"Even though it is difficult, the people can still do it"

Wherever you go in Nghi Trung commune (Nghi Loc), you will hear stories about the spirit of donating land, opening roads, and clearing land for new, advanced rural construction. In 2022, there are residential areas like in hamlet 9, where more than 20 households along the road have donated nearly 900m.²Land worth billions of dong to expand traffic routes. Leading us on the spacious, airy road, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thu - Head of Hamlet 9 said: When receiving the policy of clearing land to expand and upgrade the traffic route through Hamlet 9, the Party Committee and the Hamlet Command determined that it would be difficult because "every inch of land is worth its weight in gold", the land price at that time was around 10 - 12 million VND/m²So propaganda and mobilization work must be persistent and flexible.

With the close attention and support of the Party Committee, the commune government, the Party cell committee and the Command Board of Hamlet 9 held a meeting to collect people's opinions and promote propaganda about the practical benefits of donating land for road construction so that children and grandchildren can benefit, have convenient transportation, and develop the economy. However, to gain people's consensus, cadres and Party members must be exemplary and pioneers in dismantling fences and clearing land.

Typically, the family of party member Le Thoa donated 17-18m²Land, Ms. Linh's family - a cultural and policy officer of the commune donated 15m²land, handing over clean land for the project. In particular, as the head of the village, Hamlet Chief Le Ngoc Thu not only set an example by donating 27m²family land but also mobilized parents and siblings to donate nearly 35m²land, at the same time, propagandize and mobilize descendants in the Nguyen Minh Dai Ton cultural family to donate nearly 200m²land for road expansion

From the exemplary behavior of cadres and party members, the people of Hamlet 9 gradually understood that "Money is precious to everyone, but the most precious thing is to leave something for their children and grandchildren in the future", so they agreed to dismantle, move back the fence, and clear the land. Among them, the household that donated the most was Mr. Vo Van Hong's family with 60m²land worth more than 700 million VND to expand and upgrade the road. "The most difficult thing is to convince 3 households with large areas (total about 115m²)clearing the land to build a ditch to complete the road. However, after 3-4 times the Chairman of the Commune People's Committee and the Party Committee and the hamlet command board personally came to their homes to propagate and mobilize, they finally agreed to the policy. In 2022, the hamlet also mobilized nearly 600 million VND from the people to build concrete roads within the hamlet. Now everyone is excited because the road is big, beautiful, and traffic is smooth...", Mr. Thu shared.

Mr. Nguyen Duc Chuong - Vice Chairman of Nghi Trung Commune People's Committee said: Following Uncle Ho's advice "it is ten thousand times more difficult than the people's data", in the process of mobilizing land acquisition and clearance to implement local projects, mobilizing investment in infrastructure to serve the construction of advanced new rural areas, the locality always adheres to the motto "people know, people discuss, people do, people check, people enjoy". In particular, special attention is paid to propaganda and skillful mass mobilization in many forms (directly, through the radio system, zalo, facebook, etc.). Thanks to that, it has created solidarity and consensus among the people in building their homeland. For example, the project to expand and upgrade the inter-commune road (Lram) invested by the Department of Transport is more than 2.5 km long, with 46 households in 3 hamlets affected, the Party Committee, People's Council, People's Committee, Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee, associations and unions coordinate with Party committees and Party cells to directly go to each household to mobilize. As a result, people donated 1153m²land, 350m of fence to implement the project.

In villages and hamlets, the movement of donating land, expanding and upgrading intra-village roads, building flower roads, flag roads, lighting lines, etc. has developed strongly. There are areas in the religious areas such as hamlet 10 that in 2022 received 773 tons of cement and are continuing to receive 60 tons more to expand and upgrade roads. "Being aware that promoting rural traffic is an important factor contributing to accelerating the progress of building new advanced rural areas in the locality, the beneficiaries are none other than the people, the people are willing to sacrifice personal interests, spare no effort and money to contribute to building roads" - Mr. Chuong discussed.

In 7 years (from 2016 to 2022), the total investment capital for the construction of new advanced rural areas in Nghi Trung commune reached 179.3 billion VND (people contributed 9 billion VND) to build and upgrade 219 traffic routes with 72.8 km, of which, there are 206 alley roads, total length of 42 km, road surface width of 3.5 m, concreted, with sanitary drainage ditches. Particularly, the commune traffic system was marked, painted with speed bumps and installed 110 types of signs on the roads with lighting systems, trees, shade and poster panels with an investment of 60 billion VND.

The motto "Whatever is beneficial to the people must be done" is also clearly demonstrated through the investment in infrastructure serving agricultural production. Currently, the whole commune has 78 main roads to the production fields with a length of 17.7km, which are graded. The irrigation canal system with 45km of main canals is concreted to irrigate 384 hectares of agricultural land with an implementation cost of 34 billion VND. The closed traffic system and internal roads are convenient for people to travel and produce. In addition, the facilities of offices, schools, medical stations, cultural and sports facilities are invested synchronously and on a large scale to serve the material and spiritual life of the people.

“The changes in awareness and actions of cadres, party members and people of all walks of life in the commune in implementing Directive 05 have significantly contributed to the successful implementation of political, socio-economic, national defense and security tasks and the consolidation of the local political system, especially the construction of advanced new rural areas,” said Phan The Hung, Secretary of Nghi Trung Commune Party Committee.

