Central Highlands urged to pursue growth   A tea farm of Tam Chau Tea & Coffee Co. Ltd in the Central Highland Province of Lam Dong. Relevant bodies and localities have been urged to put more credit into the region's strongest industries, such as coffee and animal husbandry, by Minister of Public Security General Tran Dai Quang. - VNA/VNS Photo Quang Quyet DAK LAK  (VNS) - Minister of Public Security General Tran Dai Quang has urged the Steering Committee for the Central Highlands to take actions to stimulate economic growth in the region. He further told the Steering Committee to work to ensure the political stability of the Central Highlands and maintain the sovereignty of its border, saying that this is one of the committee's tasks to be undertaken in 2014. At a conference in Dak Lak Province yesterday, Quang, who is also head of the Steering Committee for the Central Highlands, said faster administrative reforms were needed to assure continued growth, sustainable poverty reduction in ethnic minority communities and all possible resources devoted to socio-economic progress. He also directed ministries, agencies and localities to funnel more credit into the region's strong industries, such as coffee, rubber and animal husbandry, with the aim of building high-tech agricultural production models, while continuing to build infrastructure for production and tourism. Also, the Ministry of Transport must ensure progress and the quality of the stretch of Ho Chi Minh Highway (National Highway 14) running through the Central Highlands. Further, the minister ordered more efforts be taken to carry out projects to expand electricity supplies to all villages in the Central Highlands and adjacent mountainous districts and improve infrastructure through 2015. He also required agencies and regional authorities to propose measures to overhaul State-owned farms in the region, while developing a master plan for regional irrigation through 2020, with a vision up to 2030, to be outlined as part of a response to climate change. At the same time, they were requested to work hard on construction of new-style rural areas. The quality of education and vocational training in far-flung areas and health care services must also improve, they were told. Additionally, the Central Highlands provinces and the Steering Board must work closely with the Steering Committee for the Northwestern Region and ministries to act on unplanned migration of ethnic minority people and effectively carry out the State's policy on religions. Last year, the region posted economic growth of 10.69 per cent, with over VND31.2 million (US$1,480) in gross domestic product per capita, up 16 per cent year-on-year. Thanks to increased preferential credit and the government's support policy, over 44,000 households have escaped poverty, resulting in the rate of poor households falling to 13.6 per cent. The poverty rate among ethnic minority groups stood at 27.2 per cent, a year-on-year decrease of 6 per cent. Human resources training and medical care have also seen improvements. In honor of the Lunar New Year festival, the Steering Committee distributed some VND8 billion ($380,000) to poor households, the elderly and families of war heroes in the region and vicinity. The money was donated by philanthropists, both at home and abroad. - VNS