Minister Le Minh Hoan visits and works in Ky Son border district

During a working trip to Nghe An, on the morning of July 30, a working delegation led by comrade Le Minh Hoan - Member of the Party Central Committee, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, had a working session in the border district of Ky Son.

Accompanying the delegation were members of the Provincial Party Executive Committee: Nguyen Nhu Khoi - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council; Nguyen Van De - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Phung Thanh Vinh - Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development; Vi Van Hoe - Secretary of the Ky Son District Party Committee; representatives of departments, branches and Ky Son district.

Removing difficulties

Ky Son district is located in the west of Nghe An province, bordering the Lao People's Democratic Republic, with a border length of 230 km. The total natural area of ​​the district is 209,000 ha. However, the area is mainly high hills with large slopes, the area of ​​land with little slope is insignificant, accounting for only 1%, ethnic minorities account for 95%, of which the poverty rate in 2022 is 54.36%. The whole district has 21 communes and towns, of which 11 are border communes; the terrain is widely distributed, with a dense system of streams and creeks; the traffic infrastructure system is rudimentary, making it very difficult to travel and transport goods.

In 2022, the historic flash flood seriously affected traffic works and housing; caused great damage to agriculture and many other public works.

The flash flood that occurred in October 2022 killed 1 person, estimated damage to housing was nearly 90 billion VND; damage to education was estimated at more than 6 billion VND, damage to agriculture was over 18 billion VND, damage to transportation was over 180 billion VND. People's property was estimated to be damaged at more than 12 billion VND...

With the support of the Central Government, the province, organizations, businesses, the Party Committee, the government and people of Ky Son district have focused on overcoming the damage and ensuring the lives of the people.

At the meeting, the leaders of Ky Son district proposed that the resettlement project for the people of Ta Ca commune, phase 1, use capital from the Provincial Relief Committee, the Thien Tam Fund of Vingroup Corporation (35 billion VND); phase 2 use the provincial budget reserve capital (30 billion VND). Currently, due to terrain and geological conditions, it is impossible to choose a better location in the area for resettlement and almost any location planned will affect the natural forest.

Therefore, it is recommended that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development direct relevant units to support localities in the process of converting forest use purposes as quickly as possible, ensuring conditions for starting construction works as soon as possible, ensuring land for people to move in, and avoiding unsafe situations when the rainy season comes.

Ky Son district plans to build infrastructure for a resettlement area to arrange new housing for more than 40 households that had to be urgently relocated due to flash floods and landslides in Huoi Cang village, Keng Du commune, Ky Son district with a total investment of 30 billion VND.

Every year, with different combined funding sources, the locality supports people with some pipelines into the fields and promotes high efficiency. However, this item is limited because each year only 8,000 - 10,000m of pipeline is supported, while the people's demand is very large, requiring more than 350,000m, with a total expected investment of over 28 billion VND.

Currently, the resettlement area through block 4 and block 5, Muong Xen town is often affected by landslides during the rainy season. Currently, the cracks have collapsed to the walls of houses, causing danger to people's lives and property. Therefore, investing in handling landslide incidents in this section is extremely urgent and practical, with a total estimated cost of 60 billion VND.

Landslides in Muong Xen town and Ta Ca commune are continuing to occur. To ensure the safety of people's lives and property, the investment in the construction of a system of embankments in the Huoi Giang stream and landslides in the Son Ha and Hoa Son villages, Ta Ca commune, Ky Son district is extremely urgent and practical. The total estimated investment for construction is about 70 billion VND.

At the meeting, provincial leaders shared difficulties and proposed that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development pay attention to supporting the border district of Ky Son in particular and the western districts of Nghe An in general.

According to Mr. Nguyen Van De - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, the biggest difficulty of Ky Son district is the large forest area, the high rate of poor households; the terrain is greatly affected by storms, floods and natural disasters.

The Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee also proposed that Minister Le Minh Hoan pay attention to removing difficulties for the locality. That is, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development should study the plan to grow medicinal herbs under the forest canopy for Ky Son district and the mountainous districts of Nghe An province in general.

At the same time, remove obstacles in implementing new rural construction in mountainous communes today, that is, communes reaching the new rural finish line do not benefit from policies for developing ethnic minority areas, affecting people's psychology. Therefore, the Government needs to clearly distinguish the new rural construction policy and the national target program; study the shortcomings in implementing Directive 13 of the Secretariat on strengthening the Party's leadership in forest management, protection and development.

New Aspirations

Talking with leaders and officials of Ky Son district, comrade Le Minh Hoan - Member of the Party Central Committee, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development shared the difficulties with the border district of Ky Son. Minister Le Minh Hoan also spent a lot of time sharing and giving directions on key tasks for the mountainous border district of Ky Son in the coming time.

Concerned about the development path of Ky Son district, according to Minister Le Minh Hoan, there needs to be joint efforts from the Central, provincial and local levels to find a path for Ky Son district and the western districts of Nghe An.

With the function of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development performing state management of the following sectors and fields: agriculture, forestry, salt industry, fisheries, irrigation, natural disaster prevention and control, rural development; state management of public services in sectors and fields under its management, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will continue to pay attention to implementing programs and projects to support Ky Son district; especially mechanisms and policies suitable to local practical conditions.

Minister Le Minh Hoan said that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will establish a survey working group to study and implement economic development models as well as solutions to prevent and combat natural disasters, etc. to summarize the models in mountainous districts across the country.

According to Minister Le Minh Hoan, Ky Son district needs to change the mindset of hiring people to protect the forest to people being the owners and doing business under the forest canopy.

Minister Le Minh Hoan sent a message to the district's leaders who have aspirations and are looking for new things, need to promote internal strength to turn difficulties into advantages, advantages, and local resources, associated with preserving and promoting the cultural identity of ethnic minorities, building a new image for the border district of Ky Son.