To not 'miss the appointment' with the goal of reaching the finish line

(Baonghean) - Thanh Chuong district's plan for 2016 has 3 communes reaching the NTM finish line. Of these, 2 communes, Thanh Luong and Thanh Yen, signed a commitment with the Provincial People's Committee, while Thanh Lien commune was directed by the District People's Committee to reach the finish line, because this locality "failed" the 2015 finish line.

Thanh Lien Secondary School was built in 1976 and is now degraded. If it is not invested in solidifying in the coming time, the locality will once again "fall" from the NTM target.

All 3 levels of education are not up to standard.

In reality, Thanh Lien commune is facing the most difficulties at this point, because the school criteria are still stuck, and all three levels of education have not yet been built with standard infrastructure. Thanh Lien commune was directed by the district People's Committee to reach the NTM target by the end of 2015, but because the school criteria have not been met, it has accepted the situation of "falling" short of the target.

Earlier this year, the District People's Committee continued to direct the locality to complete the criteria for building a new rural area. According to Mr. Dinh Viet Nam - Vice Chairman of the Commune People's Committee, the Party Committee, the government and the people are always striving for that goal. However, due to "incompetence", the infrastructure of the three levels of education in the commune was built decades ago, not benefiting from the State's solidification program, and is now degraded, while the locality has no resources to invest in upgrading.

To complete this criterion by the end of 2016, the commune is coordinating with construction contractors to speed up the construction of kindergartens; at the same time, surveying, when there is capital, to build primary and secondary schools. To build facilities for standard schools, tens of billions of VND are needed, while the annual local budget revenue is not much, the entire capital allocated by the commune to build schools, currently depends on the money from selling residential land, but selling land is also difficult. Since the beginning of the year, Thanh Lien has planned to sell 19 residential land lots, but so far only 8 lots have been sold, earning more than 1.2 billion VND, while the province only allows to deduct 30% which is insignificant, while the investment capital to build 3 schools is tens of billions of VND.

However, there are only 3 months left from now until the end of 2016, so there is a possibility that Thanh Lien commune will continue to "fall" from the NTM target once again.

Mobilizing resources to reach the finish line

Thanh Luong and Thanh Yen communes registered to reach the NTM finish line by the end of this year, so currently these two localities are urgently speeding up the progress of implementing the contents of the criteria to reach the finish line. According to the assessment of the Standing Committee of the NTM Steering Committee of Thanh Chuong district, by June 2016, these two communes had only completed 14/19 criteria, with 5 criteria still unfinished, including: Traffic, environment, cultural facilities, markets and healthcare. In the past time, the localities have utilized the State's support funds, the commune budget and the people's contributions to speed up the construction progress, so some criteria have been completed, and the localities are currently continuing to complete some other criteria.

The road to Thanh Luong commune center has been upgraded according to NTM criteria.

Mr. Nguyen Duy Mai - Chairman of Thanh Luong Commune People's Committee said: Up to now, the locality has completed pouring concrete for the remaining road section; built more than 100 m of drainage ditches in residential areas, and completed the stage area in the communal stadium, completing 19/19 NTM criteria. In Thanh Yen commune, the entire political system and people are making efforts to build rural roads. The whole commune has more than 30 km of rural roads, by the end of June, the locality has only completed nearly 17 km, currently the commune is implementing 6.8 km of roads (of which 2.9 km have been implemented by the WB5 project) to complete the traffic criteria. With the support resources of the State and the communal budget, Thanh Yen is urgently completing the works: communal stadium; communal headquarters campus; communal health station and concentrated landfill area. However, to complete these works, the locality needs to balance investment capital reasonably and promptly.

The Steering Committee for New Rural Construction in Thanh Chuong District is making efforts to urge and support 3 communes that have registered to reach the New Rural Finish Line; continue to accelerate the progress of the projects that have been allocated capital; focus on mobilizing all resources to complete the contents and criteria. On that basis, members of the Steering Committee for New Rural Construction in the district regularly follow up, direct and guide the grassroots to remove difficulties and obstacles, and advise the Steering Committee for timely solutions.

Nguyen Xuan