Nghe An strives to sustainably reduce poverty in the highlands

(Baonghean) - Nghe An is one of the localities that has just been issued a Decision by the Government's Ethnic Committee to adjust communes in areas I, II, III in ethnic and mountainous areas, and at the same time approved the list of particularly difficult villages and hamlets to complete the goals of Program 135. Regarding this issue, Nghe An Newspaper reporter interviewed comrade Luong Thanh Hai - Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Head of the Ethnic Committee of Nghe An province.

PV:Could you tell us what conditions are required for communes and villages in our province to be adjusted in area by the Ethnic Committee and recognized as having completed the goals of Program 135?

Comrade Luong Thanh Hai:Along with the efforts from the people, in recent times, implementing the policies of the Party and the State, Nghe An has focused on promoting programs and projects associated with sustainable poverty reduction, prioritizing investment in this area.

In particular, in allocating resources, in addition to the general policies enjoyed according to regulations, every year, the province prioritizes capital to implement the new rural development program to invest in production development and build essential infrastructure for communes, villages and hamlets with special difficulties. According to statistics, on average, a commune, village or hamlet in a particularly difficult area benefits from over 20 types of policies each year.

Brocade weaving contributes to increasing income for people in Hoa Tien 1 village (Chau Tien commune, Quy Chau)

Poverty reduction policies have been implemented in accordance with the Party and State's policies, so they have brought about positive results, successfully eliminating hunger and reducing poverty, contributing significantly to the implementation of socio-economic development, national defense and security goals of the province, directly affecting the quality of people's lives.

It can be affirmed that thanks to programs and projects, many welfare works such as electricity, roads, schools, stations, domestic water works, production development support projects, residential land support, production land support, housing support, domestic water have been newly built for thousands of beneficiary households.

In the 2011-2015 Program 135 alone, the level of support from the state budget for the infrastructure investment support project phase III is 1 billion VND/year for each commune; each particularly disadvantaged village or hamlet is supported with 200 million VND/year. The level of support for the production development project from the state budget is 300 million VND/year for each commune, 50 million VND/hamlet/year. Not to mention the capital combined and mobilized from projects, organizations, individuals...

Along with that, the province has policies and implemented directions, assigning agencies, units, and enterprises to help poor communes in border areas build infrastructure, welfare works to serve people's lives, and support production development. For example, implementing the program "Joining hands for the community - Breeding cows to help the poor in border areas", from August 2014 to now, the Provincial Border Guard Command has coordinated with Viettel Company to organize 10 rounds of giving away 3,659 breeding cows, each worth 15 million VND to 3,659 poor households in border communes in the province. Of which, Thanh Chuong district has 750 cows, Anh Son 200 cows, Que Phong 610, Con Cuong 450 cows, Tuong Duong 430 cows, Ky Son 1,219 cows. With a total cost of 54 billion 885 million VND...

These are the conditions that create the premise and foundation for especially disadvantaged communes, villages and hamlets to have the motivation to rise up and meet the criteria to be included in the adjustment list by the Ethnic Committee as well as complete the goals of Program 135.

However, it should also be added that the criteria for communes, villages and hamlets to exit Program 135 are not only the criteria for poor households, but also many other criteria. Meanwhile, reality also shows that the infrastructure and social-cultural systems in the areas benefiting from Program 135 still have many difficulties and shortcomings. This is also one of the difficulties in maintaining the results achieved in the past time.

PV:According to you, to what extent has there been a change in the economic awareness and thinking of people in the Western region, because in reality, there is still a mentality of waiting and relying on others, not wanting to escape poverty, among some households. And is it true that some local authorities have “given the green light” for this mentality?

Comrade Luong Thanh Hai:In fact, not only in the highlands and ethnic minority areas, but also in some mountainous areas in general in the province, there exists a paradox of wanting to be poor households, "poor people do not want to escape poverty". For many households, to "be" poor, they have to "strive", "enter" but do not want to "exit".

Because of limited awareness, there is still a mindset of dependence and waiting to "like" poverty, which has turned the support of poverty reduction policies and programs into fertile ground, from which the tricks of "running, asking" to become poor households or wanting to continue being poor households arise... causing the assessment of poor households in many localities to become harsh and not excluding negative aspects in the assessment of "in and out" of poverty.

In line with the people's psychology, it cannot be denied that in some places, local government officials do not want to be removed from the investment list of Program 135 so that the locality can continue to enjoy the policies...

PV:So, in the long term, what needs to be done to maintain sustainable poverty reduction results, so that households that have escaped poverty do not "return to poverty"?

Comrade Luong Thanh Hai:It can be said that the poverty reduction results in our province are still not sustainable, the rate of poor households is decreasing rapidly but the rate of re-poverty is still high, especially a part of the poor do not want to escape poverty, many families are not poor but also voluntarily apply to become poor households to enjoy preferential treatment from the Party and State.

Thach Giam Commune, Tuong Duong District - the first 30a commune in the country to meet new rural standards.

To solve the above situation, Party committees, authorities and organizations need to pay more attention to doing better propaganda work so that people can clearly understand and grasp the State's policies, arouse the will to rise up and be determined to escape poverty, and make poor households believe that they will escape poverty to push back the mindset of waiting, relying and giving up that has more or less been ingrained in their awareness.

To do this, it is necessary to focus on innovation and improve the effectiveness of propaganda work in many forms such as: direct propaganda through conferences at the commune, village, and household levels... Accordingly, focus on training to improve the capacity of officials working in poverty reduction through implementing training and fostering projects for officials working in poverty reduction with funding support from the National Target Program on Poverty Reduction.

At the same time, guide people on methods and techniques to develop the economy; encourage, motivate and commend poor households to use capital effectively and escape poverty soon; promptly motivate households facing risks in their business activities, mobilize the attention of the community and society to help and support. Seriously implement the assessment of poor households from residential areas, be public and democratic in the assessment; resolutely eliminate the practice of "sending" brothers, relatives or taking turns "entering" poor households due to favoritism...

Along with the above methods, it is thought that the goal of sustainable poverty reduction and policies need to go hand in hand. For households in particular, villages and communes in general that have just escaped poverty, the Government needs to reserve basic policies on capital, training in production techniques, health care, education, etc. for 2-3 years. This is both the basis for poor households to have the opportunity to escape poverty sustainably, as well as not giving rise to the mentality of not wanting to escape poverty.

PV:Thank you comrade!

Dang Cuong (performed)