As many as 1,700 representatives of ethnic minority groups in Vietnam will attend the National Congress of Ethnic Minority Groups slated for May, said the event’s organisers. Between September 2009 and January 2010, provinces and cities nationwide have organised congresses for ethnic minority groups living in their localities to select delegates to the event, which is to be held for the first time. According to the organisers, the congress will be coupled with a wide range of sideline activities, including a national seminar on ethnicity affairs and national great unity, an exhibition on cultural identity and the achievements of Vietnamese ethnic minority groups, a trade fair featuring products made by ethnic minorities, and a festival of ethnic minority students. Consistently upholding its policies on ethnicity affairs and great national unity, the Party and State have, during the nation’s revolution and current national construction and development, adopted numerous guidelines and policies to help ethnic minority-inhabited areas develop comprehensively. These efforts have nurtured confidence and consensus among Vietnamese ethnic minority communities, enabling them to make worthy contributions to the nation’s revolution in the past as well as the country’s current programme to promote socio-economic development while maintaining security and defending its national borders./.