Party General Secretary Tô Lâm with the ethnic minority people in Cao Bằng Province on January 28. — VNA/VNS Photo Thống Nhất

CAO BẰNG — Party General Secretary Tô Lâm met with representatives of ethnic communities in the northern province of Cao Bằng on Wednesday on the occasion of the 96th anniversary of the Communist Party of Việt Nam (February 3), the 85th anniversary of President Hồ Chí Minh’s return to the country (January 28), and the 65th anniversary of Hồ Chí Minh’s revisit to Cao Bằng (February 21).

General Secretary Lâm extended profound emotion during his engagement with local residents, heroic Vietnamese mothers, veteran revolutionaries, respected community elders, officials, soldiers, teachers, and students.

Reflecting on January 28, 1941, he noted that it marked the moment when, after three decades abroad searching for a path to national salvation, leader Nguyễn Ái Quốc, later known as Hồ Chí Minh, returned to Việt Nam to personally lead the revolution. Cao Bằng, he said, served as a critical staging ground for that historic decision, where Hồ Chí Minh relied on local ethnic communities to establish revolutionary bases. It was from these remote highlands, the light of his revolutionary thought began to spread across the country, ultimately guiding Việt Nam to independence, reunification, and its present course of development.

The Vietnamese Party and the State will forever remember and deeply appreciate the immense yet silent sacrifices and contributions made by Cao Bằng’s ethnic groups to the Party, President Hồ Chí Minh, and the Vietnamese revolution as a whole, he asserted.

According to him, the Party Central Committee, State, Government, Việt Nam Fatherland Front, socio-political organisations, and the entire political system remain committed to people-centred policies. Among the concrete measures he cited were the construction of 248 inter-level schools in border areas, the supply of tuition-free education, the expansion and consolidation of universal health insurance, accelerated efforts to eliminate makeshift and dilapidated housing in favour of safe and durable accommodation, and the unwavering spirit of “leaving no one behind” in national development.

Party General Secretary Tô Lâm with the representatives of ethnic minority groups in Cao Bằng Province at the meeting on January 28. — VNA/VNS Photo Thống Nhất

Looking ahead, he wished that the Party Central Committee, the province, and ethnic communities would maintain unity and join effort to steadily advance Cao Bằng’s development.

He called for a focus on sustainable livelihoods by linking production with quality standards, spreading cooperative models, developing border gate economy, services and tourism suited to local conditions.

On infrastructure and connectivity, he stressed the continued push for “roads to every village, electricity to every home, clean water to every household”, complemented by appropriately scaled digital infrastructure.

Regarding border security and public trust, he highlighted the role of respected community figures and village elders, in reinforcing the great national unity bloc, maintaining social safety and order, ensuring that border areas remain both secure and conducive to peaceful development, cooperation, and friendship.

Local residents, officials, teachers, and students were asked to uphold the tradition of solidarity and work with resolve to elevate Cao Bằng to new levels of prosperity.

On this occasion, General Secretary Lâm, together with other Party and State leaders, presented gifts to heroic Vietnamese mothers, veteran revolutionaries, Heroes of the People’s Armed Forces, those with meritorious service to the revolution, and families of five comrades who accompanied President Hồ Chí Minh on his 1941 return. Gifts were also presented to the provincial Party Committee, and VNĐ50 billion (US$1.92 million) was granted to the province for the construction of the new Nùng Trí Cao primary school. — VNA/VNS

Party General Secretary Tô Lâm greeted an elder woman during his meeting on January 28 with representatives of ethnic communities in the northern province of Cao Bằng. — VNA/VNS Photo Thống Nhất