The foundation for economic development

(Baonghean) - Quy Chau district has great potential for developing forestry economy associated with eco-tourism. To exploit that advantage, in the coming time, the locality will focus on investing in infrastructure construction, land allocation, and forest contracting as a solid lever for economic development...

Currently, the transportation network to remote areas of Quy Chau is not guaranteed, agricultural products made by local people are difficult to sell, and the selling price is different. Many key roads connecting Tan Lac Town to the inner communes have not been invested in upgrading, and in the rainy season, there are often landslides and mud, affecting the economic development of the locality. To overcome this situation, in the coming time, Quy Chau will prioritize investment in upgrading some roads. That is the road from the Town to Chau Phong and Chau Hoan to exploit the vast land potential, plant forests, medicinal plants, and incense roots, providing raw materials for Quy Chau incense village, associated with eco-tourism from Tam Bong Hydropower Lake; the road connecting to the commune centers of Chau Hoi, Chau Hanh, Chau Binh, Chau Thang, becomes a raw material route, creating conditions for people to develop socio-economically. Although the school system at all levels and commune health stations have been invested in and built through state investment programs, many of the construction works have been degraded for many years. To improve the quality of education and build schools that meet national standards, Quy Chau will allocate appropriate investment capital.

Making incense at Mr. Doan Doan Thang's household in Block 1, Tan Lac Town (Quy Chau). Photo: N. Son

In addition to investing in infrastructure construction, Quy Chau also cares about providing production materials for people. Quy Chau has more than 80% of its population working in agriculture and forestry, but in reality, only 70% of households have been allocated forestry land, the rest do not have forestry land to develop the forest economy, while the whole district has only 1,800 hectares of land for wet rice production. Therefore, for a long time, people have only been assigned to protect and preserve forests, with insignificant income. In order for people to sustainably eliminate poverty, the main income from afforestation, it is necessary to have production materials. Therefore, in the coming time, the locality will coordinate with relevant levels and sectors to adjust forestry land from forestry units in the area, and pay attention to allocating forestry land to people. In the process of allocating forestry land to people, priority will be given to allocating forestry land areas that are favorable for afforestation. When people own the land, they can grow raw material forests, medicinal plants, fruit trees, grass for livestock raising... From there, they create specialized areas for crops with high economic value, associated with the development of family farms and farms. In recent years, many households have boldly invested in building family farms and farms, but the scale is not large. Currently, each farm only has 3-5 hectares of land. In the coming time, the locality will create policies for households doing farms to expand the area, possibly expanding to dozens of hectares, creating favorable conditions for farm owners to produce agricultural products with larger quantities of goods.

At the same time, allocate capital to build new irrigation works and repair and upgrade some irrigation works, to proactively provide irrigation water for crops in some localities that do not have irrigation water. Through the survey, it is possible to build Ke Ninh dam in Chau Binh, located in the satellite lake cluster of Ban Mong reservoir. Repair some irrigation works in Chau Binh, Chau Hoi, Chau Thang.

To invest in those essential infrastructure projects, the locality needs a huge amount of capital every year. As a locality that mainly develops agriculture and forestry, the trade and service sectors have not yet developed, so although the budget revenue increases every year, it is not significant, each year the local budget revenue only reaches 20 billion VND, so it is difficult to socialize into infrastructure investment. Therefore, the capital source for infrastructure investment, Quy Chau determined to rely mainly on investment from the Central and the province, through national target programs.

In the coming time, Quy Chau has identified two urgent issues that need to be implemented, which are to continue investing in building infrastructure, creating a solid foundation for localities to develop socio-economy; and to pay attention to solving forestry land for people to own the means of production. Solving these two factors well is the condition for Quy Chau to exploit the potential of land and people, create jobs, increase income, and sustainably reduce poverty for people in the coming years.

Ngo Duc Thuan

(Chairman of People's Committee of Quy Chau district)