Hong Long Commune (Nam Dan) promotes people's strength to build new rural areas

(Baonghean) - From a purely agricultural village with difficult people's lives, after 6 years of implementing the National Target Program on New Rural Construction (NTM), mobilizing the synchronous participation of the entire political system and the consensus of the people, Hong Long commune (Nam Dan) is growing strongly; the new rural appearance is shining.

Comprehensive improvement

Coming to Hong Long today, the new rural roads are clean and beautiful, running between rows of flat-roofed and tiled-roofed houses. The fertile fields, bustling shops... paint a new face for the countryside along the Lam River. To achieve that result, the locality has mobilized the drastic participation of the entire political system and the solidarity and joint efforts of the entire people.

With the characteristic of a commune with over 20% of Catholics, Hong Long has promoted the role of Party leadership, State management, Fatherland Front and departments, branches and organizations in coordinating propaganda, promoting the spirit of solidarity and consensus between Catholics and non-Catholics, and arousing people's strength.

Upgrading and repairing rural roads in Hong Long commune (Nam Dan). Photo: Dinh Nguyet

Implementing the movement "All people join hands to build new rural areas", the commune has mobilized internal resources of the people, taken advantage of external resources, and the contribution of children to build the homeland. With the motto "The State and the people work together", in which the people are the subject of the program, in recent times, the locality has created a movement to contribute to the construction of infrastructure, economy, and society widely; competing to develop the economy, eliminate hunger, and reduce poverty, which has received high response from the people.

Entering the movement to build a new rural area, Hong Long commune has only achieved 7/19 criteria according to the set of new rural criteria. Over the past 6 years, with the active participation of the entire political system and the mobilization of people's strength, the face of Hong Long's new rural area has now improved comprehensively. The infrastructure system has been invested in solidification, meeting the requirements of production and people's lives. Welfare works such as: Office of the Party Committee, People's Committee of the commune, Multi-function Cultural House, Cultural House of 13 hamlets, playground, training ground...

Hong Long is one of the bright spots in mobilizing people's strength in building communal roads, especially intra-field roads. The communal and hamlet roads have been concreted. In 6 years, 7km of communal roads and 5km of hamlet roads have been expanded and upgraded.

People voluntarily contributed manpower and resources to upgrade 100% of the internal roads (12 km), creating convenience for land conversion and traffic excavation. The commune is also one of the pilot localities to build a centralized cemetery according to new standards from the people's contribution of more than 500 million VND.

Intra-field canals are repaired and upgraded to facilitate production. Photo: Dinh Nguyet

Since 2013, the commune has done well in land conversion, up to now there are only 2.1 plots/household on average, ensuring intensive investment and mechanization in production, many livestock production models have high economic efficiency such as: Fattening cow model, safe chicken raising model using biological bedding, ICM model on rice plants...

Local people also develop service industries to serve production; the whole commune has more than 100 types of milling machines to process animal feed, multi-function plows, and combine harvesters. In the commune, there are 7 enterprises, 134 trading households, 45 aluminum and glass craft groups, masons, noodle establishments... In addition, the labor export movement is strongly developing, currently there are 226 workers working abroad. The average income per capita of Hong Long commune in 2016 reached over 33 million VND/person; the poverty rate has decreased to over 4%. The number of well-off and rich households is increasing day by day.

Typical solidarity between Catholics and non-Catholics

The movement to build new rural areas is like a breath of fresh air, changing the material and spiritual life of the people. The movement of the entire population to build a cultural life in Hong Long commune has developed and spread strongly. The rate of cultural families annually reaches 81%; the rate of cultural hamlets reaches 84%. 13/13 hamlets have cultural houses where the community can have spacious activities. All hamlets and clans have a scholarship fund. The quality of teaching and learning is increasingly improved. In the 2015-2016 school year, 3/3 schools were recognized as advanced schools. All 3 schools at all levels in the area have facilities that meet national standards. Medical work and primary health care for the people are taken care of. The commune met national standards on health by the end of 2016.

Hong Long Commune is a typical example of solidarity between Catholics and non-Catholics in ensuring security and order in the area, preventing violations of the law. Promoting the results of the past time, since April 2017, the commune has built a model "People of Hamlet 4 - Catholic Area ensure security and order, unite to build new rural areas".

Through this model, it is aimed to promote propaganda work, raise awareness and responsibility of each cadre, party member and people to ensure security and order, participate in the fight against and denounce crimes and social evils. The model is considered the core of the movement of the People to protect national security in Hong Long commune in particular and Nam Dan district in general. Households and organizations have also signed a commitment to actively ensure security and order, comply with the regulations of the Party and State, regulations on religious activities, and parishioners to respect God and love the country, live a good life and follow their religion, contributing to the completion of 19 criteria for building new rural areas.

In the commune, many households develop service industries with high income. Photo: Dinh Nguyet

Recognizing the efforts and struggles of the commune's cadres and people in the new rural construction movement, the People's Committee of Nghe An province decided to recognize Hong Long commune as meeting the New Rural standards.

Discussing the development orientation in the coming time, Mr. Pham Huu Hong - Chairman of the People's Committee of Hong Long commune said: Being recognized as a commune meeting new rural standards is a premise and motivation for cadres, party members and people of the commune to continue to strive, constantly improve the criteria in a sustainable and high-quality manner; meeting the development needs of society in a new, more comprehensive period.

In the coming time, Hong Long will continue to improve the quality and sustainability of new rural criteria; strive to build a strong and comprehensive political system; link economic growth with cultural and social development, improve and enhance the material and spiritual life of the people; contribute to building Nam Dan district to meet new rural standards in 2017./.

Dinh Nguyet