Nghia Lien Commune (Nghia Dan) succeeded from motivating and arousing people's strength.

A corner of the new rural area of ​​Nghia Lien commune (Nghia Dan). Photo: Van Hai

Nghia Lien commune is located about 20 km west of Nghia Dan district center, along National Highway 48, bordering Nghia Tan commune to the east and Nghia Hieu commune to the west. Although it is a purely agricultural commune, its production conditions depend entirely on nature and the terrain is fragmented; in addition, the commune has 7/13 villages in particularly difficult conditions and 6 villages with ethnic minorities, so the development and improvement of people's lives in general and the implementation of the national program on building new rural areas in particular face many difficulties and challenges. However, with the timely encouragement and support from the mechanisms and policies of the province and Nghia Dan district, the efforts of the entire political system, in which the most important is the joint efforts and consensus of all classes of people, Nghia Lien has successfully achieved the goal of building new rural areas.

Back in 2011 - 2012, when the government had just implemented the policy of building new rural areas, after approaching and studying the regulations, comparing with the set of criteria, the Party Committee and people of Nghia Lien commune were worried about the rather low starting point. For this reason, despite efforts, by early 2013, Nghia Lien was still a "3 no" commune when 3 schools were not up to standard, there was no concrete road and the Party Committee and government were not clean and strong. Faced with that reality, the commune intensified extensive propaganda work, so that cadres and people could fully understand the purpose, meaning and method of building new rural areas, thereby motivating and encouraging people accordingly.

Along with the planning, the commune continuously invited delegations to train people on crop restructuring techniques, assigning tasks to each member of the steering committee, organizations and hamlets to clarify the content of each criterion. The "push" to stimulate the NTM movement first came in 2014 when Nghia Lien was regulated by the district to bring 70 tons of cement (from another commune) to build roads. When the cement arrived, the hamlets were hesitant, but with the encouragement of the commune leaders, the Party Committee and the executive committee, the people of Hiep 2 hamlet - one of the central hamlets of the commune, boldly stood up to receive and mobilize people to contribute to building roads. After the success of mobilizing resources in Hiep 2 hamlet, other hamlets boldly mobilized people to donate land, cut trees, dismantle surrounding walls and buy sand and gravel, contributing to building roads. In less than 3 years, people contributed over 4 billion VND corresponding to 2,300 tons of cement to build 5.4 km of commune roads and commune roads to the district; 13.7 km of hamlet and inter-village roads; 3.1 km of alley roads and hardened 10.13 km of intra-field roads, with a total value of over 20 billion VND. Although it used to be a difficult criterion, when the traffic "bottleneck" was cleared, other criteria such as residential housing, hamlet cultural houses, and environmental sanitation were also completed with the active participation of the people. Within 5 years, people also contributed 1.6 billion VND/3.2 billion VND to repair and upgrade 13/13 hamlet cultural houses; contributed 3.5 billion VND/5.91 billion VND to rebuild cemeteries, concentrated landfills, etc.

Class hours at Nghia Lien Kindergarten (Nghia Dan).

The next criterion that Nghia Lien commune has successfully solved is the material facilities for education. In the commune, there are 3 schools, of which the secondary school is a common learning place for children from 3 communes Tan - Lien - Thang, the pressure on the material facilities is quite heavy. In fact, when entering the construction of the new rural area, no school has met the standards, so when determining the year 2018 to "finish", the commune discussed and proposed a roadmap to mobilize people's strength and take advantage of the district's support to implement. In 2015, the primary school was invested and recognized to meet national standards. Then, in the 2016 - 2017 school year, the kindergarten met national standards. And the secondary school, after meeting level 3 standards on quality assessment in the 2015 - 2016 school year, is striving to meet national standards by the end of this school year. In total, within more than 4 years, Nghia Lien commune has mobilized nearly 16 billion VND in investment for education.

Another focus that Nghia Lien is interested in investing in and considering it as the basis for maintaining the NTM criteria is to build models to increase income and create long-term livelihoods for people. To promote production, on the one hand, the commune has increased investment in irrigation, upgraded dams, renovated and upgraded the power grid system; taken advantage of policy mechanisms to support people in digging wells, installing machinery systems to pump water for crops; planned over 40 hectares of fruit trees, citrus trees and concentrated farm areas for people to convert cultivated land and develop livestock. At the same time, the commune supports people free of charge in certification procedures, especially poor and near-poor households to borrow capital to do business and go abroad to work. Thanks to that, although natural conditions are not favorable, Nghia Lien commune has formed quite vibrant and clear models of crop restructuring. Up to now, the total outstanding loans that people have borrowed to do business and develop production at credit institutions is the second highest in the district with 52 billion VND. From the starting point of average income of only 20.2 million VND/person in 2012, by 2017 it had increased to 27.1 million VND; the poverty rate decreased from 30.4% in 2012 to only 7.8% in 2017 (the requirement of the criteria for communes is below 12%).

Along with the leadership solutions, directing the construction of essential infrastructure, socio-economic development, Nghia Lien pays special attention to building and consolidating the political system. This is the key point for the Party Committee and the communal government to re-evaluate themselves, and at the same time effectively implement the proposed socio-economic goals. In particular, solidarity and unity within the Party, government and mass organizations are fundamental factors in creating trust for the people, thereby motivating and arousing the people's strength. With constant efforts, from 2015 to now, the Party Committee and communal government have continuously achieved clean and strong status, and security and order have been maintained.

2-hectare VQ tangerine model of Mr. Ho Si Mau's family in Hiep 1 hamlet, Nghia Lien commune. Photo: Van Hai

In addition to focusing on the above-mentioned key points, Nghia Lien commune pays attention to investing resources in criteria to ensure quality of life and health care for people such as investing in the health sector, cultural and sports institutions, maintaining environmental sanitation, ensuring social security, taking care of policy families, poor households... Within 5 years, despite the difficult context of resources, the commune has mobilized 111.4 billion VND to implement the NTM criteria. In addition to support from the state budget at all levels, people contributed over 40 billion VND, accounting for 36.8% of the total resources to implement the NTM, this is an unexpected success.

Although meeting the national criteria for building new rural areas, Nghia Lien commune has determined that it must make more efforts for sustainable development. Currently, although the commune's infrastructure has been invested in and built to meet the standards, it is at an average level, and in the long term, it cannot meet the development requirements in the new period; although the rural traffic system has met the standards, some alleys and hamlets have not been completely concreted; the facilities of some hamlet cultural houses need to continue to be invested and upgraded; although the environmental criteria have been met, they are only at a basic level and need to be further improved.

Recognizing the successes, challenges and difficulties ahead, the Party Committee and people of Nghia Lien commune are determined and unanimous to promote the achievements and continue to improve the quality of the new rural criteria according to new requirements.