We must harness the people's strength to serve the people.

(Baonghean) - Son Thanh commune (Yen Thanh district) is the first commune to achieve the goals of the National Target Program for building new rural areas in Nghe An province. Baonghean newspaper had an interview with Mr. Nguyen Tri Hoa - Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of the People's Council of Son Thanh commune - about the experience of building new rural areas in this locality.

- As a semi-mountainous commune, Son Thanh was once notoriously poor, with a history of famine and frugality. Yet now, the commune's annual economic growth rate reaches 15-16.2%, and per capita income reaches 27.7 million VND/person/year. Could you share the "secret" behind Son Thanh's early poverty alleviation and its status as the first commune in the province to achieve the goals of the new rural development program?

As local leaders, we were deeply concerned about finding ways to escape poverty. In 2000, Son Thanh began implementing the campaign to "bring electricity and water to the commune and promote labor export." With electricity and water, Son Thanh was able to bring water to the fields for intensive farming and increased crop yields, thus lifting the people of Son Thanh out of hunger. To escape poverty and promote rapid economic development, the people of Son Thanh had to rely on labor export…

Mr. Nguyen Tri Hoa - Secretary of the Party Committee, Chairman of the People's Council of Son Thanh Commune

When the Prime Minister approvesIn the National Target Program for New Rural Development from 2010 to 2020, we proposed the following implementation solution: "Moving forward from the roads, extending outward from the fields; saying 'no' to compensation for land clearance; choosing transportation as the breakthrough, land consolidation and exchange as the focus," and the motto: "Transportation leads the way. When roads come in, money comes out; when roads are open, everything is open." This was considered the "opening battle" in mobilizing people to donate land for rural road construction. This movement sparked a widespread and enthusiastic participation in new rural development from communes, hamlets, neighborhood groups, clans, and households. And as we know, by the end of 2013, Son Thanh had achieved 19 out of 19 criteria, becoming the first commune in the province to complete the new rural development program. The most important lesson is that the Party committee chooses the right and appropriate steps in each specific stage. This is a decisive lesson. Son Thanh's success in achieving the national goal of building new rural areas stems from its close adherence to reality, implementing policies and solutions that are relevant and in line with the people's will. Secondly, it's due to its effective communication and skillful ideological work. Since the issuance of Decision 800/QD-TTg by the Prime Minister on building new rural areas, Son Thanh has institutionalized this through numerous resolutions of the Party and government, and especially through dramatization and competitions to learn about the criteria for building new rural areas. Simultaneously, it has linked this to the "Learning and following the moral example of Ho Chi Minh" and the "Movement for national unity in building a cultured life in residential areas." The content of the communication is profound, relevant to all citizens, easy to remember, understand, and implement. When implementing, it's crucial to select decisive breakthroughs, like the opening battle of a campaign.

- In implementing the New Rural Development program, Son Thanh has mobilized over 233 billion VND for investment in rural infrastructure construction, of which the people contributed and donated land worth over 200 billion VND. In your opinion, what factors contributed to the success in mobilizing people's strength and achieving consensus in implementing the movement?

We mobilize resources from the community, successful children living away from home, and exploit local revenue sources with the motto "Using the people's strength to care for the people" to create capital for infrastructure investment and public welfare projects. On the other hand, to gain the people's trust, cadres and Party members must be pioneers and role models, proving themselves to the people through their actions and deeds, especially by valuing promises to the people—promises made must be fulfilled completely. When the people trust us, they will support the policies and initiatives we promote, creating consensus. Another equally important aspect is "promoting exemplary individuals and good deeds, and doing a good job in emulation and reward"; for example, in the land donation campaign for road construction, we encouraged Party members to take the lead, and promptly commended and rewarded Catholic families and poor households who enthusiastically participated in the movement.

- Based on local realities, in your opinion, which of the 19 criteria for building new rural areas is the most difficult to achieve, and which is the most difficult to maintain once achieved?

Determining whether criteria are difficult or easy depends on each region and locality, but for Son Thanh commune, we consider the environmental criterion to be the most challenging. Environmental protection is a task that requires full awareness and responsibility; it cannot be done indifferently but must be persistent, consistent, and continuous. To protect and maintain a clean environment, a series of unified and synchronized measures must be implemented, even in the fields of agricultural production, mining, forestry, infrastructure construction, industrial zones, and residential areas, all of which must be environmentally friendly. Each family, as the basic unit of society, is both a source of environmental cleanliness and a source of environmental pollution if awareness is lacking. To maintain the environmental criteria, each family must be "clean from the kitchen out, clean from the house to the street," and each individual and organization must have a sense of responsibility for environmental protection.

- And what strategies has Son Thanh implemented to build upon the achievements in the new rural development program?

Achieving the status of a new rural area is only the initial result. To combat the risk of falling behind and to better meet the material and spiritual needs of the people, Son Thanh commune will not stop there. The goal set for the Party Congress in the 2015-2020 term will be: "To improve the quality and reach new heights in building new rural areas. Son Thanh must truly be a comprehensively developed unit of the province, a shining example in the region, bringing per capita income in the next term to 90-100 million VND/person (target by 2020)." To achieve this, we will invite scientists and businesses to invest in the field of agricultural production. Only when scientists get involved can we create breakthroughs in productivity, in the types of crops and livestock with high economic value; only then can we create a linked chain in the process of expanded reproduction…

- Thank you, comrade. I wish your commune success in achieving its goal of becoming a "comprehensively developed unit of the province, a shining example in the region"!

Duc Chuyen(Perform)