Results of "new rural areas" and concerns about the direction of "regional centers"

(Baonghean) - The implementation of the National Target Program on New Rural Construction (NTM) is another important condition for Thai Hoa Town to accelerate the speed of infrastructure construction and change all aspects of life in the suburbs, creating a basis to accelerate the progress of urban space connection... However, for Thai Hoa to rise to become the center and driving force of development of the Northwest region, there are still many concerns...

We returned to Nghia My commune - Thai Hoa town, witnessing the obvious changes of a poor suburban commune, in which there are marks of the results of implementing the new rural construction. The commune used to have complex terrain, small, narrow, winding inter-village and inter-hamlet roads, which have now been replaced by a system of open, wide standard concrete roads. As a town leader likened, Nghia My at this time is like a "big construction site", because many new rural projects and items are being urgently constructed, striving to complete ahead of schedule. At the time of "launching" the new rural program 3 years ago, Nghia My only met 6 criteria, but now the commune has 16/19 criteria met; the remaining 3 criteria include: Cultural facilities; The poverty rate and environmental criteria are awaiting approval, the possibility of achieving and that means Nghia My will complete the plan to reach the NTM target in 2014. Talking about that convincing result, comrade Cao Thi Huong, Chairman of Nghia My Commune People's Committee said: "It can be said that this is a consistent and effective result from the attention and close direction of the town, the unified leadership of the Party Committee and the Commune People's Committee, from which there are specific plans and solutions to mobilize all resources, especially the support and active participation of the entire population and businesses in the area".

Dong Hieu Kindergarten (Thai Hoa Town). Photo: Sy Minh

It is necessary to talk more about the methods and solutions suitable for each period in the process of building the new rural area of ​​Nghia My. Implementing the rural traffic criteria, the commune's steering committee did not choose a strong hamlet as a model and then replicate it, but chose Long Thuong hamlet, the poorest hamlet in the commune, with the motto of... choosing the weak to "stimulate" the strong. Long Thuong hamlet has more than 70 households, of which 65 are Tho ethnic households, with difficult lives; before the time of implementing the new rural area program, Long Thuong was almost isolated from other hamlets in the commune. Choosing Long Thuong as a model, the Party Committee and the government of Nghia My commune wanted to test the will and effectiveness of the leadership and management of the staff, and the capacity to mobilize the people of the Party cell and hamlet executive committee. In order for 25 households on the inner-hamlet road to agree to give up land to expand the route, the Party cell and hamlet executive committee proactively went to each house to directly propagate and mobilize people about the purpose and meaning of the new rural area program, about the rights and obligations of the people. Thanks to the reasonable propaganda and mobilization, 25 households simultaneously donated land to build roads, with a total area of ​​nearly 6,000m2. At the same time, Long Thuong people contributed nearly 100 million VND (average 300,000 VND per person) to buy sand and gravel to build rural roads... Up to now, the 1,600m long internal road of Long Thuong hamlet according to NTM standards has been completed and put into use. The success in mobilizing people to participate in building new rural areas in Long Thuong hamlet has "stimulated" the remaining 13 hamlets of Nghia My to strive to compete in implementing NTM criteria. With many unique ways, Nghia My, from a poor commune with a low starting point, has made great strides, becoming the first NTM commune in Thai Hoa Town in 2014 to reach the NTM finish line.

Nghia Hoa Commune - the most difficult commune of the town, where there is the Lang Vac archaeological site, the implementation of the new rural construction program has really changed the lives of the people here. Leading us on the newly invested concrete roads in Tan Ap hamlet, Dien Binh hamlet... Comrade Hoang Nghia Thai - Party Secretary, Chairman of the Commune People's Committee said: Since the beginning of the year, Nghia Hoa has built 6.6 km of new rural roads; people have donated 3,747 square meters of land, contributed 1,930 working days, dismantled 1,500 meters of fences and contributed more than 260 million in cash. A poor commune, with a low starting point, but the new rural construction program has really breathed new life into it, so that now Nghia Hoa has not only changed by the inner-village roads, or a series of technical infrastructure works, but more importantly, it has changed the way of doing business, the way of building new people on the ancient land.

