National Assembly delegates from Nghe An province proposed to remove policies so that there would no longer be a phenomenon of mountainous communes 'not registering to strive to meet new rural standards'.

PROPOSAL FOR EARLY APPROVAL OF NATIONAL FORESTRY PLANNING

Speaking at the discussion, Mr. Tran Nhat Minh - full-time National Assembly delegate of Nghe An delegation expressed his high agreement with the report of the Supervisory Delegation and the draft Resolution of the National Assembly on thematic supervision, which includes many important contents such as: Allowing to extend the implementation time, disbursement of budget capital allocated for national target programs in 2023 that have not been fully disbursed to continue to be implemented until December 31, 2024; agreeing on the policy of piloting the allocation of funding for 3 national target programs according to district-level localities; balancing and allocating sufficient budget in accordance with the Resolutions of the National Assembly to effectively implement the programs.

Regarding the National Target Program on New Rural Development, delegate Tran Nhat Minh expressed concern about the assessment that "there is still a phenomenon of mountainous communes not registering to strive to achieve new rural standards by 2025 because highland communes in extremely difficult areas, when achieving new rural standards (no longer classified as extremely difficult communes), will no longer enjoy social security regimes (health insurance, rice support for students, regimes for cadres, civil servants, public employees, etc.)" and suggested that this should be addressed promptly.

“This issue has also been petitioned by voters of ethnic minority areas to the National Assembly at the 5th Session and continued to be petitioned at this 6th Session according to the synthesis of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, but so far it has not been resolved,” the delegate from Nghe An worried.

Therefore, he expressed his full agreement with the recommendation of the Supervisory Delegation to request the Government and the Prime Minister to direct relevant ministries and branches to complete in 2023 the supplement of policies to resolve the shortcomings in implementing Decision No. 861/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister: Approving the list of communes in Region III, Region II, Region I in ethnic minority and mountainous areas in the period 2021 - 2025 and the areas of mountainous communes recognized to meet new rural standards. Because most of the households living in communes, villages and hamlets in this area are ethnic minorities, most of whom are poor, near-poor households, with extremely difficult economic conditions.

Regarding the National Target Program for Socio-Economic Development in Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas, delegate Tran Nhat Minh pointed out the practical shortcomings in Nghe An. Accordingly, in Nghe An province, there are more than 50,000 hectares of natural forests outside the planning of 3 types of forests. The entire area of ​​this forest has been included in the planning of 3 types of forests by the province; however, the national forestry planning has not yet been approved.

In particular, some areas have been allocated land and granted land use right certificates to households that are eligible for forest protection support. However, according to the regulations, "forest protection support for planned forests is protection forests and production forests are natural forests allocated to communities and households".

Therefore, to ensure timely policy delivery to the subjects, delegate Tran Nhat Minh proposed to soon have instructions to handle the above problems in the direction that while waiting for the national forestry planning to be approved, the forest protection support policy payment for natural forests that are currently outside the planning of 3 types of forests will still be implemented.

Also according to the Regulations in Decision No. 1719 of the Prime Minister, the beneficiaries of sub-project 1, Project 3 (Sub-project on sustainable agricultural and forestry economic development associated with forest protection and income improvement for people, under the Project on Sustainable Agricultural and Forestry Production Development, promoting the potential and strengths of regions to produce goods according to the value chain), include: Ethnic minority households, poor Kinh households living stably in communes in regions II, III in ethnic minority and mountainous areas... communities not in communes in regions II, III in ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

However, the delegate of Nghe An delegation said that according to the above regulations, the villages with special difficulties according to Decision No. 433 dated June 18, 2021 of the Ethnic Committee but belonging to communes in area I are not eligible to implement sub-project 1, Project 3. Therefore, to ensure that no beneficiaries are missed, it is recommended that there be early guidance to overcome this problem.

THERE IS STILL A SITUATION OF PUSHING THE BLAME AND AVOIDING RESPONSIBILITY

Speaking at the discussion, Major General Tran Duc Thuan - Standing Member of the National Assembly's Defense and Security Committee expressed concern that, in addition to the achieved results, the implementation of the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction in recent times still has many contents, goals and targets that have not been achieved as expected.

“Slow disbursement not only wastes money because of untimely investment, but more importantly, the good goals and projects of the Party and State for the poor have not reached the poor in time,” said the delegate of Nghe An delegation.

Based on pointing out objective and subjective causes, and stating clearly that subjective causes are still the main ones, Major General Tran Duc Thuan pointed out a number of problems in the implementation process that have not been resolved promptly.

The role of the Joint Steering Committee for the three national target programs has not been truly effective. Coordination between ministries, branches and localities in resolving arising problems has not been proactive and timely. The number of officials working on poverty reduction has not met the requirements, mainly holding part-time positions; there are also limitations in advisory capacity.

In particular, according to delegates, the situation of pushing and avoiding responsibility by a number of cadres, civil servants and public employees in handling tasks related to national target programs, including the sustainable poverty reduction target program, still exists.

“These are existing problems that the National Assembly needs to carefully evaluate and clearly identify the responsibilities of relevant organizations and individuals; the Government as well as localities need to have truly effective solutions to overcome in the coming time,” said the delegate from Nghe An.

On that basis, Major General Tran Duc Thuan proposed a number of solutions to effectively implement the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction; in which, based on the practice of Nghe An province, which launched the Program to support the construction and repair of houses for the poor and people in difficult circumstances in the province for the period 2023 - 2025, the delegate suggested that in addition to investing in effectively using capital from the budget, continue to mobilize agencies, units, organizations, business communities, and philanthropists to actively contribute resources, contributing to the implementation of the goals.

PROPOSAL TO DELEGATE POWER TO PROVINCIAL COUNCILS TO SPEEDERIZE DISBURSEMENT

Regarding the National Target Program for Socio-Economic Development of Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas for the 2021-2030 period, delegate Hoang Thi Thu Hien - Permanent Vice President of Nghe An Women's Union, said that the disbursement of capital for the program is slow, the basic reason is the problem with the operating mechanism, showing that the directive and operating documents are numerous and slow, but after being issued, the documents are stuck with current regulations and practical conditions.

Commenting that the Government, the Ethnic Committee and relevant ministries and branches are very responsible, but the revised documents have not yet completely resolved the issues, and they have to wait for the documents to be revised systematically, which is very time-consuming, the delegate from Nghe An suggested that for the remaining issues, the Central level should issue regulations with viewpoints and principles; strengthen inspection, supervision and assign specific powers to the People's Councils of provinces and centrally-run cities to suit local realities.

Delegate Hoang Thi Thu Hien also requested the Government to direct relevant ministries and branches to focus on removing difficulties and obstacles from regulations; increase the level of support to attract people, businesses, and scientists to participate in successfully implementing Project 3 on sustainable agricultural and forestry production development, promoting the potential and strengths of regions to produce goods according to the value chain because by June 30, 2023, only 3.1% of the disbursement has been achieved.

While this is the only project related to supporting the people themselves to develop the economy, develop internal resources, create sustainable development; truly exploit the potential and strengths of the region, as the General Objective was determined when designing the Program.

The delegate of Nghe An delegation also suggested that the Government make a truly frank assessment, analyze the difficulties and shortcomings and propose appropriate solutions; improve the operational efficiency of all levels implementing the National Target Program on socio-economic development in ethnic minority areas because the disbursement rate by June 30, 2023 had only reached 17%; at the same time, he agreed with the proposal of the Monitoring Delegation to the Government that it is necessary to establish a truly objective and scientific evaluation and monitoring system for the Program, in order to have a correct, realistic and transparent database.