Officers at Ma Nới Commune's People's Committee in Ninh Sơn District, Ninh Thuận Province have applied IT to manage information. Photo baoninhthuan.com.vn

NINH THUẬN — The People’s Committee of Ninh Thuận Province plans to use the application of information technology to help ethnic minorities gain access to important government information.

This is part of an action plan under the Government’s project to strengthen information technology applications to support ethnic minorities from 2021-2025.

The system will help ethnic minorities access the latest information on education, health, science and technology and markets as well as the policies and laws of the State and Party.

By 2023, the province wants all reputable people in the community and 90 per cent of ethnic minorities to understand the policies and laws of the State, and be able to access information on security and order, forest fire prevention and control, natural disaster prevention and disease prevention.

The province will use IT to ensure that 80 per cent of the festivals and customs of ethnic minorities will be preserved in the form of digitised and multimedia databases.

An electronic library, which includes information on ethnic minorities will be built to serve the community.

By 2025, the province will complete the database system on ethnic minorities, contributing to socio-economic development, and helping to maintain security and order in the areas in which ethnic minorities live.

Currently, only a low percentage of people in these areas have computers and internet connections while local officials, civil servants and teachers do have computers provided by the province and district.

Vice chairman of the committee Nguyễn Long Biên said in order to achieve the above goals, the province needs to assign relevant units to upgrade IT equipment and infrastructure, guide people through the use of smart mobile devices to support the dissemination of policies and laws, provide employment information and support remote medical diagnosis and treatment for ethnic minorities.

The province would strengthen education on searching and using online public services provided by State agencies and improve information dissemination and knowledge about information technology.

There are 144,200 ethnic minority people living in the province, accounting for 24.4 per cent of the province's population.

Ethnic minorities live in 37 communes in seven districts and cities. More than 6,080 households are living in poverty, accounting for 16.19 per cent of the province’s population. VNS