Dac Lac (VNA) - A meeting was held in the Central Highlands city of Buon Ma Thuot on Mar. 10 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Buon Ma Thuot victory and Dac Lac province's liberation. In his speech at the meeting, Y Luyen Nie Kdam, Secretary of Dac Lac provincial Party Committee, highlighted the significance of the victory, describing it as the starting point of the historical Ho Chi Minh Campaign and the Spring Offensive Campaign and Uprising in 1975 when the liberation armed forces moved south to liberate the South and reunite the nation.

Reviewing local socio-economic development of the past 30 years, Y Luyen Nie Kdam said Dac Lac province has obtained remarkable achievements. The province has provided ethnic minority people with farms and land, successfully reduced poverty and improved people's living conditions.

During the meeting, Truong Quang Duoc, Politburo member of the Party Central Committee and Vice Chairman of the National Assembly, praised the Buon Ma Thuot victory and Dac Lac armed forces and people's solidarity and industriousness in the revolutionary cause and in socio-economic development.

He called upon the province to continue upholding its glorious tradition to develop comprehensively.

On this occasion, the provincial People's Committee announced the Government's decision to promote Buon Ma Thuot to a second-grade city.

Buon Ma Thuot was promoted to city status in 1995. Since then the city has become a bright spot in the economy of the central region, an area long known for poverty and nomadic farming practices.

Local figures show Buon Ma Thuot and Dac Lac's economy grew by a whopping 10.4 percent last year, while the average growth rate maintained at nearly 8 percent between 2001 and 2003.