Preserve green spaces, ensure social welfare, and create stability for development.

The district has been striving to implement solutions to prevent and control the epidemic, ensure social welfare, and create stability for development. Mr. Luong Dinh Viet, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Con Cuong district, shared this with Nghe An Newspaper.

PV:The Covid-19 pandemic has had a direct and negative impact on all aspects of people's social lives. In a mountainous district like Con Cuong, what effects has the Covid-19 pandemic had on social welfare?

Mr. Luong Dinh Viet:The Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the socio-economic development and daily lives of people in the district. Specifically, production, which was already difficult during the pandemic, is now facing equally challenging conditions in the consumption of agricultural, forestry, and fishery products.

For example, local specialty products like pumpkins, tea, and oranges have not been sold or consumed. Transporting these products out of the district to the market has become extremely difficult due to many localities implementing social distancing, quarantine, and lockdown measures to prevent the spread of the disease. Businesses and traders are unable to reach these markets.Con CuongEven when agricultural products are purchased, it's difficult to market and process them. Meanwhile, there are no processing plants for these products in the district; there are no large-scale purchasing businesses or traders. The products are all in raw form. Therefore, many products made by farmers can only be sold at very low prices... Similarly, in tourism development, the Covid-19 pandemic has "frozen" this activity.

Green squash is a specialty of Con Cuong. Photo: PV

The impact of the pandemic has directly affected people in remote, mountainous areas of the district – vulnerable groups in society. They already face difficulties in daily life, transportation, housing, healthcare, access to capital, production methods, and access to information and knowledge. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Con Cuong could focus its investment on helping them. Now that resources must prioritize pandemic control, these vulnerable groups no longer receive the same support as before.

In the district, many people have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Con Cuong has compiled statistics and prepared dossiers so that these individuals can receive support from the State. However, small traders and small businesses are finding it very difficult to receive support because, according to regulations, they need to have labor contracts, insurance, etc., while most of them are unskilled laborers without contracts or insurance, making it difficult for them to prove their income and losses to receive compensation.

Con Cuong focuses on building economic development models. Photo: PV

Mr. Luong Dinh Viet:With the COVID-19 outbreak in the southern provinces, over 3,000 local workers who had been working there returned home. This placed immense pressure on Con Cuong, ranging from the risk of these workers bringing the disease back to their hometowns, to the challenges of job creation, improving people's livelihoods and cultural life, and maintaining security and order.

To alleviate pressure, Con Cuong district established checkpoints to control, support, and guide COVID-19 prevention and control efforts for returning citizens; strengthened monitoring, statistics, management, and grouping of workers returning from epidemic areas to the locality for isolation and health monitoring in accordance with regulations. Furthermore, the district sought to stabilize the lives of these workers by providing them with support.livelihood developmentby relying on traditional local occupations such as agriculture, forestry, and fisheries. This is a short-term, stopgap solution.

Con Cuong district has deployed traffic police vehicles to escort people returning from epidemic areas. Photo: PV

Recognizing that the pandemic situation may be prolonged, making it difficult for returning migrant workers to quickly return to their former workplaces, Con Cuong district has tasked the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs with developing a long-term plan to help these workers find employment within the district. A key condition is establishing connections with businesses to support the local area in creating jobs and securing markets for products, gradually stabilizing the lives of returning workers. This is the ideal scenario, as these returning workers are already familiar with the production methods and mindset of industrial zones and factories. However, this is proving difficult as businesses are not yet enthusiastic about investing in the area.

PV:Over the years, Con Cuong has promoted the development of community-based tourism and ecotourism. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has almost "frozen" most tourism activities. What solutions has the locality implemented to maintain the tourism sector?

Mr. Luong Dinh Viet:In recent years,Con Cuong tourismTourism in Con Cuong had only recently begun to develop and was showing initial signs of growth. Although the economic impact was still modest, it had created a new direction. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic caused a slowdown in tourism. Due to travel restrictions, the number of tourists visiting the area decreased drastically.

Building a tourism development trend is already difficult, but maintaining tourism activities is a challenging problem for Con Cuong! To solve this problem, Con Cuong has strived to control and contain the epidemic in the area; joining hands and contributing to controlling the epidemic in the province. Only when the epidemic subsided and social distancing and quarantine measures were no longer applied did tourists return.

Secondly, Con Cuong continues to strive to maintain tourism services, facilities, and activities on a small scale. Tourism officials must regularly connect with and encourage groups, teams, companies, and household groups involved in community tourism; and direct the development of safe tourism packages and products. In addition, the district continues to strengthen the promotion of tourist destinations. When tourists arrive, the district connects them with these groups, teams, and companies through this support, hoping that the "tourism profession" will not fade away.

PV:Aside from its tourism sector, amidst the numerous challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, what has Con Cuong done to ensure stability in its overall economic life?

Mr. Luong Dinh Viet:For a long time, the local economy has relied on agricultural, forestry, and fisheries production. The Covid-19 pandemic created difficulties in the aforementioned consumption stages. To address this problem, the district has connected with the Department of Industry and Trade to support the consumption of products such as oranges, tea, and sugarcane... when farmers reached the harvesting stage. Thanks to this connection, most products were sold, helping the district maintain stability.

Internally, Con Cuong district has also developed a plan in case agricultural, forestry, and fishery products cannot be transported out of the area due to the unforeseen circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic. At this time, every official, Party member, mass organization, and business unit in the area must join hands to support the consumption of these products... helping people have the motivation and capital to reinvest in production in subsequent seasons.

To create a stable foundation for the long term, Con Cuong has also strived to promote agricultural production such as rice and corn cultivation; diversify crop varieties; and improve irrigation... in order to ensure food security. Thanks to this focus on production, coupled with favorable weather conditions, the district has had bumper harvests in the past two years, ensuring a good food supply and preventing any households from experiencing food shortages.

And it must be reiterated that a prerequisite for stability is that Con Cuong must continue to effectively prevent and control the Covid-19 pandemic. The entire political system and the people need to join hands in fighting the pandemic, absolutely without complacency or negligence. Each commune and town must be a fortress, each citizen a soldier, and good management of population movements is key.

In the long term, Con Cuong is planned to become aecotourism townTherefore, to "take off," the district focuses on attracting investment and promoting the development of environmentally friendly service and production industries such as tourism, processing of agricultural and forestry products, and garment manufacturing. Based on this perspective, the district has also clearly demarcated its areas... However, as mentioned, there are still no large companies or businesses coming to the locality. This stems from specific local difficulties such as transportation conditions, long distances for goods transportation, a lack of large land areas, and especially limitations in human resources.

Con Cuong district is making efforts to prevent and control the epidemic in order to stabilize the situation and develop the economy. Photo: PV

To change the situation and create a foundation for development, Con Cuong is striving to implement early educational streaming; build a civilized and modern workforce; promote vocational training for laborers; change production practices and methods; disseminate legal education and ensure good security and order in the area; reform administrative procedures and strengthen investment attraction. Through persistent efforts, Con Cuong will surely experience changes, improve the quality of its human resources, and help the locality progress.

PV:Thank you, sir!