Nghe An has 4 communes and 25 villages leaving the 135 program.

(Baonghean.vn) - Although the investment and support sources for poverty reduction are large,only 4 communes, 25 villagesout of program 135 phase 2011-2016, but on the contrary the list of communes under program 135 wascontinue to add 1 moreThis raises concerns about solutions to sustainable poverty reduction?

That was the issue raised at the working session of the Provincial People's Council Standing Committee with the Ethnic Committee on the morning of April 20 according to the plan to monitor the implementation of the sustainable poverty reduction program.

Comrade Le Hong Vinh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Chairman of the Provincial Party Inspection Committee, Head of the Economic - Budget Committee of the Provincial People's Council chaired the meeting. Also attending were Comrade Nguyen Thanh Hien - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation; representatives of a number of provincial departments and branches. Photo: Mai Hoa

According to the report of comrade Luong Thanh Hai - Head of the Provincial Ethnic Minorities Committee: The mountainous and ethnic minority areas account for over 83% of the area with 41% of the province's population, of which ethnic minorities account for 15.3%. The whole region has 101 communes in area III, 59 communes in area II, 92 communes in area I with 1,163 extremely difficult villages and hamlets.

Up to now, the 135 program has been implemented in 4 phases, creating positive changes in the appearance and life of people in mountainous and ethnic minority areas in the province. In phase III (2011 - 2015) alone, in the areas benefiting from the program, over 666 billion VND has been supported to build works. Specifically, 75 new irrigation works have been built and many degraded irrigation works have been renovated and upgraded; 806 km of new roads and 496 inter-village and inter-hamlet traffic works; 151 school works; 11 electricity works; 249 community houses...

Comrade Luong Thanh Hai - Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Head of the Provincial Ethnic Minorities Committee, said: In 2016, Nghe An had 1 commune and 1 commune added to the list of beneficiaries of the Government's 135 program. Photo: Mai Hoa

Support to ensure livelihoods and reduce poverty for people is implemented such as: training in agricultural and forestry extension; support for crops and livestock; building models; purchasing equipment for production, with a total cost of nearly 115 billion VND.

The poverty rate in 172 communes benefiting from the 135 program decreased from 50.22% (according to the old standard in 2010) to 36.93% (according to the new standard in 2015).

However, at the meeting, the two sides discussed the existing problems, limitations and shortcomings in practice. Giving some examples, Ms. Nguyen Thi Lan, Deputy Head of the Culture - Social Committee, Provincial People's Council, said that the support of sectors and localities for some poverty reduction models has not been focused; some models exist only spontaneously by families. Support for purchasing production tractors for fragmented land conditions in mountainous and ethnic areas has not been effective. There are also limitations in building and replicating models and supporting some plants and animals that are not suitable for the climate, soil and soil to be effective.

Ms. Thai Thi An Chung - Deputy Head of the Legal Department, Provincial People's Council and Mr. Nguyen Duc Thanh - Head of the Democracy - Law Committee, Provincial Fatherland Front Committee, raised issues related to the quality and efficiency of projects supported by investment in mountainous areas, low ethnic minority areas, raising the issue of the role of people's participation in construction projects as well as the role of community investment supervision...

The monitoring delegation of the Provincial People's Council Standing Committee studied the economic model in Que Son commune, Que Phong district. Photo: Mai Hoa

Concluding the meeting, in addition to affirming the effectiveness of the implementation of poverty reduction programs and projects as well as recognizing the participation of the Provincial Ethnic Committee in this work, comrade Le Hong Vinh emphasized: To sustainably reduce poverty, the most important thing is the role of functional agencies from issuing mechanisms and policies to ensuring suitability, practicality and coordination for effective implementation.

In particular, local authorities also need to change their thinking and awareness to be determined to help their localities escape poverty, avoiding the situation of relying on not only the people but also the officials to enjoy investment support policies. Focus on assessing and classifying poor households accurately; clarifying poverty due to lack of labor, poverty due to lack of capital and production knowledge, poverty due to laziness, poverty due to social evils...; thereby having specific and appropriate impacts, avoiding leveling, generalization, and ineffectiveness.

Also according to comrade Le Hong Vinh: To sustainably reduce poverty, it is necessary to invest in projects, however, it is necessary to change the implementation method, in which the selection of investment items and design appraisal must be given special attention so that investment projects can be effective; attention must be paid to training, transfer of production science and technology, construction and replication of livelihood models, and sustainable poverty reduction./.

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