Nghe An adjusts criteria for building new rural areas and advanced new rural areas

The “difficult” criteria

Con Cuong district currently has 3 communes that have met the new rural standards. At the village level, there are 31 units that have met the standards and that number has increased every year: If in 2022 only 3 villages and hamlets met the standards, then by 2023 there were 26 villages and hamlets and now from 2024 to October, there have been 5 more villages and hamlets. The construction of villages and hamlets that meet the new rural standards is part of the roadmap towards building standard communes of the districts.

According to Mr. Lo Van Ly - Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Con Cuong district, in the highland areas, there are many criteria in the set of new rural standards at the village, hamlet and commune levels that are difficult to implement; such as income, labor and employment criteria. In particular, criterion No. 12.3 stipulates the rate of labor working in key economic sectors, but currently no commune in Con Cuong district has achieved it.

Regarding this issue, according to the provisions of Decision No. 1563/QD-UBND dated June 7, 2022 of the Provincial People's Committee on criteria for new rural construction on the labor rate, the labor rate in key economic sectors in the fields of agriculture, forestry and fishery must be below 30%; in key economic sectors in the field of industry - construction must be above 40%, and in key economic sectors in the service sector must be above 30%. This regulation on labor structure applied to mountainous localities is almost impossible to implement when the trend of people going to work far away is increasing.

Furthermore, the service, industrial and construction sectors in mountainous areas are still underdeveloped, mainly concentrated in towns and some commune centers. Some communes have almost no or very few industrial and service production facilities, so the proportion of local workers in these sectors can be "counted on the fingers".

Studying this reality in other mountainous districts such as Ky Son, Tuong Duong, Que Phong, Quy Hop, etc., we also noted the opinions of Party committees and authorities on the difficulties in meeting the regulations on labor rate according to criterion No. 12.3 in Decision 1563. Those difficulties and problems have been reflected by localities, reported to competent authorities and proposed to be adjusted to suit the implementation practice at the grassroots level.

Adjust criteria according to practice

Taking note of the above reflections, through the meetings, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision 2022/QD-UBND dated August 8, 2024 (Decision No. 2022) on amending and regulating a number of contents and criteria for communes meeting new rural standards, communes meeting advanced new rural standards; districts meeting new rural standards, districts meeting advanced new rural standards in the province for the period 2021-2025.

In the adjustments in Decision No. 2022, regarding criterion 12.3 regulating the rate of laborers working in key economic sectors in the area, the Provincial People's Committee has decided to abolish the content of the regulation in Decision No. 1563/QD-UBND dated June 7, 2022. The abolition of regulation 12.3, according to the highland localities, will greatly help "remove difficulties" in the process of striving to achieve new rural standards for villages, hamlets, and communes that meet the requirements of completing commune-level criteria.

In addition, Decision No. 2022 also amends the content of criterion 13.4 on applying digital technology to trace the origin of the commune's key products. Specifically: At least 1 key agricultural product of the commune has an electronic traceability system established by production and business establishments to ensure the requirements for storing and retrieving information at each stage from production to storage, processing and trading of products.

Thus, this new regulation has an “upgrade” compared to the old regulation. If the old regulation only required production and business establishments to set up an electronic system to trace the origin of products, the new regulation adds requirements for storing and tracing the origin of products at all stages from origin to production and trade of products.

In addition, Decision No. 2022 also amends a number of other criteria for communes meeting new rural standards, including some contents of criteria No. 8, 12, 13, 17 and 18.

For example, environmental criteria: Criterion 17.10 stipulates the rate of cremation. In communes in the following localities: Vinh city, Hoang Mai town, Nam Dan, Hung Nguyen, Nghi Loc, Quynh Luu, Dien Chau, it must reach a minimum of 10%. Communes in Thanh Chuong, Do Luong, Yen Thanh, Nghia Dan districts and Thai Hoa town must reach a minimum of 6%. Communes in the following districts: Anh Son, Tan Ky, Quy Hop, Con Cuong must reach a minimum of 3%. The remaining localities have not applied.

Regarding Criterion 18 on living environment quality, Section 18.2 stipulates that the average standard of domestic water supply per capita/day/night must be equal to or above 50 liters. Section 18.3 stipulates that the proportion of centralized water supply works with sustainable management and exploitation must be equal to or above 25%.

For new rural districts, Decision No. 2022 adjusts criteria No. 5 and No. 6. Specifically, Criterion No. 5 on culture, education and health adjusts item 5.5: Vocational Education and Continuing Education Center achieves level 1 education quality accreditation (implemented when a new document is issued by the Ministry of Education and Training), or achieves level 1 education quality accreditation according to regulations in Circular No. 42/2012/TT-BGDDT dated November 23, 2012 of the Minister of Education and Training, for the assigned functions and tasks of the Vocational Education and Continuing Education Center (implemented until a new document replaces it).

Criterion No. 6 on economy, adjusting item 6.4: Having an effective agricultural technology center or agricultural technology transfer unit. The requirement to be achieved is to have an effective agricultural technology transfer unit (District Agricultural Service Center) when meeting the requirements prescribed in Decision No. 896/QD-BNN-VPDP dated April 1, 2024 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the following requirements: Transferring at least 10 models, techniques, and technologies in agriculture/year for assessment and recognition. Training and coaching of at least 50 farmers and cooperative members/year for assessment and recognition. Consulting on policies, production linkages, and market connections for at least 20 production linkage contracts/year for assessment and recognition.

For advanced new rural districts, Decision No. 2022 adjusts 1 content of Criterion No. 5 on culture, education and health. Specifically, adjusting item 5.5: Vocational Education and Continuing Education Center achieves level 2 education quality accreditation (implemented when a new document is issued by the Ministry of Education and Training); or achieves level 2 education quality accreditation according to the provisions of Circular No. 42/2012/TT-BGDDT dated November 23, 2012 of the Minister of Education and Training, for the assigned functions and tasks of the Vocational Education and Continuing Education Center (implemented until a new document replaces it).