Mr. Ho Xuan Hung: Stronger cooperation with agriculture and new rural areas

PV:Sir! As someone who regularly follows the situation in his hometown Nghe An and has many development orientations for agriculture in general and new rural areas in particular in the province, what is your comment on the current new rural construction movement in Nghe An?
Mr. Ho Xuan Hung:The most common point of Nghe An as well as the whole country is that building new rural areas has truly become the cause of the entire Party and people, with the whole political system unanimously and jointly participating. Many lessons of success, even failures, have been drawn after 10 years of implementing the Central Resolution on agriculture - farmers - rural areas, helping us to have a better way of doing things for the next stage.
By the end of 2018, Nghe An had 218/431 communes meeting new rural standards (accounting for 49.4%) > the national average, reaching 41.3% of new rural communes and 3 district-level units meeting new rural standards (the whole country has 59 districts). Socio-economic infrastructure across the province, especially in rural areas, has changed visibly.

Officials from the Provincial New Rural Area Office inspect the progress of new rural area construction in localities. Photo: XH

In the process of building new rural areas, Nghe An has been very successful in conjunction with the restructuring project of the agricultural sector. In recent years, Nghe An has quickly exploited the province's inherent advantages (land, labor, other resources, etc.) to create breakthrough opportunities, both inheriting and developing. The most obvious is the affirmation of agricultural development planning based on comparative advantages of ecological regions and local traditions.

Tomatoes grown in a greenhouse in Con Cuong district. Photo: Minh Hanh

I observed nationwide in 10 years of implementing the Central Resolution 7 (10th tenure) on agriculture - farmers - rural areas and 7 years of implementing the National Target Program on New Rural Construction, Nghe An is one of the very successful provinces in restructuring agriculture towards exploiting comparative advantages, creating key products, local specialties; boldly applying high technology, especially in the seed stage in rice production, forestry, aquaculture...

Thanks to the application of science and high technology, the average income in the whole province has increased from 37 million VND/ha (2008) to 70 million VND/ha (2017), expected to reach 90 million VND in 2020. The poverty rate has decreased rapidly from 28.9% (2008) to 7.54% (2017) to 1.54% in 2020, which is very impressive.

Packaging milk products at TH Milk Processing Factory. Photo: Lam Tung

PV:The achievements are great. So what are the limitations and challenges that Nghe An needs to overcome in the process of building the new rural area, sir?

The coastal sandy area stretches 80 km from Quynh Luu to Cua Hoi, with low material and cultural life, and always having to contend with harsh nature, which is not easy to overcome in a short time. Reorganizing the consumption of agricultural products; reorganizing the market for farmers and rural areas is still very weak.

Packing corrugated iron products at Hoa Sen Nghe An Corrugated Iron Factory. Photo: Lam Tung

The mindset of “valuing agriculture and despising commerce” still prevails, the idea of ​​“no commerce, no wealth” is still outside the countryside and farmers. In particular, the process of restructuring agriculture is still “lonely”. The sectors and fields of science, industry, tourism, transportation, resources, environment… have not been strongly oriented and accompanied with agriculture and rural areas.

Along with the general trend of the whole country, young, educated workers in rural areas are leaving their hometowns to go to cities, urban areas, and industrial zones to make a living. In Nghe An alone, a large number of them go to other countries to work through labor export, or finish their studies and do not return. In many places in their hometowns, the fields are left fallow.
Environmental issues, both ecological and security and cultural environments in many rural areas are showing red alert signs with theft, lottery, loss of identity... Due to the lack of strict direction in the process of building new rural areas, the ecological environment and rural landscape also face many great challenges.
To build a new countryside in Nghe An that is sustainable, prosperous, civilized, and sustainably developed in line with the development of the integration trend, Nghe An people must overcome their own weaknesses: hard-working but not suffering, conservative, and local. Besides, Nghe An countryside is lacking many enterprises that play a leading and decisive role in the process of restructuring agriculture and solving labor problems, increasing sustainable income for rural areas.
PV:Yes, with the above facts, can you suggest solutions for Nghe An to build sustainable new rural areas?
Mr. Ho Xuan Hung:Nghe An as well as the whole country must build a prosperous and civilized new rural area in Vietnam as General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong said. Building a new rural area in Nghe An must be closely linked to restructuring the province's agriculture to achieve the goal of constantly improving the material life of farmers. Restructuring agriculture must be linked to restructuring the province's socio-economics to solve the overall problem of restructuring the labor force.

To develop a highly efficient and sustainable agriculture, Nghe An must have a clear orientation: It is necessary to change the goal of developing a comprehensive agriculture to an agriculture based on regional comparative advantages in the direction of a clean agriculture, applying high technology with productivity, quality and efficiency in a market-oriented manner; stratifying rural areas according to specific conditions.

Rural areas, suburban areas, towns: This is an area with favorable conditions for development. It is necessary to build new rural areas in this area in the direction of villages in the city, cities in the village; in fact, it must be associated with urban development. This is also an area that needs high concentration to balance human resources, culture, rapidly develop high-tech agriculture, build growth models, and the countryside in this area will soon become a prosperous, civilized (rich) area...

VSIP Industrial Park welcomes many investors to build factories. Photo: Lam Tung

Rural, mountainous and midland areas: Focus on solving the most pressing difficulties of the people such as socio-economic infrastructure, poor households. Solve backward customs associated with preserving traditional culture. Create new attractions to exploit the strengths of agriculture, forestry, rivers, streams, lakes, dams combined with eco-tourism, ethnic identity. Focus on planning associated with implementing the planning of "small cities" such as market towns, central markets of commune clusters, regions to create attraction and bridge rural areas with urban areas, farmers of ethnic groups in the region.