Assembly of Viet Nam has adopted 151 laws, of which 38 are related to the rights and obligations of ethnic minorities. Institutionally, the Ethnic Council elected by the National Assembly is responsible for conducting studies and making recommendations to the National Assembly on ethnic affairs, and for supervising the implementation of ethnic policies, socio-economic development programmes and plans in mountainous areas, and those with ethnic minorities. The Chairman of the Ethnic Council is entitled to attend the sessions of the Government to discuss the implementation of ethnic policies. When issuing regulations for implementing ethnic policies, the Government has to consult the Ethnic Council. Within the structure of the Government, there is also a ministerial agency responsible for ethnic affairs, the Committee on Ethnic Minorities Affairs. As provided for in Articles 27 and 28 of the 2013 Constitution, Vietnamese citizens of ethnic minorities fully enjoy the right to participate in the political system, in the management of the State and the society, and to stand for election to the National Assembly and People’s Council. For example the ratio of deputies from ethnic minorities in the National Assembly is always higher than that in the population. In the last four tenures of the National Assembly, deputies from ethnic minorities make 15.6% - 17.2% of the total number of deputies, while ethnic minorities themselves make 14.3% of the total population. Ethnic minority people elected to People’s Councils at the provincial, district and communal levels in the 2011 – 2016 tenure made 18%, 20% and 22.5% of the total membership of these Councils, respectively. In national and local elections, including the recent National Assembly elections in 2016, measures have been taken to assist citizens in mountainous areas and from ethnic minorities to exercise their rights. Turnouts among those citizens were high, reaching above 90% nationwide, with some provinces nearly reaching turnouts rate of 100% among constituents in mountainous areas and from ethnic minorities. 2. Socio-economic and cultural development Viet Nam places high priority on implementing policies for socio-economic development in ethnic minorities communities in order to improve their living standards, in both material and spiritual terms. The State supports communities in narrowing the development gaps among various ethnicities so that they can attain the general level of development of the country. As of December 2014, the State had promulgated 187 legal documents, including 44 Decrees of the Government, 6 Decisions of the Prime Minister on policies concerning regional socio-economic development, 97 decisions of the Prime Minister on sectoral socio-economic development (production, education, public health, or culture). There are notably effective programmes, such as the Government Action Program 122 on ethnic affairs, the Resolution 30a/2008/NQ-CP of the Government on sustainable poverty reduction, the Programme 135 (Phase 2) on the socio-economic development in extremely underprivileged communes of ethnic minorities and in mountainous areas; the Programme 327 on forestation 2