servants and people engaged in the ethnic work;

22. To manage its allocated funding and assets and organize the execution of its allocated budgets according to law.

Article 3.- The organizational structure of the Committee

a) Organizations assisting the Minister-Director of the Committee for Nationalities in performing the State management functions:

1. The Department for Ethnic Policies;

2. The Department for Ethnic Work in Northwestern Region (called Locality Department I for short);

3. The Department for Ethnic Work in the Central Highlands (called Locality Department II for short);

4. The Department for Ethnic Work in the Mekong River Delta (called Locality Department III for short);

5. The Propaganda Department;

6. The Legal Department;

7. The Planning-Finance Department;

8. The International Cooperation Department;

9. The Organization and Personnel Department;

10. The Inspectorate;

11. The Office.

b) Non-business organizations under the Committee:

1. The Institute for Nationalities;

2. The Ethnic Work Training School;

3. The Informatics Center;

4. The "Nationalities" magazine;

5. The "Nationalities and Development" newspaper.

Article 4.- Part-time members of the Committee

Part-time members of the Committee for Nationalities shall be decided by the Prime Minister at the proposal of the Minister-Chairman of the Committee for Nationalities.

Article 5.- Implementation effect

This Decree takes effect 15 days after its publication in the Official Gazette.

This Decree replaces the Government’s Decree No. 59/1998/ND-CP of August 13, 1998 on the functions, tasks, powers and organizational apparatus of the Committee for Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas.

Article 6.- Implementation responsibility

The Minister-Director of the Committee for Nationalities, the ministers, the heads of the ministerial-level agencies, the heads of the agencies attached to the Government and the presidents of the provincial/municipal People’s Committees shall have to implement this Decree.

On behalf of the Government
Prime Minister
PHAN VAN KHAI