Unlocking development resources for 27 border communes in Nghe An

(Baonghean) - To support and facilitate border communes with many difficulties in socio-economic development and to complete the criteria for new rural construction, Nghe An province is building a "Development Project for 27 border communes".

"Difficulty is forcing intelligence"

Tri Le border commune, Que Phong district has unfavorable natural conditions and limited economic and social infrastructure, posing many challenges in implementing the new rural construction program.

Mr. Vi Van Cuong - Chairman of the Commune People's Committee said: With the conditions of a remote, border commune, large area, large population, scattered population, high poverty rate, low education level, and lack of infrastructure to serve people's lives, completing the criteria for building new rural areas according to plan is really difficult. Especially the criteria that require a lot of capital such as irrigation, transportation, electricity, schools, cultural houses, poverty reduction... Therefore, although implementing the National Target Program on building new rural areas at the same time as many other localities, up to now Tri Le has only temporarily achieved 7/19 new rural criteria including: Planning, political system, national defense - security, education, health, production organization and environment.

Nam Can Commune (Ky Son). Photo: PV

The biggest difficulty in building a new rural area for Tri Le is that the commune still has 8 villages without roads and 8 villages without national grid electricity, which are: Ta Phan, Bo, D1, D2, Na Tui, Na Chang... The government and people here hope that all levels will pay attention to investing in building roads to the villages and bringing grid electricity for people to use.

Mr. Lu Van Dung - Deputy of Bo village, Tri Le commune shared: Although people in the village still have difficult lives, when the State supports cement, they are willing to sell livestock to contribute money to build roads. But with the criterion of electricity, it is unavoidable, we have to wait for the State to invest...

Chairman of Que Phong District People's Committee, Mr. Le Van Giap, said: Although in recent years the State has invested a lot of capital to implement economic development models in border communes, because the population is mainly ethnic minorities, low income, high poverty rate, it is very difficult to mobilize people to contribute money to build new rural areas. Up to now, 4 border communes of the district: Tri Le, Nam Giai, Hanh Dich and Thong Thu have only achieved 6-7 criteria/commune.

In Ky Son district, there are 11 border communes bordering Laos. The difficulties in the border area are a major obstacle to the construction of new rural areas. Mr. La Van Chanh - Vice Chairman of the District People's Committee said: The border communes in Ky Son have an important role and position in the district and the province. This is also the largest rice production area in the district with an area of ​​over 70%, providing many specialties such as black chicken, Mong pig, mustard greens, plums, etc.

In particular, border communes play an important role in national defense and security. However, the lives of people in the border areas in Ky Son are currently facing many difficulties. The poverty rate here is still over 61.7%, the average income per capita is 12 million VND/year. The average number of criteria achieved by border communes is still low. Only 9 communes meet 5 criteria, 1 commune meets 6 criteria and 1 commune meets 8 criteria.

Tri Le border commune, Que Phong district currently has 8 villages without roads to the village center. Photo: Xuan Hoang

The difficult situation of the communes in Que Phong and Ky Son mentioned above is also the common situation of other border communes in Nghe An province. The whole province has 27 border communes, mainly agricultural land, no infrastructure for industrial clusters, small-scale industries, the traffic system has a total of 516.3 km of commune roads, 272.51 km of which have been hardened, reaching 52.8%. Particularly, the village (hamlet) roads are 500.62 km, 103.49 km of which have been hardened, reaching 21%. However, due to the complex climate and terrain, most of the roads are now degraded.

With many investment programs, in 27 communes there are 201 irrigation works, 100 of which have been reinforced, reaching 49.5%; there are 313 km of canals, of which 153.6 km have been reinforced, reaching 49.1%. However, the growth rate in border communes is slow and unsustainable; the poverty rate is high at 46.3%; the average income is low at 15.3 million VND/person/year, equal to 48.6% of the province's average. Infrastructure still has many shortcomings. On average, border communes only meet 7.4 NTM criteria/commune.

Expect “acceleration” solutions

In recent years, with the attention of the Party and the State, many programs and projects have come to the West and to ethnic minorities. However, resources and potentials have not been exploited and there have been no policies to create leverage for communes to make breakthroughs in development.

Faced with that reality, Nghe An province has drafted a separate development project for 27 border communes. According to Mr. Le Van Giap - Chairman of Que Phong District People's Committee, in order for border communes to have conditions to develop the economy and build new rural areas, in addition to investing in road construction and electricity, the State needs to have policies to support long-term stability of life, by building a long-term economic development model; there needs to be a policy to increase the level of annual forest management support.

Mr. La Van Chanh - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Ky Son district proposed: Sustainable development is an inevitable need and aspiration, desire of people in border communes. All levels and sectors need to have more active incentive policies in agricultural and forestry development, focusing on growing specialty crops (such as fragrant rice, taro, squash, vermicelli, Shan snow tea, ginger, various green vegetables).

In addition, there are policies for people to develop livestock farming of buffalo, cows, local goats, black chickens, black pigs, medicinal herbs, and forest by-products such as dong leaves, bamboo shoots, etc. The core issue is that there needs to be businesses that cooperate with the government and people to take care of product output.

Taro - one of the outstanding products of Ky Son district. Photo: Quang An

Referring to the Project to implement the National Target Program on New Rural Construction in 27 extremely disadvantaged communes and border areas of Nghe An province, Mr. Nguyen Van Hang - Deputy Chief of the Provincial New Rural Office said: After the project is completed, the province will propose the Government to soon approve the implementation and issue a special support mechanism for new rural construction in communes, focusing on supporting the construction of essential infrastructure, building a model for developing commodity production from the forest economy and effective forest land to create jobs and increase income for people...

Harvesting green squash in Ky Son. Photo: Quang An

In addition to state capital, provinces, districts and localities also launched a movement to call on businesses, philanthropists and socio-political organizations to help especially disadvantaged communes in border areas. Integrate and prioritize capital sources managed by ministries and branches to invest in implementing the project; propose ODA sources to prioritize implementation specifically for the project.

At the same time, the agricultural sector will review, adjust and supplement the new rural planning in conjunction with the socio-economic planning and the border population arrangement planning according to Decision 570/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister; will allocate resources for new investment and upgrading of rural infrastructure works to gradually meet the criteria for building new rural areas.

PV Group