The sustainable income problem

(Baonghean) - The National Target Program for New Rural Development (NTM) has a relatively small budget but yields the most practical results at the grassroots level. Evidence of this is that although the whole country has only been implementing this program for a short time (over 4 years), its implementation has brought about significant changes to the face of rural Vietnam in general and rural Nghe An in particular.

It's worth remembering that before 2010, when Nghe An province implemented the National Target Program on building new rural areas, it was ranked among the provinces with a low starting point. This was because the province had complex and unpredictable climate and weather conditions; the annual budget revenue of the province and each district was very limited; agricultural, industrial, and service production, especially in rural areas, was fragmented and small-scale; and the forms of production organization in agriculture were outdated and slow to innovate... Therefore, when the national criteria for new rural areas were issued, compared to each commune, the average for the entire province was only 3.64 criteria per commune. This caused concern and worry among officials from departments, agencies, and the government from the commune to the provincial level.

President Ho Chi Minh once taught, "A hundred times easier tasks are impossible without the people's support, but a thousand times harder tasks can be accomplished with the people's participation." Besides the strong determination of Party committees and authorities at all levels, and the decisive and coordinated involvement of the entire political system, success is also due to relying on the people to harness their strength. It can be said that over the past four years, Nghe An has created a "simultaneous uprising" among all strata of the population to implement the New Rural Development program. The average for the entire province has reached 11.3 criteria per commune (0.5 criteria per commune higher than the national average). Of these, 35 out of 431 communes have achieved New Rural Development standards with all 19 criteria met; 62 communes have met 15 to 18 criteria; and 137 communes have met 10 to 14 criteria... Currently, there is not a single commune in the province that has failed to meet any criteria.

This significant achievement is primarily due to the Steering Committees from the provincial to the commune level effectively mobilizing the strength of all segments of the population to efficiently utilize existing resources within the community. However, to achieve the set goals, plans, and timelines, the most pressing concern for many localities is how to sustainably implement criterion number 10 – the income criterion.

Achieving this is certainly not simple. Even though the entire province has completed some tasks to lay the groundwork for fulfilling criterion number 10, such as: completing land consolidation in 200 out of 431 communes; building 28 large-scale model fields for rice, peanuts, corn production, etc. (increasing income value by 10 to 15% compared to before); and 469 models supporting efficient production development... According to statistics from the Provincial Steering Committee for New Rural Development, Nghe An currently has 259 out of 431 communes reporting that they have met criterion number 10. For farmers in Vinh City, achieving criterion number 10 is relatively easy.

According to a report by the Vinh City Farmers' Association, 55.1% of farming households have a relatively good economic standing, while the poverty rate has dropped to only 1.6%. Many successful farming models have emerged, with effective production and business practices such as bio-secure chicken farming, aquaculture, and ornamental plant villages. Many households, after receiving compensation for agricultural land, have been able to invest in trucks, open shops, and establish service workshops, thereby increasing their income. A significant, unspoken reason is that many farmers in the city received compensation for their confiscated agricultural land. However, not all areas have the same conditions as Vinh City, and therefore, the income target remains unsustainable in many communes. Maintaining that income level for the people (the average being 26 million VND) is not easy.

Everyone knows that to sustainably maintain an income level 1.2 times higher than the average for rural areas, each commune must rely on its own consistent internal revenue sources. This means that revenue must come from the development of local industrial, service, and agricultural production. Any unit that is "borrowing" revenue (from overseas labor export or remittances from children working abroad, etc.) to meet its income needs is unsustainable.

In reality, many communes have established industrial zones to attract investment and restructure the existing workforce, but they have failed to attract large and potential investors; the agricultural production sector also lacks highly competitive products, mainly relying on labor for profit, resulting in meager income per production unit; service cooperatives themselves lack dynamism or only act as intermediaries, leading to the premature demise of many successful production development support models due to a lack of funding.

Therefore, localities need to develop more efficient models of industrial production, services, and agricultural commodity production, making better use of their local workforce, and aiming for more sustainable development.

Vo Thanh Mai