One thing that is easy to see in Thai Hoa Town is that due to the characteristics of a small area and a small number of communes, when implementing the new rural construction program, in addition to implementing the criteria, the Town Steering Committee also pays great attention to depth, focusing on implementing the criteria of increasing income for people. Many good models and methods have been applied and replicated by the communes such as: in Phu Thuan hamlet - Tay Hieu commune, there is a model of growing mushrooms: black oysters, white oysters, lingzhi; in Dong Hieu commune, promoting dairy cow farming, growing grass for Vinamilk dairy farm; in Nghia Thuan, there is a model of growing green vegetables, growing flowers for sale and promoting labor export through the support and creation of favorable conditions for capital sources from the Commune People's Credit Fund; Nghia Hoa commune is building 2 models: raising breeding cows, beef cows and growing lilies...

It can be seen that, after 4 years of implementing the Resolution of the 1st Party Congress and after 3 years of implementing the new rural construction, Thai Hoa Town has emerged as a young and dynamic urban area, the rural suburban areas have improved, in some fields of education, health, social security have achieved positive results, but in implementing the orientation of building Thai Hoa to become the Trade - Service, Culture, and Social Center of the Northwest region of the province, as "the dynamic urban area of ​​the South Thanh - North Nghe region" according to the Government's planning, there are still many limitations compared to the requirements.

More than a year ago, reviewing after two and a half years of implementing the Resolution of the First Town Party Congress, the Standing Committee and the Party Committee of the Town also frankly acknowledged a number of shortcomings and weaknesses in the socio-economic field, which were some targets that were difficult to achieve compared to the target, to have solutions to focus on overcoming such as: economic growth rate of 15%/18.75% of the plan; total production value in 2014 estimated to be 3,083,341 million VND/3,911,981 million VND, reaching 79% of the resolution of the congress (NQDH), in which, the value of production of trade and services was thought to be an advantage, but up to this point only reached 61.4% of the target of the NQDH... After the congress, Thai Hoa issued 21 projects on all aspects and fields, reviewing after nearly 4 years of implementing the NQDH, out of 30 targets, 12 targets were achieved and exceeded; 13 targets, which are likely to be achieved and 5 targets that are difficult to achieve (economic growth rate, production value, economic structure, number of national standard schools and creating new jobs for workers). Comrade Le Tien Tri, Secretary of the City Party Committee, also admitted that the congress resolution set goals, targets and expectations that were too high, without calculating and forecasting resources, conditions directly affected by economic recession, difficulties in planning, investment attraction and other issues for the local economy. Therefore, determining to become a regional trade and service center to exploit potential and geographical advantages, looking back, Thai Hoa still lacks worthy trade and service centers, and infrastructure in this field has not met practical needs. Or the goal of becoming a regional medical center, the physical facilities and equipment are not up to standard, the overload and inadequacies of the old hospital, while the 250-bed general hospital is progressing too slowly, and the time for inauguration and putting into use is not yet determined, which is an obstacle...

Obviously, Thai Hoa Town is facing great opportunities and challenges in soon developing into a center of the Northwest region in a number of fields, so it is necessary to have research and adjustments to have resolutions, projects, and forecast plans for the period 2015 - 2020. It is known that recently, to create highlights for the town, the Standing Committee of the Town Party Committee has also taken drastic action, issued instructions and directed the delay in progress of 8 key projects. Thanks to that, it has initially created a fundamental change in the face of the city, creating confidence for investors. Regarding some solutions in the coming time, comrade Le Tien Tri - Secretary of the Town Party Committee said: "From now until the end of the year, Thai Hoa will complete the master plan until 2020, along with the implementation of planning management. The town will connect resources to invest in completing important traffic infrastructure from the regions to the town center, invest in urban infrastructure and focus on attracting strategic investors, paying attention and accompanying investors who have implemented projects in the area".

Huu Nghia