Accordingly, the Party Committee of the commune requires cadres, party members, associations and unions, in addition to their general tasks, to register specific models and tasks at the beginning of the year. Monthly and quarterly reports on progress and implementation results must be made through meetings. The Party Committee also assigned the Party Committee's Inspection Committee to advise on developing a plan to inspect and monitor the implementation results of Directive 05 by groups and individuals. Thereby, creating solidarity and unity within the Party, a clear change in the working style and manner of the political system. Cadres and party members promote the role of "setting an example", "saying goes hand in hand with doing", being close to the people, solving tasks quickly, on time, in accordance with the law and achieving high efficiency; strictly complying with legal regulations on practicing thrift, fighting waste, and strictly implementing working hours.

The activities of the Front and political organizations of the district have been renewed, all work is directed towards the grassroots, taking care of the interests and rights of the people. Typical examples are the Veterans Association and the Elderly Association of the commune with a model of building 3,500m of flag road with 150 flagpoles, 6 poles for hanging banners across the road with a total cost of 160 million VND. The model of planting 160 Bauhinia trees, 30 Lagerstroemia trees, 50 shade trees on the road from the commune center and the hamlets for 5km of the Women's Union, Farmers' Association and Youth Union of the commune. The model undertakes the care, renovation and embellishment of the campus, office and central traffic routes of the union members of the commune agency. The Party Committee's mass mobilization bloc, through the model of mobilizing people to clear land for land acquisition and upgrading the construction of the central commune road, mobilized 72 affected households to voluntarily dismantle over 300m of surrounding walls, 300m of trees and donate 9,574m²land

Studying and following Uncle Ho's ideology, morality and style in hamlets and among the masses is associated with the movement "Joining hands to build new countryside", striving to escape poverty, bringing practical results. For example, in hamlet 2, where there are 128 households and 515 people, people have contributed to building 5 covered inner-hamlet canals with a total length of 610m, costing 400 million VND; investing in pulling 2,400m of electric wire and installing 102 LED bulbs to ensure convenient lighting for travel and maintain security and order; installing 97 flagpoles, planting 50 purple flowers and bauhinia flowers to beautify the roads and hamlets. People also contributed 62 million VND to repair the cultural house and install a security camera system from socialized sources.

Talking about the content of following Uncle Ho in skillful mass mobilization, Mr. Pham Quang Thanh - Secretary of the Party Cell of Hamlet 2 said: If we want policies and guidelines to come into life and create consensus among the people, first of all, the Party cell committee and the hamlet command must be united, and cadres and party members must set an example. From typical individuals, it will create a spreading force to the whole community. A typical example is the Hamlet Chief, Head of the Veterans Association of Hamlet Ha Viet Thuan (70 years old), a type 1 war invalid but still enthusiastic about hamlet and people's work, and has been trusted by the people to be elected as the hamlet and hamlet leader since 2000 until now. In 2022, Party member Ha Viet Thuan was awarded a Certificate of Merit by the Provincial People's Committee for his many contributions to building and protecting the Party and the government, contributing to the socio-economic development of the province. Or Party member Tran Ngoc Son was selected to report on typical security and order work in hamlets and hamlets and was awarded a Certificate of Merit by the Provincial People's Committee. Hamlet 2 collective was also awarded a Certificate of Merit by Nghi Loc District People's Committee for new rural construction.

In the economic field, there are also many typical examples of converting inefficient production areas to livestock production and services. A typical example is the ornamental plant business model combined with restaurant services on a scale of 2.5 hectares, with an annual income of over 10 billion VND of Mr. Dang Huu Luong in Hamlet 5. The livestock model combined with construction of 2,500m²Mr. Nguyen Dinh Huong's Israeli melon greenhouse in hamlet 3 has an annual revenue of over 10 billion VND, creating jobs for 15 workers... From there, it has created a vibrant competitive atmosphere in the whole commune, forming 40 hectares of high-quality rice fields; 8 hectares of high-income fields growing watermelon, cantaloupe, vegetables, tubers, and fruits; building 3 greenhouses growing melons and cucumbers with an area of ​​5,500m2²; 2 greenhouses growing seedless black grapes with an area of ​​4,200m²The above results have contributed to increasing the production value per unit area, such as the average melon per sao (500m²), for an annual revenue of 180 million VND; seedless black grapes on average 1 sao gives an annual revenue of 200 - 300 million VND... contributing to improving people's lives.

According to veteran cadres here, President Ho Chi Minh's advice "a hundred times easier without the people, it is still bearable, a thousand times harder with the people, it is still possible" has been and is being vividly implemented by Nghi Trung commune through practical models and tasks, demonstrating the spirit of solidarity and consensus "Party's will - People's heart" to join hands to build the homeland. Thanks to that, from a purely agricultural commune with uneven intellectual level, 25% of the population following Catholicism with 1 parish, 4 chapels, and fragmented agricultural production area, Nghi Trung commune has made a strong transformation, meeting the criteria for advanced new rural areas. It is even more honorable that in 2022, the Party Committee and people of Nghi Trung commune (Nghi Loc) were awarded a Certificate of Merit by the Central Propaganda Department for outstanding examples nationwide in "Studying and following the ideology, morality and style of Ho Chi Minh".