Hung Nguyen - Concerned about the "lamppost foot" effect

(Baonghean) - Hung Nguyen is increasingly thriving with the new rural construction movement being promoted, there are economic models for high income. However, to match the potential and advantages of the suburban district, more drastic and effective methods are needed.

A corner of Hung Nguyen Town. Photo: Sy Minh

Suburban advantages

Coming to Hung Nguyen, walking on the wide asphalt roads leading to every alley, many people commented: There are few localities in our province that have a good and synchronous traffic infrastructure system like Hung Nguyen district. To have that, in addition to the efforts to build rural roads according to the new rural criteria of the communes, Hung Nguyen also has the advantage of a suburban district with national highways and provincial roads interwoven in the district such as: Vinh bypass road, Lam riverside road, road 46B, road to the relic of the late General Secretary Le Hong Phong... which have just been upgraded and expanded. Along the roads are traditional craft villages such as: vermicelli, wine in Hung Chau, Hung Tan, sticky rice cake Hung Lam, peanut oil Hung Xuan, Han go Hung Thinh, carpentry in Hung Xa, Hung Long... Besides, we can visit famous historical sites: Memorial site of the late General Secretary Le Hong Phong, Xo Viet Nghe Tinh Square 30 - 31, Hoang Muoi temple, Lang Rao temple; Eco-tourism areas such as Thach Tien dam, Lam river, Thanh mountain... are eco-tourism and spiritual tourism complexes that attract visitors from all over.

Promoting the advantages of the suburban area, in recent years, the leaders of Hung Nguyen district have focused on directing communes to promote the restructuring of crops and livestock towards commodity production to supply Vinh city and neighboring areas. Along the Lam riverside road, faintly visible under the dike, on the alluvial land are herds of crossbred Sind cows, and models of mixed farms with gardens, ponds, and barns. Up to now, the whole district of Hung Nguyen has nearly 350 farms, some of which generate an income of 200 million to billions of VND per year, such as the farm of Mr. Nguyen Huy Tien in hamlet 5, Hung Tien commune, Mr. Phan Trong Duong in hamlet 2A, Hung Dao commune, Mr. Vo Ngoc Minh, hamlet 1, Hung Tan... Hung Nguyen has high-quality rice fields with varieties such as AC5, Huong Thom, and Nang Huong sticky rice in Hung Tay, Hung Tien, Hung Xa... which both generate high income and create a brand name in the market.

In the near future, Hung Nguyen will have more industrial parks such as Becamex (70 hectares), the project "Complex of commercial services and housing parks in Hung Loi commune" (23 hectares)... which are expected to bring about changes in the appearance of the suburban area, both creating jobs for people and meeting the housing needs of people in Vinh City and neighboring areas, contributing to changing the appearance of Hung Nguyen.

Talking to us, Comrade Hoang Van Phi - Secretary of Hung Nguyen District Party Committee said: Taking advantage of the suburban area, Hung Nguyen promotes the development of livestock farming models, agricultural production suitable for household economy, along with the development of traditional craft villages, contributing to increasing income for people. In the long term, we will attract investment, build urban areas, trade service centers, eco-restaurants along the Lam River and Vinh bypass roads, upgrade infrastructure of cultural and spiritual tourism sites... to better serve the service needs of Vinh City people to increase revenue for the district.

There are still obstacles

Although the Party Committees and authorities in Hung Nguyen have made many efforts to develop craft villages, change crop structure, develop models of growing high-quality green vegetables..., the industries and services in Hung Nguyen are still fragmented and passive. The craft villages of Hung Tan wine making and Hung Chau peanut candy still have to "bear the name" of other places to sell, accepting losses in price. The models of growing chili, carrots, green vegetables, lemons... are still unstable depending on the weather, pests and the "hot-cold" of the market, leading to the people of Hung Nguyen not really interested in investing to get rich right on their homeland but still leaving the village to participate in manual labor in Vinh City and other localities.

A typical example is Hung Lam commune, a commune with fertile riverside alluvial land, but there are very few successful models of family-farm economic development. Mr. Nguyen Van Hao - Chairman of the commune said: "Hung Lam has a tourist route along the Lam River, has fertile alluvial land, but so far the commune has only met 5/19 criteria for building new rural areas. The criteria we have met, in fact, any commune with any difficulty has them! We are also struggling to find economic models, expanding industries, but people are still not very interested". Asked about the cause of this situation, the Chairman of the commune explained: Our commune has nearly 2,000 people of working age, they mainly work as construction workers, manual laborers in Vinh City and other regions in the country, and very few stay at home to do farming. Every time they go to the city, they have a few hundred thousand a day, so they are no longer interested in the fields. We have had a project to build an irrigation system for the riverside alluvial land since 2010 to rotate land funds and grow vegetables for sale, but it has not been done yet!

In addition to the fact that people are not interested in their homeland, with its way of doing things, Hung Nguyen has not really attracted investors. Mr. Chu Quang Hung - Deputy Director of Vinh Land Company, the owner of the urban area investment project in Hung Loi said: According to the plan, the compensation for land acquisition of the urban housing project in Hung Loi commune will be completed in 2011, but up to now it has not been completed. One of the reasons for the bottleneck in land acquisition is that the local government is still passive, not making people understand the benefits of the project, leading to difficulties for investors to implement the project.

To promote the advantages of suburban areas and change the concept that "it is difficult to light up at the foot of the lamppost", the Party Committees and authorities in Hung Nguyen need to pay more attention to vocational training and education, identifying training groups suitable for the conditions of each locality. Help people change their mindset of needing to learn a trade to have a job, create their own jobs, and increase their income. When implementing models and projects, the Party Committees and authorities from district to commune levels need to take drastic action, accompany the people and investors, and not let them "swim alone", thereby creating new motivations for Hung Nguyen to develop quickly and strongly, worthy of being the homeland of the 30-31 revolutionary movement.

Duc Chuyen