Provincial People's Council Delegate Group 7: Need to be more drastic in administrative reform

On the afternoon of July 10, the provincial People's Council delegates from Dien Chau and Quynh Luu constituencies held a discussion in group 7. Mr. Nguyen Nhu Khoi - Director of Nghe An Radio and Television Station chaired the discussion session. Attending were Ms. Cao Thi Hien - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council; Dinh Viet Hong - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, representatives of provincial departments and branches.

Farmers abandon fields, fishermen hope for "debt extension"

Scene of the discussion session at group 7. Photo: Thu Giang

The discussion session received many enthusiastic comments from the provincial People's Council delegates, in which many opinions emerged regarding the mechanisms and policies to support farmers and fishermen in the labor and production process.

Delegate Nguyen Tu Phuong - Chairman of the Provincial Labor Federation stated that currently in rural areas, there are relatively many abandoned fields, including areas for growing rice, vegetables, salt production, etc. However, research work to have planning, orientation, and guidance for people to convert crops and livestock to promote rural land resources is still slow.

“There is a lot of abandoned land, but reports are still showing that the area of ​​crops and the number of livestock are increasing... We need to grasp the situation, where rice can be grown, we encourage people to continue growing it, where rice cannot be grown, we guide them to switch to other crops... that is, there is guidance for people to switch and increase efficiency on the existing land area,” said Mr. Phuong.

Delegate Hoang Lan - Deputy of the Culture - Social Committee, Provincial People's Council discussed the current situation of abandoned land and proposed debt extension for fishermen to borrow capital to build ships according to Decree 67. Photo: Thu Giang

Sharing the same concern, delegate Hoang Lan - Deputy of the Culture - Society Committee, Provincial People's Council said that abandoning land is a difficult problem to handle and has become a "trend" in many localities across the country, not just Nghe An. The delegate commented that in the past, many communes and districts have also supported seeds, fertilizers... but have not solved the problem; at the same time, emphasizing that to be sustainable, people must be helped to achieve efficiency. From there, the delegate of Dien Chau constituency proposed that the province and the Central Government invest resources, call on scientists to research and develop a comprehensive project to solve this difficult problem for the people.

From meetings with voters, delegate Lan also mentioned the current situation. Coastal voters reported that offshore fishing was facing many difficulties. Even fishermen in Dien Ngoc and Dien Bich communes (Dien Chau) had lost 30-50 million VND on sea trips, while households were borrowing 1-1.5 billion VND from banks according to Decree 67, so they were facing many difficulties in repaying their debts.

"Voters recommend that the province study and have a special policy to extend bank loan debt at a time when fishermen are currently having difficulty fishing," said delegate Lan.

Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Dinh Viet Hong spoke to clarify the contents that delegates were interested in at the group discussion session. Photo: Ha Giang

Discussing the issue of abandoned fields, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Dinh Viet Hong acknowledged this reality, but affirmed that the problem mainly occurs in the summer-autumn crop: "Farmers mainly abandon the summer-autumn crop, while the winter-spring crop is the most favorable, accounting for 60-70% of rice output, so people rarely abandon it." According to Mr. Hong, abandoning fields is due to the efficiency of the land, the situation occurs mainly in low-lying areas, prone to flooding when it rains, or in highland areas, when there is no drought, and it also depends on each household, because "diligent, hard-working households do not abandon their fields, even though the efficiency is low, they still do it."

The Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee in charge of agriculture added that abandoning fields does not go hand in hand with poverty. Annual poverty reduction work still achieves good results, and many people give up farming to switch to other jobs with stable and higher incomes.

Meanwhile, regarding the proposal to extend debt repayment for fishermen to borrow from banks according to Decree 67 of the Government, the representative of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said that during the process of planning to borrow capital, some households proactively requested to shorten the loan term compared to the plan, so the industry is proposing to banks to approve debt repayment for fishermen, and it is highly likely that it will be approved.

Voters want administrative reform to take place more drastically

Another aspect that attracted many opinions from delegates was administrative reform, in the context that 2019 was identified by Nghe An as the Year of Administrative Reform. Speaking at the discussion session, delegate Nguyen Luong Hong - Chairman of the Provincial Red Cross Society said that this is an area that voters have many opinions about at conferences meeting with delegates of the Provincial People's Council, especially in the complicated procedures in the land sector, the attitude of officials when guiding people still causes trouble, people have to travel a lot... From there, delegate Hong said that it is necessary to be more drastic in administrative reform, bringing convenience to people and businesses.

Chairman of the Provincial Labor Federation Nguyen Tu Phuong - a delegate of the Quynh Luu district constituency, suggested that more drastic administrative reform solutions should be taken in the last 6 months of the year. Photo: Thu Giang

Agreeing with this view, delegate Nguyen Tu Phuong said: "It's only the first 6 months of 2019, so it's not correct to conclude that administrative reform is not good, but we recommend that the province should do something to further promote this work in the last 6 months of the year."

Checking discipline and administrative order in Anh Son. Photo: Thanh Le

“Since the beginning of the year, we have organized inspection teams to inspect 7 departments and 15 districts, cities and towns, and discovered that there are still cases of officials and civil servants not going to work on time, their spirit and attitude are still negligent, people complain about going back and forth many times, in some places and at some times making things difficult for people. We can confirm two issues: First, the qualifications and skills of officials working with people are not good. Second, petty corruption still exists somewhere, but it is very difficult to catch them red-handed,” said Mr. Chung, adding that the Department of Home Affairs has repeatedly reminded and requested localities, departments and branches to strengthen inspection and handling.

Regarding the responsibility of the head, the Department of Home Affairs has issued a document to rectify and determine the responsibility of the "commander" of the industry and locality when violations occur, but in reality, no cases have been handled. This is something that the department has determined needs to continue to do more drastically in the coming time.

Through synthesis, 13 opinions expressed at group 7, in addition to the above contents, also mentioned the issue of merging communes and hamlets; building new rural areas, waste treatment, tax arrears... These opinions will be fully synthesized and presented to the Provincial People's Council meeting at tomorrow's meeting (July 11).

Thu Giang