Group 8 discussion: New rural construction needs to be practical and sustainable

Overview of the discussion session at group 8. Photo: Pham Bang

Attending the discussion were comrade Le Xuan Dai - Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; representatives of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Education and Training, Finance, Agriculture and Rural Development, Justice, and Farmers' Association.

Need to re-evaluate communes that meet NTM standards

Opening the discussion, delegate Vuong Quang Minh - Vice Chairman of the Provincial Fatherland Front Committee said that the Provincial People's Committee needs to pay attention and support 27 registered communes to be able to meet the new rural standards in 2018 as committed. In addition, this delegate said that the communes that have met the new rural standards are showing signs of slowing down, a part of the people are aware that the commune has reached the finish line so the construction of the new rural areas has been completed.

Concerned about the issue of outstanding debts in the construction of new rural areas, delegate Thai Thi An Chung - Deputy of the Legal Committee of the Provincial People's Council, suggested that the Provincial People's Committee pay attention to the work of controlling outstanding debts, reviewing the outstanding debts in the new rural areas up to this point compared to 2017.

Delegate Thai Thi An Chung requested the Provincial People's Committee to review outstanding debts and solutions to resolve outstanding debts in the construction of new rural areas. Photo: Pham Bang

“There has been a situation where communes have sold land without authority to pay off debts for new rural development. Initially, it was only seen in two communes, but according to some commune leaders, if we review, there will be many more communes. We request the Provincial People's Committee to review solutions for new rural development debt repayment to correct solutions that are against regulations,” said delegate Chung.

Delegate Pham Van Hoa - Chief of the Provincial People's Council Office frankly said that the quality of the new rural areas is not much "inside", the sustainability of the new rural areas is not guaranteed. There are many criteria that are almost ignored when evaluating, especially the criteria on environment and income, while the criteria on the political system are being evaluated based on perception.

This delegate proposed that in order to improve the quality of new rural areas for communes that have met the standards, it is necessary to strengthen the appraisal and review closely. The Provincial Steering Committee for New Rural Area Construction needs to add a member, the Provincial Statistics Office, to guide localities in implementation, and at the same time assess income criteria more accurately. To ensure sustainability in new rural area construction, delegate Hoa suggested that after 5 years, it is necessary to re-evaluate communes that have met the New Rural Area standards.

Speaking at the discussion session, comrade Le Xuan Dai - Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee said that currently, the whole province has 181 communes meeting the standards, but the agricultural sector has not yet clarified the current criteria in these communes.

"The Provincial People's Committee's viewpoint is not to set targets or pressure on the results of achieving NTM standards because NTM is essentially improving people's lives. However, in the past, there was still a situation of chasing targets in the work of building new rural areas to achieve standards. In the near future, the Provincial People's Committee will assess and review the outstanding debt in building new rural areas to propose solutions to resolve it," said Mr. Dai.

Comrade Le Xuan Dai - Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee discussed some contents reflected by delegates. Photo: Pham Bang

Many "hot" issues

At the discussion, delegate Vuong Quang Minh said that the forest planting area has basically reached the target, correspondingly, the wood output will also increase compared to the same period, but it is necessary to convert it to how many hectares have increased to have a more convincing comparison. The health insurance rate is good, but the referral of medical examination and treatment has negative phenomena that need to be clarified.

Delegate Thai Thi An Chung raised the issue of granting land use right certificates, the rate of first-time issuance in the whole province is very high, but some mountainous areas still have low rates. Regarding the issue of renewal, the whole province has only reached 45% of agricultural land. Currently, there are still over 120 communes that have not completed the work of measuring and renewing agricultural land use right certificates after implementing land consolidation.

“Regarding the survey work, the allocated funding has not yet met the regulation of 10% of land use fees and land lease fees. In the work of issuing certificates, there is a worrying situation of the number of land use right certificates that have been signed but not yet given to the people. Even in Yen Thanh and Nghia Dan, there are still about 17 thousand certificates that have not been given to the people. Thus, for the whole province, it will be very large,” said delegate Chung.

Delegate Vuong Quang Minh - Vice Chairman of the Provincial Fatherland Front Committee said that communes that have met new rural standards are showing signs of slowing down. Photo: Pham Bang

Regarding investment promotion, delegate Vuong Quang Minh said that the effectiveness of investment promotion is not high, many projects are registered but not implemented. This limitation has existed for many years and suggested clarifying the objective and subjective causes and at the same time suggesting that the province change its mindset to mobilize investment, avoiding wasting resources.

Along with that, at the discussion this afternoon, delegates mentioned the shortcomings in the work of clearing traffic safety corridors. According to delegates, clearing traffic safety corridors in many places has not been done seriously, although there have been many large-scale campaigns, but afterwards there have been re-encroachments, and many roads have seen the appearance of very haphazard garbage collection.

At the discussion session, the representative of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment said that regarding the issue of slow issuance of land use right certificates, the authority to issue certificates to households is the district level. The Department has advised the province to issue many regulations and guidelines for implementing this issue.

"The biggest difficulty in granting and measuring after land consolidation and plot exchange is funding. The Department has repeatedly reported to the province to request additional funding for measurement and hopes that the Provincial People's Committee will pay attention to providing funding for implementation," said a representative of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

Representatives of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment answered some issues discussed by delegates. Photo: Pham Bang

Comrade Le Xuan Dai - Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee said that the most important thing in attracting investment is implementation, and this content is having problems related to personnel work, planning... which are barriers in attracting investment.

"Regarding education and training, Nghe An is still a locality with a tradition of studiousness, always in the top of the country. However, the quality of mass education in our province is problematic, especially the gap between regions. Standard schools in the province have reached 68%, but whether the quality of standard schools has been met or not, whether there is leniency in assessing criteria or not, needs to be clarified," said the Vice Chairman.

Delegates also discussed many issues related to the implementation of growth targets for the last 6 months of the year, handling environmental pollution, administrative reform, food safety and hygiene, combating child abuse, especially against girls; resolving the problem of "brokers" in land use rights auctions; improving the quality of the educational environment and the quality of doctors and nurses.

At the end of the discussion, Mr. Nguyen Van De highly appreciated the delegates' opinions and said he would absorb them to synthesize and submit to the Provincial People's Council in the discussion session in the hall tomorrow morning (July 19).