Recognizing the current situation, aiming for sustainability in new rural construction

(Baonghean) - The monitoring delegation of the Provincial People's Council has just surveyed the actual situation of new rural construction (NTM) in some districts: Thanh Chuong, Nam Dan and Con Cuong. Through this activity, the current situation was correctly assessed to contribute to the orientation of NTM construction in the period of 2016 - 2020. The issue is that localities need to accurately review, build a roadmap, and integrate resources to build NTM more effectively and sustainably.

Building rural roads in Nam Kim commune (Nam Dan). Photo: Van Truong

Encouraging achievements

With the active participation of the Party Committee, the government, organizations and the consensus and support of the people, the construction of new rural areas in the province is increasingly developing and going into depth. Many places have seen typical examples in the movement of building new rural areas, such as donating land to open roads, mobilizing resources, integrating effective programs and projects, and improving people's lives.

The most notable feature is that after 5 years of building the new rural area, our province has supported cement with a quantity of nearly 494,000 tons, of which nearly 478,000 tons have been supplied. During the process of building the new rural area, people have voluntarily donated land, contributed money, labor days... to build rural traffic, so up to now, 151/431 communes have met the traffic criteria, while in 2010, no commune met the traffic criteria.

Or the school criteria, by integrating the State's programs and projects, up to now the whole province has had 241/431 communes meeting the standards. Especially, the income criteria, in recent years, thanks to mobilizing many capital sources for production development, in the period of 2011 - 2015, the whole province has implemented 4,529 economic development models, including 1,166 crop models, 1,124 livestock models, 1,702 farm models, etc. and localities have implemented 62 large-scale fields, completing land consolidation and plot exchange.

People's lives are improving day by day. In 2010, the poverty rate was over 25%, but now it has decreased to 12.1%, and the average income per capita has increased to 19.6 million VND/person/year. This shows that the National Target Program for New Rural Development has had a positive impact on the spiritual and material life of the people, and the rural landscape has become more prosperous.

Up to now, the whole province has 117 communes basically meeting the new rural standards, of which 112 communes have been recognized by the Provincial People's Committee. The target by the end of 2016 is that the average of the whole province will reach 13 criteria/commune, 34 more communes will reach the new rural target, and 1 more district-level unit will meet the new rural standard; by 2020, the whole province will have 59% of communes meeting the new rural standards. To achieve this goal, the Provincial Steering Committee for the National Target Program on New Rural Construction has directed localities to continue to mobilize and integrate resources, contributions from organizations, individuals, and people, combined with local budgets and support from the State budget to invest in the new rural program.

Localities, depending on the actual situation, issue mechanisms and policies to support people to implement the contents of each criterion. In particular, promote production development, considering this a key and continuous task of the implementation of the new rural construction program. In particular, evaluate and replicate effective economic models, increase income for farmers to become rich. Implement the policy of restructuring the agricultural sector, aiming to increase value and sustainable development. Continue to implement the policy of supporting cement for rural roads according to the province's policy for communes registered to meet the standards this year, and communes with good rural traffic movements.

Need for sustainability

For the program of building new rural areas to be highly effective and sustainable, the supervision of the Provincial People's Council is very important, through which the advisory body and localities can recognize the weaknesses that need to be overcome. Therefore, in parallel with the direction and implementation of the branches and localities, the supervision of the People's Council is very important.

Through a recent survey in some districts: Thanh Chuong, Nam Dan and Con Cuong by the Provincial People's Council's monitoring delegation, it was shown that the current status of new rural construction in communes, besides the encouraging achievements, also has some weaknesses that need to be overcome. In particular, the most concerning issue is that many localities have not paid attention to sustainable income for farmers on the spot, most localities are interested in infrastructure construction. Some criteria: social security and order, environment; building economic development models; per capita income... and many other criteria lack sustainability.

Farmers in Thanh Van commune (Thanh Chuong) grow winter sweet potatoes.

Through surveys and working with all levels and sectors, comrade Hoang Viet Duong - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council said: Reality shows that, up to now, there are still some communes that have not done a good job of detailed planning; the work of advising, directing, appraising and recognizing communes that have met the new rural standards in many places has not been serious; some criteria have been completed but the sustainability is not high. Therefore, to achieve the set goals in building new rural areas in the period of 2016 - 2020, the new rural advisory agency needs to actively advise on implementation solutions, ensuring high creativity; it is necessary to organize a review of the criteria in communes that have not met the new rural standards, identify difficult criteria to focus on directing implementation.

At the same time, review resources; do not impose on people's mobilization; limit long-term debt, affecting the direction of implementing socio-economic development tasks in the locality. The problem is that communes need to proactively review and correctly assess the current status of implementing criteria in localities, avoiding competing for achievements. From there, build a roadmap for building new rural areas in the period of 2016 - 2020 to ensure the progress of the targets, thereby forecasting investment resources for building new rural areas in the whole period appropriately. Integrate well the resources of programs and projects into building new rural areas to advise the province. In addition, the province needs to have solutions for outstanding debts in communes that have met the new rural standards and orientations for the following years, in order to limit outstanding debts in the process of building new rural areas.

The overarching goal of building a new rural area is to improve the spiritual and material life of the people, creating the best conditions for people to develop the economy and stabilize their lives. Therefore, localities need to identify the right goals, organize implementation well, ensure that the criteria are achieved sustainably and can be improved in the future.

Xuan Hoang