New rural commune of Quynh Yen flourishes

Nguyen Hai• DNUM_CFZAEZCABJ 10:56

(Baonghean) - The day of receiving the Certificate of recognition of the commune meeting the NTM standards also coincided with the occasion of Thuong Yen village's 585th anniversary of its formation and the 65th anniversary of the commune's establishment, so the joy of Quynh Yen people was doubled.

Located on the eco-tourism route connecting National Highway 1A to the Quynh coastal tourist area and having inter-commune traffic routes running through, Quynh Yen is considered quite convenient for trade and travel, but because it is a purely agricultural commune, the economy depends on agriculture, in which the main occupations are rice cultivation and salt making, so the economic life of the commune faces many difficulties; while Quynh Yen is also a commune of a special area (5/12 hamlets and 60% of the population are Catholics).

At the time of implementing the National Target Program on New Rural Development (NTM), the commune had only met 5/19 criteria. At the same time, essential items such as electricity, roads, schools and especially cultural and sports facilities in communes and hamlets had not had investment sources for a long time, so they were quite inadequate...

Một góc xã nông thôn mới Quỳnh Yên (Quỳnh Lưu). Ảnh: Nguyễn Hải

A corner of the new rural commune of Quynh Yen (Quynh Luu). Photo: Nguyen Hai

Identifying that building a new rural area is a good opportunity to upgrade essential infrastructure and improve people's income, we cannot help but try.

"After accepting the policy on building new rural areas, the commune established a Steering Committee and a Management Board for the new rural area program from the commune to the hamlet. Quynh Yen immediately began to survey the current situation to develop a project, plan and roadmap to report to the Party Committee and submit to the Commune People's Council for approval. After building and adjusting the detailed planning according to the new standards, the commune increased propaganda and mobilized the people, choosing the easy criteria to do first and the difficult ones later. Quynh Yen proactively chose the traffic criteria to implement first, to both upgrade the infrastructure and make people see the benefits of building new rural areas, thereby encouraging the hamlets, regardless of whether they are Catholic or non-Catholic, to all join in."

Ms. Bui Thi Thanh - Secretary of Quynh Yen Commune Party Committee

After more than 6 years, with the province's cement support and combined investment from projects of children far from home, Quynh Yen mobilized over 39 billion VND to renovate with concrete 15.6 km (100%) of inter-commune roads; harden 7/7 km of inter-hamlet roads, 100% of intra-hamlet roads and 84% of intra-field roads.
To ensure irrigation water for 86% of rice area, Quynh Yen commune integrated and invested nearly 14 billion VND to upgrade and solidify 32.75 km of N2 irrigation canal, level 3 canal system and drainage canal system connecting to main canals in the area, local drought situation has significantly reduced, rice productivity is increasingly high.

Phụ nữ xóm 4, xã Quỳnh Yên (Quỳnh Lưu) phục hồi nghề mây tre đan.

Women in Hamlet 4, Quynh Yen Commune (Quynh Luu) revive the bamboo and rattan weaving craft. Photo: Nguyen Hai

As a commune in a special area with a large population, always lacking classrooms and children having to "study in temporary or borrowed classrooms", along with investing in upgrading essential infrastructure, Quynh Yen focuses on investing to overcome limitations in facilities for education, health care and culture...

To implement the above criteria, after agreeing on the policy, the Commune Party Committee directed the Commune People's Committee to deploy the project and plan to mobilize resources to build schools and health stations to soon meet national standards. Thanks to focused investment and effective use of external capital continuously in the 2 school years from 2013 - 2014, the commune's primary and secondary schools have met national standards. At the same time, in 2013, the commune also met national standards on health. At the end of 2017, the commune's kindergarten was also recognized as meeting standards.
Thus, in 6 years of starting to build a new rural area, despite being a poor commune, Quynh Yen has made efforts to invest nearly 35 billion VND in educational and medical facilities. In addition, with timely support from the province and district, Quynh Yen has completed upgrading sports and cultural facilities in the commune center and hamlets; built a water plant, bringing clean water to 65% of households and hygienic water to 98% of households. Up to now, the commune has 9/12 hamlets achieving the title of Cultural Village, 3/5 parish hamlets have cultural houses. Mobilizing resources to upgrade the commune's cultural and sports facilities, mobilizing organizations and people to participate in maintaining environmental hygiene...

Quynh Yen village gate. Photo: Nguyen Hai

In order to increase income and create more jobs for people, Quynh Yen commune also invested nearly 8 billion VND to upgrade Dong Quat commercial market so that people have conditions to do business; converted and established a salt cooperative and 2 agricultural cooperatives to consume salt and provide agricultural services for people; created conditions and encouraged people to import secondary jobs, expand services, export labor and work far away...

Currently, the average income of people has increased from 15 million VND (2012) to 32 million VND/person/year, the poverty rate is 3.89%.

"In addition to the efforts of the political system, the people and children living far from home, the locality is fortunate to receive timely support from the Ministry of Planning and Investment, because Quynh Yen is one of three communes nationwide to be piloted for support. Of the total budget of 240 billion VND that Quynh Yen commune mobilized to build the new rural area, the combined investment budget resources are quite large at 138 billion VND. People contributed 16 billion VND; the rest is invested by children living far from home and credit support".

Mr. Ho Duc Luyen - Chairman of Quynh Yen Commune People's Committee

Today, when I returned to Quynh Yen, I not only witnessed the essential infrastructure being upgraded, but also the cultural symbols of the village being restored when the children of the commune sponsored billions of VND to rebuild the village gate; the people donated land to open roads, together planted and cared for flowers and trees along the road leading to the commune. This is a great source of encouragement for the commune's political system to continue to make efforts and be more determined to strive.
The day of receiving the Certificate of recognition of the commune meeting the NTM standards also coincided with the occasion of Thuong Yen village's 585th anniversary and the commune's 65th anniversary, so the joy of Quynh Yen people was doubled.

Believing that with the spirit of solidarity towards building the homeland, generations of Quynh Yen people will continue to strive, together with the commune Party Committee and government to maintain and constantly improve the quality of the new rural criteria, building the old Thuong Yen village and the present Quynh Yen commune to become increasingly rich and rich in cultural identity.