Nghia Thai (Tan Ky): Improving the quality of sustainable NTM criteria

(Baonghean) - Starting to build a new rural area, the biggest concern and worry of Nghia Thai commune (Tan Ky) is the criteria for traffic and irrigation infrastructure.

» Priest Nguyen Dinh Thuc incites parishioners

Class time of teachers and students at Nghia Thai Primary School (Tan Ky). Photo: Nguyen Hai

After establishing the Steering Committee and the Management Board of the NTM program, the commune organized a review of the current status of the criteria; at the same time, it continuously organized meetings from the Party cell to the residential areas to thoroughly grasp the policy; continuously broadcast on the radio system typical examples of NTM construction and land donation for road construction among the people; organized many scientific and technical training courses on animal husbandry, tractor repair, and deployed model rice production in model fields for farmers.

Based on a correct assessment of the current situation, the commune agreed that all resources contributed by the people will be managed and regulated by the commune; in which, priority will be given to implementing unachieved criteria, gradually consolidating and improving the quality and sustainability of achieved criteria.

In the field of transportation - irrigation, by integrating project programs combined with mobilizing resources from the people, the commune mobilized 24.5 billion VND, of which the people contributed money and working days worth 17.8 billion VND to build 11.9 km of commune and inter-commune roads; poured concrete on 9.8 km of village roads; poured graded gravel on the entire 58.4 km of village roads and alleys, reaching 100% of the regulation. Along with investment in transportation, to ensure irrigation water for over 310 hectares of rice and growing crops, the commune invested over 3.1 billion VND to upgrade and repair 9 large and small pumping stations.

Class time of teachers and students at Nghia Thai Commune Kindergarten. Photo: Nguyen Hai.

To improve the quality of education and health care for the people, although the commune is still poor and people's income is not high, the commune still spends over 13 billion VND, of which people contribute over 4 billion VND, to basically upgrade the facilities of schools and health stations. In turn, in 5 years, 3/3 schools have met national standards; the commune has met national standards for health in phase 2 in 2014. Up to now, Nghia Thai Commune Health Station not only examines people in the commune but also serves people in some neighboring communes such as Tan Phu, Nghia Dong (Tan Ky), Ha Son (Quy Hop)...

Another priority of the commune is to support production models to increase people's income. The commune launched emulation movements to develop the economy in conjunction with implementing each new rural criterion. After implementing land consolidation and plot exchange, the commune put 30 hectares of land in Tan Thanh hamlet into production according to the large-scale field model; developed a number of livestock models towards high-value commodities, ensuring hygiene and disease safety; converted dozens of hectares of land in Bai Da hamlet from ineffective crop cultivation to growing raw sugarcane.

Brick production in Nghia Thai commune (Tan Ky). Photo: Nguyen Hai

The commune also opened many training and vocational training classes to create more jobs for the people; approached policies so that farmers could enjoy interest rate support when buying tractors and implementing large-scale fields; households with conditions could borrow capital from banks or the commune's People's Credit Fund to develop the economy.

Thanks to the above positive solutions, the commune has initially seen the emergence of a number of new tree and animal models and additional secondary occupations, contributing to creating jobs for hundreds of idle workers. In 5 years, the average income per capita in the commune has nearly doubled, from 11.5 million VND in 2011 to 22.2 million VND in 2016; 93.3% of workers have stable jobs; dozens of households have high-rise buildings and no longer have makeshift houses; the poverty rate has decreased from 16.4% to 5.08%.

Comrade Phan Kim Son - Secretary of the Party Committee of Nghia Thai commune shared: “To improve the lives of people in Nghia Thai, the most practical thing in building a new rural area is to develop transport infrastructure and schools. Once a commune that suffered from a degraded transport system, people were not at ease when seeing the dilapidated school facilities. So when mobilizing, people identified the goal, so they agreed and contributed to building schools and roads very conveniently. Today, the people are directly enjoying it, so everyone is excited and proud.

Road construction in Nghia Thai commune. Photo archive.

With the consensus and joint efforts to build a new homeland, the people of Nghia Thai commune not only contributed tens of billions of VND to rebuild the commune's essential infrastructure system but also mobilized and invested hundreds of billions of VND to rebuild houses and expand production and business.

From a commune that started the NTM program with only 6-7 criteria, after more than 5 years, Nghia Thai has completed the goal of reaching the finish line with all 19/19 criteria. Excited about the journey to the NTM finish line, but as Secretary of the Commune Party Committee Phan Kim Son shared his concerns: the commune still has some difficulties when some criteria have not achieved high results, on the issue of poverty reduction, some models and industries have difficulties in product output, and have not had the conditions to convert production technology...

Despite many challenges ahead, Nghia Thai is determined to perfect and maintain the NTM criteria and has a roadmap to strive to improve the quality of the criteria in a practical and sustainable direction.

Nguyen Hai