Nam Dan on a new journey

(Baonghean) - To create a new, spacious rural appearance and improve people's lives, the Party Committee of Nam Dan district advocates promoting the right to mastery so that "people know, people discuss, people do, people inspect and people benefit". Persistently following that orientation, after 4 years of joining hands and unanimously implementing the national target program on new rural construction, Uncle Ho's hometown has seen many improvements.

Lotus Village Festival (Kim Lien Commune - Nam Dan). Photo: Sy Minh

New rural appearance

Determining that the task of building new rural areas (NTM) will create comprehensive development in each locality, contributing to promoting the overall development of the district, the Party Committee of Nam Dan district has issued Resolution No. 04 on implementing the national target program on building new rural areas, period 2010-2020. Accordingly, the Party Committee, government, Fatherland Front and organizations from the district to the grassroots level have joined in, struggling to find solutions for implementation. The top priority is to promote propaganda, promote democratic regulations, and well implement the motto "people know, people discuss, people do, people inspect and people benefit". Vice Chairwoman of the District People's Committee Le Thi Hang shared: "When the ideology is clear, creating consensus among the people, many families are willing to donate land, property, contribute money, working days, and mobilize maximum external resources from businesses to children far from home to contribute to building new rural areas".

As a result, after 4 years of building the new rural area, the entire Nam Dan district has solidified nearly 340 km of rural roads of all kinds; solidified nearly 70 km of canals; built 14 new commune People's Committee headquarters; 6 commune cultural houses and 69 hamlet cultural houses. Built and upgraded a number of classrooms at 42 schools at all levels; 15 commune health stations and upgraded and constructed many other works. The total investment value of construction is more than 834 billion VND, of which the people contributed nearly 191.4 billion VND, accounting for 23%. In addition, the people of the entire district voluntarily donated 121,000m2 of land, contributed more than 20,000 working days to expand and upgrade the new rural infrastructure. The appearance of villages, hamlets and communes has accordingly changed and improved.

Harvesting spring rice in Nam Giang. Photo: Sy Minh

In addition to building a spacious infrastructure, localities have also paid attention to collecting and treating waste, focusing on planting trees, creating a green - clean - beautiful environment. Many localities have implemented garbage pit models, sorting waste at each household and treating it centrally at the communal landfill. Some communes such as Kim Lien, Nam Cat, Nam Giang... have coordinated with Vinh Urban Environment Company to transport waste to Nghi Yen landfill for treatment. Most communes have implemented the campaign "All people unite to build a cultural life in residential areas". There are 200/320 hamlets meeting the standards of cultural villages, 82% of families have achieved the title of Cultural Family. Many communes have paid attention to building cultural institutions, doing a good job of preserving historical and cultural relics. Regarding the quality of education, there have been positive changes, on average each year there are over 100 students achieving the title of excellent students at the provincial level; there are 10 students achieving the title of excellent students at the national level. The political system is taken care of with increasingly standardized communal cadres, the activities of Party committees, authorities, the Fatherland Front and mass organizations are effectively innovated, the number of communes completing the political system criteria is 13/23 communes and towns. 23/23 communes meet the criteria for security and social order.

Improve people's lives

The goal of NTM is not only to change the face of the countryside, but also to improve the lives and incomes of the people. Therefore, in the process of building NTM in Nam Dan, the Party committees, authorities and the political system in Nam Dan focus on directing the promotion of production development, building and replicating economic models, and increasing people's income. In Kim Lien commune, in recent years, the models of "Building high-income fields", "Building large-scale fields", farm economy associated with the introduction of mechanization into production have increased income on the same area. Along with agriculture, Kim Lien promotes the development of industries, services and trade with 26 milling and animal feed processing machines, 275 small-scale trading households, 6 construction enterprises, 36 construction and carpentry teams, 25 transport vehicles, and 11 passenger cars. At the same time, the commune promotes labor export, with 247 people working abroad, bringing in foreign currency of about 30 - 32 billion VND annually. Thanks to the right economic restructuring, the average income per capita has continuously increased, reaching 26 million VND/person in 2014; the poverty rate has decreased to 3.9%.

Modern sewing line at Haivina Kim Lien Company - Nam Dan. Photo: MH

As for the mountainous commune of Nam Thai, which is one of the five most difficult communes in the district. To increase people's income, the commune has focused on changing the crop structure, increasing the frequency of land use, and increasing the value per unit area. Accordingly, many areas of garden land, hillsides, and mountain slopes in Nam Thai have been exploited, creating commodity production areas, such as models of growing Malabar spinach, lily, oranges, tangerines, persimmons, lemons, and green tea in the direction of commodities. Thanks to that, currently, Nam Thai has 100% of its production land area achieving an income of 50 million VND/ha/year or more, of which nearly 100 hectares have an income of over 80 million VND. Typically, some areas of lily, Malabar spinach, shallots... have an income of 150 to 300 million VND/ha/year.

Vice Chairwoman of the District People's Committee Le Thi Hang added: All localities in the district are focusing on the strength of agricultural production in the direction of goods. In fact, up to now, looking at the picture of Nam Dan's agricultural economy, it is easy to see each clear economic "streak", such as vegetables of Xuan Hoa, Nam Xuan, Nam Anh, Nam Thanh; sweet cotton of Nam Thai, hot peppers for export in Hung Tien, Khanh Son...; many economic models of livestock farms combined with fruit tree planting or applying science and technology, bringing mechanization into production, increasing income per unit area in Nam Cat, Kim Lien, Nam Giang. Livestock farming has gradually shifted from small-scale to concentrated in the direction of goods. The whole district currently has 685 small and medium-sized farms, of which 15 farms have revenue of over 1 billion VND/year, 19 farms have revenue from 500 million to 1 billion VND/year. The district has proactively strengthened joint ventures and partnerships with businesses from supplying seeds, agricultural materials, providing technical guidance to consuming agricultural products for farmers. From promoting the transformation of the agricultural economic structure, contributing to increasing income, eliminating hunger, reducing poverty, helping people to get rich, accelerating the process of building new rural areas in each locality. The average income per capita in the district in 2014 reached 24.5 million VND, an increase of 1.4 times compared to 2010.

With the great efforts of the entire political system from the district to the grassroots level and the active participation of the people as the main subject, the movement to build new rural areas in Nam Dan has achieved many results. At the end of 2014, Nam Dan district had 4 communes reaching the new rural area target, including Kim Lien, Nam Giang, Nam Cat, and Nam Trung. From the success and experience of the communes that have reached the target, the district continues to direct the expansion to the remaining 19 communes, striving to have 6 more communes reaching the standard in 2015, including Van Dien, Xuan Hoa, Nam Anh, Nam Xuan, Nam Thuong, and Nam Nghia communes. The results from the new rural area building program are creating a solid foundation for Nam Dan to develop comprehensively, in the direction of prosperity, civilization, and soon become a model district as Uncle Ho always wished.

Plum Blossom