Finding solutions for areas in Nghe An province that face difficulties in building new rural areas.
Building new rural areas is one of the important targets set forth in the Resolution of the 19th Provincial Party Congress, term 2020-2025. This is a task that Party committees and authorities from the provincial to the grassroots level are focusing on and decisively directing. Alongside positive results, the practical situation also presents some difficulties that need to be addressed.
Nearly 80% of communes have met the standards for new rural areas.
The Resolution of the 19th Provincial Party Congress sets the target that by 2025, 82% of communes in the province will meet the new rural standards (including 20% of communes meeting the advanced new rural standards and 5% of communes meeting the model new rural standards), and 11 district-level units will be recognized as having completed the new rural development tasks and met the advanced new rural standards (including 1 district meeting the model new rural standards).
Besides the key targets of the congress, the rural development program encompasses overall socio-economic development, security and order, and the building of the political system; therefore, this is a task that Party committees and authorities from the provincial to the grassroots level are directing with focused and decisive action.
Comrade Nguyen Van Hang – Deputy Head of the Rural New Development Program Coordination Office of Nghe An province, said: The Provincial Party Committee has issued Directive No. 13, dated December 3, 2022, on continuing to accelerate progress and improve the quality of rural new development construction in the 2021-2025 period in the province. The Provincial People's Council issued Resolution No. 24, dated December 13, 2020, on some policies in rural new development construction in Nghe An province, 2021-2025 period. The Provincial People's Committee has issued many decisions and plans to implement the program, including issuing specific contents and criteria for districts, communes, villages, and hamlets to achieve new rural status, advanced new rural status, and model new rural status; linking annual targets to each locality and organizing regular inspections and supervision.
Accordingly, each provincial department and agency, based on its functions and responsibilities linked to the criteria for new rural development, has issued guiding documents for localities to implement. Local Party committees and governments have issued resolutions, projects, and plans, mobilizing the entire political system, especially by fostering the role and self-reliance of the "main actors"—the people in their hometowns—and the intellectual and material resources of their children living away from home. It is this determination and mobilization of combined strength to jointly build new rural areas that has led to progress in the implementation of the program in each locality.
In Quynh Luu district, which is on track to become a rural district, entering the 2020-2025 term, the locality continues to improve the criteria for new rural areas at the district level and directs communes to build advanced new rural areas and model new rural areas, focusing on improving the quality of life of people both materially and spiritually, and building a green, clean, and beautiful rural environment.
Comrade Nguyen Xuan Dinh – Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district, said: By the end of 2024, Quynh Luu district had 6 out of 24 communes meeting the advanced new rural standards (data from communes after mergers), and 2 model new rural communes; at the same time, the district is resolutely directing 4 communes to meet the advanced new rural standards in 2025, creating a foundation for the district to achieve advanced new rural standards by 2028.
Building upon the foundation and lessons learned from the previous rural district development program, since the beginning of the 2020-2025 term, the Party committees and authorities at all levels in Nghi Loc have focused intensely on developing an advanced rural district. By the end of 2024, Nghi Loc district had completed 4 out of 9 criteria with 24 out of 36 contents for an advanced rural district. The entire district has 17 out of 28 communes meeting the advanced rural district standards and 1 commune achieving the model rural district status.
As of the end of 2024, the province had 327 out of 411 communes (data before mergers) meeting the new rural standards, accounting for 79.56% of the total number of communes; 127 out of 328 communes met the advanced new rural standards, accounting for 38.71% of the communes that met the new rural standards; and 25 communes met the model new rural standards, accounting for 7.62% of the communes that met the advanced new rural standards. Eleven district-level units met the standards and completed the new rural development tasks, including Nam Dan district, which has been assessed by the province as meeting the criteria for an advanced new rural district and is currently finalizing its dossier for submission to the central government for assessment.
Based on the targets set in the Resolution of the 19th Provincial Party Congress and the feasibility of implementing the new rural development program in 2025, and the results of the new rural development program during the 2020-2025 term, it is projected that the entire province will achieve and surpass all four indicators: the number of communes meeting new rural development standards, advanced new rural development, model new rural development, and the number of district-level units achieving/completing the new rural development tasks.
Solutions are needed for disadvantaged areas.
Despite the overall efforts and achievements, the new rural development program lacks uniformity; mountainous regions and ethnic minority areas are achieving very low rates. For example, in Ky Son district, only 1 out of 21 communes have met the new rural development standards; in Que Phong district, only 1 out of 12 communes; in Tuong Duong district, only 4 out of 16 communes; and in Quy Hop district, only 6 out of 20 communes have met the standards…
The challenges faced by localities lie in implementing certain criteria related to income; reducing multidimensional poverty rates; housing; transportation infrastructure; and cultural and educational facilities.
For Chau Cuong commune (Quy Hop district), although in recent years the local Party committee and government have made many innovations in leadership and direction, creating new developments in infrastructure such as electricity, roads, schools, health stations, offices, and shifting the crop structure, increasing labor export; according to Comrade Luu Xuan Diem - Secretary of the Party Committee of the commune:
Achieving the new rural standard for the commune remains a difficult task. The difficulty stems from the fact that the current average income in the locality is only 36.58 million VND/person/year, while the required income level for the new rural standard in 2024 must reach 45 million VND/person/year, and this level is subject to annual adjustments. Meanwhile, finding solutions to significantly increase the average per capita income in Chau Cuong commune – where over 91% of the population are ethnic minorities – is proving very challenging.
Although the local authorities have clearly identified the optimal approach to increasing people's income as restructuring crop and livestock production, creating a change in people's mindset and production practices requires time and vigorous propaganda and mobilization efforts.
Also sharing the difficulties regarding income targets, Comrade Nguyen Huu Hien – Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Tuong Duong district – informed: Currently, the average per capita income of the district is 40.6 million VND/person, with some localities having less than 30 million VND/person/year. On the other hand, the requirement for communes to achieve new rural status is to ensure that the multidimensional poverty rate is below 10%, while the poverty rate of the district is currently 25.22%, with some communes even having 30-40% of households in poverty.
Based on the practical experience of Ky Son district, Mr. Nguyen Van Truong - Head of the District's Agriculture and Rural Development Department - stated: The mountainous area is vast, the terrain is complex, and the limited flat land area poses many difficulties in implementing criteria related to transportation, cultural and educational infrastructure, and electricity for daily life... In addition, the criterion of residential housing meeting the standards of the new rural development program is also a challenging problem.
The issue is that more decisive solutions are needed. Currently, according to feedback from the grassroots, the support and investment policies for development in mountainous areas and ethnic minority communities from the central and provincial levels are already quite substantial. The most important thing is to focus on deploying and strengthening the workforce with qualified, capable, and experienced personnel to mountainous areas to improve human resources for rural development.
Furthermore, all levels need to innovate their propaganda and public relations work to create a change in awareness regarding the role of the people as the "main actors," overcoming the mentality of "waiting and relying" and instead actively participating in building new rural areas; changing mindsets and production and business practices, linked to solutions that create jobs and increase people's income – one of the core and goals of building new rural areas.
