The new rural areas must be genuinely prosperous!

(Baonghean) - At the recent nationwide online conference to implement the new rural development program and launch the nationwide emulation movement to build new rural areas in the 2016-2020 period, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc stated, "New rural areas must be rural areas of aspiration for entrepreneurship, wealth creation, and the dissemination of sustainable values." In other words, it is the image of a prosperous rural area. Prosperity stemming from the comfortable and happy lives of each farming family, not just from reports on the movement.

It must be acknowledged that, with nearly 851,400 billion VND mobilized over the past five years, of which the state budget allocated more than 98,660 billion VND, accounting for over 11.6%, the new rural development program has yielded encouraging results, with 2,045 communes (accounting for 23%) and 24 districts recognized as meeting the standards. In Nghe An province alone, over the past five years, the total mobilized and integrated capital for the new rural development program reached nearly 21,000 billion VND. Thai Hoa town and 114 out of 431 communes have achieved new rural development standards, reaching 26.45%, higher than the national average.

Building new rural roads in Con Cuong. Photo: PV

The achievements of the New Rural Development Program are undeniable. The face of the countryside has changed, and people's lives have improved significantly. However, what concerns people are the shortcomings and negative consequences of the superficial approach and the pursuit of achievements in some localities. At times, the story of the New Rural Development Program was like a painting with many different colors, lines, and shades of light and dark, leaving those involved – the majority of farmers – with mixed feelings of joy and sorrow.

At the session held in early July, while commenting on the National Assembly Standing Committee's monitoring report on the new rural development program, many delegates expressed concerns: Have the results achieved after five years of rural development truly met the needs and expectations of the people? What is the purpose of building new rural areas?

For whom, and how should the goals be achieved? These are questions that need to be seriously re-examined after more than 5 years of implementing the program. Because, among the more than 2,000 communes that have achieved the new rural development goals, not a few are burdened with debts of billions of dong, even tens of billions of dong, that they are unlikely to be able to repay.

Driven by a desire to achieve goals quickly, many localities have excessively mobilized the people's resources, including the poor and the elderly, leading to the financial ruin of many families. While the appearance of the new rural areas may improve with impressive infrastructure projects, the lives of the people have not truly improved, and the meaning of the new rural development program remains somewhat incomplete.

The issue of excessive fees in rural areas, after repeatedly causing public outrage and being addressed by the government, was thought to have ended. However, it has now resurfaced in some places, with some cases becoming comical, such as forcing people to build concrete gates and display signs designating their houses as "cultural families" so that the commune can meet the criteria for the new rural development program, as happened in a southern province a few years ago.

One of the beautiful rural roads thanks to the new rural development program in Nghia Binh commune. Photo: Huu Nghia

Lessons learned from the new rural development program need to be seriously considered and evaluated: is the new rural development program truly for the people, or is it driven by unsustainable, trend-driven changes? The true essence of the new rural development program is to improve people's living standards. A new rural development program must have good infrastructure, a suitable economic structure, rational production organization, and contribute to a happier life for the people, better democracy and social equality, preservation of cultural identity, a cleaner environment, and improved political security and social order.

In other words, the new rural areas must be rich both materially and spiritually, and this richness must come from the farmers themselves.

To achieve this, a fundamental change in mindset, approach, and production methods is necessary for farmers. We cannot continue with the old system of "the buffalo leading the plow," but rather, "the new rural areas must be rural areas of aspiration for entrepreneurship, wealth creation, attracting resources for development, and spreading sustainable values. It must be rural areas of a generation of educated farmers who dare to think, dare to act, innovate, and possess an entrepreneurial spirit," as Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has requested.

The new rural landscape in Nghia Thuan.

Over the next five years, Nghe An province aims to have 50% of its communes meet the new rural standards, equivalent to 216 communes; five district-level units will meet the new rural standards, including Hoang Mai town, Quynh Luu, Nghia Dan, Nam Dan, and Vinh city; the average annual poverty rate will decrease by 2-3% according to the new standards; and by 2020, the average income will reach 75 million VND per person per year.

Hopefully, the experience of the past five years will be a valuable lesson in building new rural areas, not just as a movement, but as a genuine program that fundamentally changes the face of rural areas, narrows the gap between rural and urban areas, and makes rural people's lives increasingly prosperous and happy.

Hue Anh