Experience in mobilizing people's strength in Nam Cat

(Baonghean) - Nam Cat is the second commune of Nam Dan district to complete 19/19 criteria for new rural construction with 39/39 contents. To achieve that result, the Party Committee and the commune government always focus on promoting grassroots democracy, publicizing all policies and tasks that need to be done at each stage so that "people know, people discuss, people do, people inspect".

Construction of surrounding wall of Nam Cat Commune People's Committee headquarters.

Mr. Hoang Dang Luong - Deputy of Da Cat Hamlet added: "Along with the implementation of the policy of land consolidation and plot exchange, the hamlet has built 30 hectares of specialized 3 crops/year. On that area, high-quality rice varieties such as AC5, NA2 are grown for seed sale, the average rice yield is 63 quintals/ha. The selling price of rice is 900 thousand VND/quintal, the average income is 80 million VND/ha, 1.5 times higher than the previously planted rice varieties. For the long-abandoned winter crop, the hamlet has mobilized families in need to voluntarily consolidate land, deploying 10 hectares of fish farming for the 3rd crop, the fish yield is 1.5 quintals/sao, the income is over 3 million VND/sao. The efficiency of agricultural land use has increased significantly...".

Nam Cat is a low-lying commune, currently has over 5,900 households, 468 hectares of agricultural land, of which 370 hectares are for rice cultivation, over 52 hectares for fish farming, and the remaining area is for growing crops. In 2012, the commune completed the master plan for new rural construction according to the national target program, period 2010 - 2020. Immediately after that, the commune focused on reviewing the criteria and synchronously implementing many solutions to build transport infrastructure, irrigation, cultural institutions, environment and improve the efficiency of the political system. Among those criteria, the most difficult to achieve are the criteria for transport, irrigation and cultural institutions because they require large funding sources. Faced with that reality, the commune Party Committee and government focused on mobilizing internal resources and people's strength to build essential infrastructure works.

Mr. Doan Thanh Dong - Vice Chairman of Nam Cat Commune People's Committee, said: "In addition to mobilizing capital from the Central Government, project capital, and local budget, the commune has done a good job of mobilizing people's strength by: Propagating to make people clearly aware of the purpose and meaning of the new rural construction project as "people do, people enjoy"; implementing well the democratic regulations openly and transparently from the stage of estimating, construction to finalizing the project. During that process, people supervise and give specific opinions to carry out the projects. In particular, the commune has done a good job of mobilizing people to contribute money and effort to build the village. The commune's viewpoint is "doing it from the alleys", easy criteria are done first, difficult areas promote resource mobilization..." With that way of doing things in Nam Cat, it has created high consensus, promoting collective democracy among the people. After nearly 3 years of implementing the national target program on new rural construction, with the solidarity, efforts and joint efforts of the entire political system, Nam Cat commune has mobilized a total investment capital of over 146 billion VND, of which more than 117 billion VND is contributed by the people, accounting for over 80% of the total investment capital for new rural construction.

Focusing on essential infrastructure construction has always been identified as a decisive breakthrough to help Nam Cat reach the finish line in building a new rural area. In the past 3 years, on the basis of 2,600 tons of cement provided by the State, the commune has completed the concreting of the following items: 13 km of commune-level roads meeting class A standards, reaching 100% of the total length, concreting 93% of village-level roads, 100% of alley roads and 70% of intra-field roads; combined with the conversion of communal land to re-plan the intra-field traffic system, ensuring the use of motor vehicles for production. Up to now, the canals have been solidified with concrete to ensure irrigation, prevent water loss, and ensure adequate water regulation during production seasons. The commune has also renovated and upgraded the commune's cultural house, and implemented the renovation of 4 cultural houses in Phu Nhuan, Dong Cham, Dai Thang and Boi hamlets; refurbishing 8 cultural houses in the remaining 8 hamlets... Up to now, according to the general survey results, Nam Cat has basically achieved 19/9 criteria, with 39/39 contents of building a new rural area. The commune is focusing on reaching the new rural area goal by the end of 2014.

One of the ways to help Nam Cat accelerate to the finish line early in building new rural areas is that the commune focuses on directing production development and increasing people's income. After converting land at the end of 2012, the average land use in Nam Cat decreased from 4.6 plots/household to 2 plots/household. Since then, people in the commune have built over 50 hectares of high-quality rice seed production areas, with productivity and rice output increasing by 15-20% compared to before. To improve production efficiency, people in the commune have purchased 112 plows, harvesters, combine threshers, and 2 transplanters for production. Thanks to that, Nam Cat has closed over 800 hectares of rice/year using machinery in some stages of the production process, creating conditions to increase economic value per unit area. At the same time, the commune also focuses on promoting labor export. Currently, the whole commune has over 700 people working in other countries, contributing to the shift in the rural labor structure; the average income in the commune reaches 27 million VND/person/year (an increase of 17 million VND compared to 2010).

Comrade Vuong Hong Thai - Secretary of the Party Committee of Nam Cat commune, said: “To complete 100% of the target of meeting the NTM standards by the end of 2014, the commune reviewed the criteria for the last time according to the requirements. The solidarity and high consensus of the people in the commune have contributed to the results achieved. On that basis, the Party Committee and the people of the commune continue to promote solidarity, join hands to build a new life; build synchronous cultural and sports institutions; continue to shift the production structure towards creating high value goods. At the same time, the commune focuses on shifting the economic structure towards strongly developing the service industry, thereby further improving the income and living standards of the people...”.

Luong Mai