From 2019 to present, the Central and provincial government have spent over 17,000 billion VND to invest in ethnic minority and mountainous areas to carry out socio - economic development, sustainable poverty reduction and improve people 's lives.

Traditional crafts contribute to improving people's livelihoods.

Up to now, 100% of communes in the province have roads with hardened surface to the commune center; 100% of villages and hamlets have roads to the village center, of which over 70% have hardened surface; 100% of communes using national electricity grid, of which the rate of households in ethnic minority areas using national electricity grid is 97.6%; the whole province currently has a total of 834 concentrated rural water supply works, ensuring water supply for 43,960 households; the rate of rural households using hygienic water is 96.3%.
The province has strongly focused on directing the transformation of production structure, crop and livestock structure, implementing agricultural and forestry extension work, guiding intensive cultivation and increasing crops; providing new varieties with high productivity, encouraging and helping people change farming practices from small-scale, traditional to developing agricultural commodity production, encouraging ethnic minorities to start businesses, entrepreneur, and strive to get rich. Collective economy and agricultural cooperatives in the province continue to develop in a variety of quantity and quality. The whole province has 296 cooperatives. Activities of cooperatives have been innovated and increasingly effective, and the content of activities has expanded from single sector to multi-sector; Cooperatives operating in the agricultural sector have played an important role in applying and transferring scientific and technical advances into production, promoting the transformation of crop and livestock structures, contributing to creating new job opportunities, increasing income and improving the material and spiritual life of rural people.
The province promotes the development of tourism infrastructure, prioritizes the development of unique tourism products, associated with the cultural identity of ethnic minorities. The province currently has 11 recognized community tourism sites and 01 national tourist area; 457 homestay accommodation establishments, with over 1,000 rural laborers participating in community tourism activities; the average annual income of households doing homestay/ community tourism is about 35 - 40 million VND per year.

Developing community tourism contributes to hunger eradication and poverty reduction for ethnic minorities in Lao Cai.

The province effectively implements vocational training policies for rural laborers, especially ethnic minorities, contributing to increasing the proportion of working-age laborers receiving vocational training suitable to the needs of ethnic minority areas from 46.3% in 2021 to 52.8% in 2023; helping labores have stable jobs and livelihoods to increase income.
The province effectively implements ethnic policies, contributing to rapidly reduce the multidimensional poverty rate of the whole province to 14.94% by 2023; of which, the poverty rate in ethnic minority areas decreased from 31.3% to 18.8%. Average income per capita reached 95 million VND/person/year.
In the emulation movement to implement the National Target Programs, there have been many examples of voluntary land donation, property contribution, and labor days to build new rural areas. Typically, the family of Mr. Ma Seo Lang donated nearly 2,650m2 of land to build a road connecting Lung Po village to the center of A Mu Sung commune; the family of Mr. Giang A Ho in Nam Trang village, Nam Ma commune, Van Ban district donated over 6,000m2 of land to expand the intra-field road...
Education in ethnic minority areas is always of attention. The province has 09 ethnic boarding schools, 134 semi-boarding schools and 98 schools with semi-boarding students; Of which, 5 ethnic boarding schools and 70 semi-boarding schools meet national standards. The province builds, maintains and improves the effectiveness of the implementation of the models: "Boarding schools raised by the people - Food for children"; "Self-managed semi-boarding students - Helping each other to progress" . The rate of ethnic minority students attending school is always maintained at a high level .
The grassroots healthcare network has been invested in, and the province timely, fully and effectively implements health policies for ethnic minorities, especially health insurance policies and health care for the poor. The authority also propagates and mobilizes people to implement population planning, contributing to raise awareness of ethnic minorities about population - family planning; effectively implements support policies of the Government and the province on population work.
The development of ethnic minority cadres, civil servants and public employees has been given attention. Up to now, the ethnic minority cadres, civil servants and public employees of the province have improved in both quality and quantity. The total number of ethnic minority cadres, civil servants and public employees at the provincial and district levels is 8,064 people, accounting for 33.6%.

Folk games contribute to improving people's lives and spirits. 
Documentary photo.

In addition, improving the effectiveness of preserving and promoting the cultural identity, language, writing, customs, practices, and good traditional beliefs of ethnic minorities, and propagating and mobilizing people to reform backward customs is always focused on; the work of reforming backward customs in the daily life of ethnic minorities is carried out regularly, associated with the movement to build new rural areas and civilized urban areas, focusing on mobilizing people to practice environmental sanitation, reduce poverty, and improve people's spiritual and material life.
Mr. Nguyen Van Bao - Deputy Head of the Provincial Ethnic Minorities Committee said: The effective implementation of ethnic affairs and ethnic policies in recent times has created a new face for ethnic minority localities in Lao Cai. These are important motivations for ethnic minorities across the province to strive to rise up, promote their potential strengths and the will to be self-reliant, united, and unanimous to develop all aspects of life rapidly and sustainably./.