Nghi Duc (Vinh City) strongly targets the central area of ​​Vinh city

(Baonghean) - Nghi Duc Commune is located in the Northeast of Vinh City, about 3 km from the city center. In fact, entering a new development phase, especially since the implementation of the National Target Program on New Rural Development (NTM), Nghi Duc is facing many difficulties and challenges.

Identifying these difficulties, right from the beginning, after issuing the Resolution and Plan for implementing the New Rural Area in the period of 2011-2015, the commune established the Steering Committee and the Management Board for New Rural Area Construction and the Investment and Community Supervision Boards in 12 hamlets; at the same time, immediately conducted surveys and made plans. On the basis of the New Rural Area Construction Project, the commune collected public opinions and submitted them to the Commune People's Council for approval as a basis for implementation.

A corner of the new countryside in Xuan Hung hamlet, Nghi Duc commune (Vinh city). Photo: NH

From the actual survey and implementation of the NTM program in Nghi Duc commune, it can be seen that, compared to other communes, in addition to the low starting point (4/19 criteria), Nghi Duc also encountered difficulties right from the first criterion, which is planning. The reason is that after merging into the city (from Nghi Loc district), the planning of Vinh - Cua Lo avenue was also approved, in which the road width was determined to be 160m, the research scope on both sides of the avenue was 1.2 km wide.

With this plan, Vinh - Cua Lo Boulevard affects up to 310 hectares out of the total 570 hectares of natural land of the commune; next, the detailed construction planning of the commune disrupts the entire status quo, especially the traffic system and 90% of residential land, so the implementation of infrastructure investment faces many difficulties and obstacles; people cannot exercise their land use rights, so mobilizing resources from the people is very difficult. Therefore, although still implementing the criteria, the commune also determined that it will reach the finish line around 2017 - 2018.

Along with the survey to build a suitable implementation roadmap, comparing with the national criteria, Nghi Duc also found that the commune has a significant advantage in that nearly 90% of the total length of commune roads, inter-commune roads and village roads have been asphalted and concreted to meet standards, thus reducing a lot of pressure on investment capital and mobilizing people's strength. In addition, since merging with Vinh City, Nghi Duc commune has received great investment attention from the city, so the commune's essential infrastructure has been gradually upgraded. Within 4 years, although the target has not been set, by the end of 2015, Nghi Duc has achieved 14/19 criteria and the opportunity to reach the NTM finish line is gradually becoming clear.

Nghi Duc commune administrative headquarters. Photo: NH

With positive results, in early 2016, with the encouragement and motivation of the city, the Party Committee of Nghi Duc commune held a meeting to evaluate the results of building new rural areas, on that basis, issued a new Resolution on building new rural areas in the period of 2016-2020. In order to create changes in people's awareness, the commune organized many propaganda campaigns to make people understand their role as the main subject in building new rural areas; at the same time, organized the contest "All people join hands to build new rural areas", directed the construction of the model "Clean village about drugs"; the model "Peaceful parish, united to join hands to build new rural areas"; organized for Front officials and organizations to visit and learn from other communes' experiences in building new rural areas.

The commune also organizes many training courses on applying science and technology in converting crops and livestock; builds a project to develop production, create jobs, and increase income for people; introduces production models and occupations suitable to local conditions, and takes care of landscape protection and environmental sanitation.

Thanks to the above synchronous solutions, people have changed their awareness and have shared and accompanied the Party Committee, government and organizations on the goal of building and reaching the NTM target. In just over 6 years, from a purely agricultural commune with 70% of the area mainly producing seasonal rice, people have now boldly switched to summer-autumn rice production with 2 new varieties and considered winter crop production as the main crop. In addition to continuing to preserve and develop traditional occupations such as drum making, wine making, construction, formwork making... the whole commune currently has about 200 effective livestock farms that have created jobs and stable income for hundreds of thousands of workers. In 2011, the average income per capita was only 12 million VND, but now it has increased to nearly 30 million; the number of poor households has decreased from 7.5% to 1.9%.

In addition to developing traditional occupations, Nghi Duc people also develop household economy with high efficiency. Photo: NH

Along with the economic restructuring, with the city's investment attention, after more than 5 years, Nghi Duc commune has built 8/12 new hamlet cultural houses with an investment cost of nearly 11 billion VND; renovated kindergartens, commune offices, medical stations and commune center cultural houses, with a cost of tens of billions of VND. Currently, the commune has met national standards in health, 2 primary schools and kindergartens have met national standards.

In the movement of the whole people joining hands to build the new rural areas, the people of the hamlets not only take care of developing production but also have many activities contributing to the community such as building the new rural areas, maintaining security and order, ensuring environmental sanitation of the commune. Within 5 years, the people contributed and donated land worth nearly 8.5 billion VND to build the new rural areas; in which, Xuan Binh 14 hamlet, a Catholic hamlet but has achieved the title of Cultural Village and is a typical example of the city in terms of "Peaceful parish, united to join hands to build the new rural areas", dozens of Catholic households donated hundreds of square meters of land to open roads; Xuan Binh 13 hamlet and Xuan Trung hamlet are the hamlets that mobilized the most people to build rural roads and rebuild the hamlet cultural house...

Nghi Duc commune also has nearly 10 fine art and civil carpentry establishments creating jobs and high income for dozens of workers. Photo: NH

To complete 19/19 criteria and reach the NTM target 2 years ahead of schedule, within more than 6 years of building the NTM, Nghi Duc commune invested a total of nearly 75 billion VND. In the achievement of the NTM target of the commune, besides the efforts of the entire commune political system and the support of the people, the support of the province and the city plays a very important role. Not only paying attention and giving close and timely instructions, the city also allocated nearly 45 billion VND in the past 5 years to implement infrastructure projects. This resource, together with the local investment budget of over 14 billion VND, is the basis for the change in the rural appearance of the commune, contributing to the commune reaching the NTM target as planned.

Although Nghi Duc commune has reached the NTM finish line, there is still much work to be done in the coming time. Along with investment and continuing to consolidate the criteria, the commune must also prepare well the conditions and resources to implement infrastructure projects according to the city's planning. Nghi Duc strives to constantly innovate its thinking and effectively mobilize resources to build the commune stronger in politics and socio-economy, developing to be worthy of its position as the urban center of Vinh city in the future./.

Pham Huy Thong

(Party Secretary, Chairman of Nghi Duc Commune People's Council)