Many mountainous communes have difficulty implementing new rural criteria.

Review the criteria

Last year,Nghe Anhas achieved the planned target of new rural communes, with 19/20 communes reaching the new rural finish line (currently 1 commune is waiting for the provincial recognition decision) and 13 communes reaching the advanced new rural standards. This is the result of the active participation of the Party Committee, government and people of the localities. From the results achieved in the new rural construction movement, the rural face has improved, and people's lives have been increasingly improved.

This year, the 10 communes registered to reach the NTM finish line are all in mountainous districts, with conditions not as favorable as those in lowland communes. Photo: Xuan Hoang

According to the province's plan, in 2022, the province strives to have 10 communes reaching the NTM target, 22 communes reaching the advanced NTM standard, 4 communes reaching the model NTM standard and 2 districts reaching the NTM target. It is worth noting that, for the 10 communes reaching the NTM target, the districts have registered as mountainous areas, with socio-economic conditions not yet catching up with the lowlands, so localities must make great efforts to achieve this.

Dong Van commune is a localityQue Phong districtchosen to finish the new rural area in 2022. This is a locality far from the district center, mostly inhabited by ethnic minorities, people's lives are still difficult, so when the district chose to finish the new rural area this year, the locality could not help but worry.

Mr. Luong Thai Quy - Chairman of Dong Van Commune People's Committee said: After receiving the district's direction on implementation,building new rural areasTo reach the target in 2022, right from the first months of the year, the commune has proactively reviewed the NTM criteria in the commune. Accordingly, the commune has immediately found that 14/19 basic criteria have been met; 5 criteria have not been met, including: Poverty rate, people's income, cultural facilities, environment, labor and employment. For the criteria on cultural facilities, infrastructure for building offices, etc., the district is directing the implementation with investment capital sources.

A resettlement area in Dong Van commune has had most of its roads concreted. Photo: Xuan Hoang

The most difficult criteria for Dong Van are income, employment and poverty rate. Because these three criteria are interrelated, when people have jobs and their income increases, the number of poor households will decrease and vice versa, if people's income does not improve, the poverty rate cannot decrease. Specifically, currently Dong Van has 322 poor households, accounting for 42% of households in the commune; families are poor households; and people's income is still low.

“The traffic criterion is usually the most difficult, but for Dong Van commune, a locality with many resettlement villages of Hua Na Hydropower Plant, the State has invested in building internal roads and has 2 national highways running through it, so it basically meets the criteria. It only needs to add small roads from the main road to households in some villages to meet the criteria. The most worrying criteria are income and poor households.”

Mr. Luong Thai Quy - Chairman of Dong Van Commune People's Committee

This year, Tan Ky district also chose Tan Huong commune to finish the NTM program and Ky Tan commune to complete the advanced NTM program. Tan Huong commune has the advantage of having the Ho Chi Minh road running through it, and the people have many jobs: producing forestry seedlings; processing molasses, planting forests, raising livestock and poultry, etc., so the people's lives are quite stable.

Most of the communes registered to finish this year have not met the criteria for cultural facilities. Photo: Xuan Hoang

However, when talking about the commune's plan to reach the NTM target this year, Mr. Le Duc Thuyen - Chairman of the Commune People's Committee said: Through review, it shows that up to now, there are still 4 criteria that have not been met: Traffic, irrigation, schools, culture. In which, the most difficult criterion is the traffic criterion. Because, after many years of implementing the National Target Program on New Rural Construction, although the locality has invested in concreting a number of roads, but due to the mountainous commune's large area and sparse population, there are still 54% of the length that has not been concreted. However, if the locality receives 2,800 tons of cement according to the province's support policy, the locality will be able to concretize 16km, bringing the total to 75% of the commune's road length that has been concreted.

For other criteria, such as the commune cultural house has not been invested in construction, the commune will propose to the authorities to have policies to support implementation.

“Currently, the hamlets have basically cleared traffic, the road surface is solid, and people are ready to contribute money to buy materials. When the cement arrives, it will be implemented. The locality is determined to complete the plan to reach the NTM target this year.”

Mr. Le Duc Thuyen - Chairman of Tan Huong Commune People's Committee

Need to supply cement soon

According to the plan, in 2022, the whole province has 10 communes registered to reach the NTM finish line, all of which are in mountainous districts: Tan Huong (Tan Ky), Nghia Lam, Nghia Yen, Nghia Mai (Nghia Dan); Thanh Huong, Thanh Chi, Thanh Ngoc (Thanh Chuong), Dong Van (Que Phong); Luu Kien (Tuong Duong), Binh Son (Anh Son). For localities in the plains, there are 22 communes meeting the advanced NTM standards; 5 model communes: Thanh Linh (Thanh Chuong), Nam Cat, Nam Giang, Nam Anh (Nam Dan), Son Thanh (Yen Thanh); districts have 2 districts: Dien Chau and Do Luong.

To make it easier for localities to implement traffic criteria, the province needs to soon allocate cement according to the State's support policy. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Mr. Nguyen Van Hang - Deputy Chief of the Office of the National Target Program for New Rural Development of the province said: Up to this point, it can be seen that most of the communes in the lowlands of the province have reached the New Rural Development target. Therefore, this year's plan has only 10 communes reaching the New Rural Development target, which are in mountainous areas with difficult economic conditions, especially large terrain, long rural traffic systems... Through the survey, it shows that most of these communes still have many criteria that have not been met: Traffic, income, environment, schools, irrigation, cultural facilities...

Therefore, in the context of complicated epidemic developments, in order for localities to smoothly organize the implementation of new rural construction, the province should first organize bidding soon.cementto provide localities with the opportunity to soon implement the construction of new rural roads when conditions are most favorable./.