Proud of the brand "Con Cuong Forestry"

(Baonghean) -It was not until the 65th anniversary of the day Uncle Ho wrote the “Call for Patriotic Emulation” (June 11, 1948 - June 11, 2013) that I was able to fulfill my wish of visiting the Con Cuong Forestry Farm of Labor Hero Nguyen Ngoc Lai, where the patriotic emulation movement has shone for the past 50 years.

In the hot sun of the “fire pan” land of Con Cuong, Deputy Director of the Forestry Department Nguyen Ngoc Lam drove us to visit the forest that once stirred the hearts of local people and the whole country. There were 4 generations of forest workers with us: Director Nguyen Duc Son, Deputy Director Nguyen Ngoc Lam, young engineer Ngoc Anh and in the front seat of the car was the former Director, twice Hero of Labor Nguyen Ngoc Lai.

The sun was shining brightly, but our car drove smoothly in the green shade of the forests of meter trees, forests of yellow trees, and rang rang trees. Director Nguyen Duc Son pointed ahead and said to me: “This road connects Con Cuong Town with Khe Kem Waterfall, one of the famous landscapes of Nghe An and the Central region. It was previously called the Forestry Road, because by human power, the forestry company opened its own road into the deep areas to exploit, improve the forest capital and plant new forests”.

The car gently glided over the sharp turns and I was dreaming in a green paradise, suddenly from the front of the car came Mr. Lai's voice: "Stop!". It turned out that Mr. Lai wanted to see the forest of Vang trees, the tree he had spent many years searching for in the deep forest, then decided to bring it back to grow, propagate and later became one of the main trees that quickly covered the forests. That initiative of great economic and forestry value affirmed the title of Labor Hero in the renovation period of Con Cuong Forestry Enterprise and Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Lai was awarded the title of Labor Hero by the State for the second time (in 2002).



Labor Hero Nguyen Ngoc Lai (front) and the Board of Directors of Con Cuong Forestry One Member Co., Ltd. visit the planted forest.

Director Nguyen Duc Son and young cadres led former Director Nguyen Ngoc Lai to visit the forest again. He introduced to his predecessor, who had made great contributions to the homeland forest and the Forestry Department: "Your works, your ideas, you continue to maintain and promote very effectively". Looking at the forests of Vang, Rang Rang, Acacia, and Met trees about to enter the harvest season, Mr. Lai smiled happily. He slowly said: "If I did not have enough courage and opinions, Con Cuong Forestry Department would no longer exist, and this area would not be called a forest".

From a forest worker to the leader of the socialist labor team, then the leader of the Trung Chinh socialist labor team, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Lai was awarded Uncle Ho's badge (in 1973) and was awarded the title of Labor Hero by the State for the first time (in 1985).

Returning to the forest farm headquarters, Director Nguyen Duc Son began: “The forestry industry has many difficulties, the management mechanism changes too much, sometimes before we can implement one policy, another policy is seen rushing in. The facility is dizzy because of the changes in policies, mechanisms, and policies. But before each difficulty, we always remember the previous years, when Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Lai was the Director of the forest farm, the difficulties were ten, a hundred times more than now, but the steadfast leadership and the trust of the workers have gradually brought the forest farm forward.”

The young generation today continues to study and apply the lessons learned from their predecessors. First of all, it is necessary to build a united bloc within the Party Committee, within each Party cell and within the entire unit, and to care for all aspects of the workers' lives. Remembering the cold days of hard work in the past, Director Nguyen Ngoc Lai assigned the logistics team to prepare enough hot water for the workers to bathe every afternoon. Now, the unit's leaders take care of meals and accommodation for all workers, and all families have gardens and forests for production to improve their lives.

The lesson of the forestry department is to regularly launch emulation movements, each movement must have specific criteria linking collective interests with individual interests, and have strict reward and punishment regulations. Many stories from the past are now more meaningful: there was a person who was fined for a long time, but after retiring, he still thanked the director, because after that fine, he understood better the role of collective mastery and from then on he was rewarded many times.

In particular, Director Nguyen Ngoc Lai has twice fined himself with a fine that is always heavier than that of the workers. Because according to him: "If the leader makes a mistake, the consequences will be greater, so he must take greater responsibility". In recent years, the forest farm's leaders have continued to learn and follow that method, so they have achieved results: "Internal solidarity and unity, production and business development, forest capital continues to be maintained and increasingly improved". An important lesson is to quickly apply scientific and technical advances to management, production and business. Currently, the forest farm has over 70 hectares of various tree varieties under the brand name "Con Cuong Forestry Farm". Most of the seedlings are propagated from native trees, good quality, suitable for the environment and good resistance to pests and diseases.

Overcoming all difficulties and challenges, Con Cuong Forestry Enterprise has always affirmed itself as a profitable production and business unit, ensuring the requirements of reforesting bare land and hills, protecting and constantly upgrading 8,423 hectares of assigned forest land. The average turnover in the past 5 years has reached 10 to 11 billion VND/year; annual budget contribution is from 1.6 to 2.2 billion VND, workers' lives are stable and increasingly improved. The Forestry Enterprise is assessed by the LEAF Project (Kingdom of Belgium) as a unit with 90% medium and rich forests, affirming the continuation and maintenance of forest capital.

In the near future, Con Cuong Forestry Enterprise will be granted Carbon Certificate, International Certificate of Forest Quality. Products of Con Cuong Forestry Enterprise will be valuable in the domestic and international markets. The unit has continuously received noble awards from the Party, the State and Nghe An province: Heroic Labor Collective in the Renovation Period (2002), First Class Labor Medal (2007), Third Class Independence Medal (2011), continuously for many years from 2000 to present, the People's Committee of Nghe An province has awarded the Flag of Excellent Emulation Unit.

The staff and workers of Con Cuong Forestry are always proud of the collective title of Labor Hero in the renovation period, proud of Director Nguyen Ngoc Lai who was twice awarded the title of Labor Hero by the State, proud of the brand "Con Cuong Forestry", where the patriotic emulation movement always shines.

Hong Quang Tomb (Yen Thanh District)