Returning to Thanh Thuy border commune in the last months of 2022, we clearly felt many changes here. The countryside with cajuput forests, tea hills, fruit trees including grapefruit, orange, tangerine, jackfruit, guava... green, stretching far and wide. Many services and shops have opened on Ho Chi Minh road and many other routes. Coming to Ngoc Lam village, hundreds of people are using machines to clear fences, gates, and barns to widen the road. Mr. Ho Sy Chien - a local confided: "Previously, the concrete road was only enough for two-way bicycles and motorbikes to travel, the dirt road was enough for two ox carts. Now, life has developed; the commune and hamlet have a policy, and we, the people, agree to open the road to facilitate production, daily life, and together beautify the village".
Comrade Nguyen Van Duong - Head of Ngoc Lam village said that the village road is mainly 3.5 - 4m wide, to widen it to 7m or more, people met to discuss and voluntarily donate residential land and production land. Many households donated hundreds of square meters of land, voluntarily demolished dozens of meters of fences, gates, solid constructions, and destroyed fruit trees and crops. People discussed and contributed, and households with conditions contributed more. Garbage collection was discussed and implemented simultaneously by people in 6/6 self-management groups, associated with building conventions, maintaining hygiene, and ensuring rural security. Many tasks are continuing to be implemented such as building cultural houses, beautifying the rural environment, striving to bring the village to the new rural destination in 2022.
Comrade Ha Hong Thai - Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee, Chairman of the People's Committee of Thanh Thuy commune shared: As a border commune, Thanh Thuy has its own difficulties. However, with the innovation of the way of doing things, taking the village area as the direction; focusing on the propaganda stage so that people clearly understand "they are the subject in building new rural areas"; promoting the democratic regulations, which parts of the work are done by the people, the people themselves discuss and decide, creating strength from the people in each village. In addition to Ngoc Lam village determined to reach the finish line in 2022, before that, in 2021, the locality directed the two villages of Thuy Hoa and Thuy Phong to reach the new rural finish line. The remaining two villages of Thuy Chung and Thuy Son will continue to meet the standards next year. As for the commune-level criteria, the locality has built a specific implementation roadmap, determined to bring the commune to the new rural finish line in 2023.
Also a difficult commune, Thanh Xuan Commune Party Committee issued 2 specialized Resolutions on new rural construction, determining to direct the completion of 1-2 new rural hamlets and 1-2 commune-level criteria each year. The Party Committee assigned the New Rural Development Board to establish working groups and the Chairman and 2 Vice Chairmen of the Commune People's Committee personally act as group leaders to direct the hamlets in a rolling manner, from the hamlet being directed to spread to other hamlets. Currently, in addition to the 2 hamlets of Phu Lap and Ngu Cam meeting the new rural standards, the 3 hamlets of Xuan Lan, Bach Ngoc, and Kim Hoa are focusing on reaching the finish line this year.
According to comrade Nguyen Khanh Thanh - Party Secretary, Chairman of the People's Council of the commune, for the commune-level criteria, they are attached to the specific leadership responsibilities of each organization, cadre, civil servant, especially arousing the responsibility of the people. For example, the environmental criteria, the commune propagates, mobilizes, and creates consensus among people in all 8 hamlets to contribute money, sign contracts with businesses to collect, transport, and treat waste; attaches propaganda to people to proactively renovate village roads, alleys, gardens, and create a clean and beautiful environment. Or for the production and income criteria, the responsibility is assigned to the Vice Chairman of the Commune People's Committee in charge of economy and the Chairman of the Commune Farmers' Association to direct economic models to transform crop structure, increase crop seasons, create agricultural commodity products associated with consumption, etc.
Thanh Chuong is a district with a large natural area, many communes are building new rural areas (37 communes), the population is sparse, so the transportation system must be invested in construction. Typically, in Thanh Duc, Thanh Thuy, Thanh Lam, Thanh Xuan, Thanh Mai communes..., the total internal commune, inter-hamlet, inter-family routes are 50 - 70 km; in particular, Thanh Xuan commune has more than 140 km. This is a criterion that requires a lot of resources, must mobilize people to donate land, trees, property and contribute a large amount of money for investment. While the economy of the majority of people is at an average level, at the end of 2021, the average income per capita is 43.7 million VND/year.
Due to the above factors, the speed of new rural construction in Thanh Chuong district is slower than other localities in the province. Recognizing difficulties and limitations, entering the 2020-2025 term, the Party Committee and the Thanh Chuong district government set out the determination to innovate thinking, methods and leadership methods to achieve specific results. Accordingly, for communes that are directed to reach the finish line within the year, the district prioritizes investment resources, combined with calling on businesses and children far from home to support the implementation of difficult criteria such as schools, traffic, irrigation, cultural facilities, etc. For communes that are not directed to reach the new rural finish line, it is required to direct the completion of 1 commune-level criterion and have at least 1 hamlet achieve new rural status/year. The district has a policy of using excess revenue, supporting cement for communes that register to reach the finish line and communes with difficulties of 200-500 tons/commune, in addition to the province's policy.
To avoid the idea that building a new countryside is the final "step", once achieved, that's it, without consolidating and improving the quality of the criteria; without taking care of improving people's lives; especially aiming to build a truly livable countryside; Thanh Chuong directed that for communes that have reached the new countryside finish line, but have not been directed by the district to build an advanced new countryside, they must focus on increasing at least 2 criteria in the year; communes that have achieved an advanced new countryside must continue to direct and strive to achieve a model new rural commune.
Comrade Trinh Van Nha - Deputy Secretary of the District Party Committee, Chairman of the People's Committee of Thanh Chuong district said that the most important thing is the people's contribution and support; in which, cadres are the ones who set an example, spread and inspire people, from building roads, cultural houses, village stadiums, to renovating houses, gardens, converting and applying science and technology into production, increasing people's income... To increase people's income - a key factor, sustainable in building new rural areas, the district focuses on implementing 2 important projects: Developing farm economy associated with product value chains, biosafety and converting crop structure.
Currently, in Thanh Chuong district, the Party Committee, government and people have shifted their thinking from agricultural production to agricultural economy, initially forming a number of high-tech agricultural models, creating clean products; the OCOP product system has increased, expanding the market, increasing people's income. The district has also actively created a good environment to attract investment. In the past 2 years, 4 garment investors have come to explore investment, of which 3 factories have investment policies and 1 Matsuoka Garment Factory in Thanh Lien commune is investing in building factory facilities, expected to come into operation in the second quarter of 2023, creating jobs and income for about 1,500 local workers. The district has also actively connected to launch projects that have been slow in progress, such as converting the medicinal herb processing project in Thanh Thuy commune into a high-quality tea processing factory, in order to take advantage of the large tea raw material source in the district with more than 4,700 hectares; Attract and facilitate stable operation of raw wood processing factories; continue to promote the development of eco-tourism and spiritual tourism in the coming time.
