Nghia Xuan Commune (Quy Hop): Striving to overcome difficulties to reach the NTM finish line

(Baonghean) - Nghia Xuan Commune is located in the East of Quy Hop District, adjacent to Nghia Hieu Commune, Nghia Dan District. Because National Highway 48 runs through Quy Chau, Que Phong and Quy Hop Town; there are a number of large-scale enterprises and factories located in the area, Nghia Xuan has many advantages in trade and economic development. However, with the characteristics of being a commune in Region II, including 4/15 extremely disadvantaged villages under Program 135 and nearly 50% of the population being Tho ethnic people (the rest are Kinh ethnic people), economic and social development in general and new rural construction (NTM) in particular face many difficulties and obstacles; when starting to build NTM, the commune only met 7/19 criteria, especially essential infrastructure with many weaknesses...

Comrade Truong Van Chinh, Chairman of Nghia Xuan Commune People's Committee, said: To achieve today's achievements, the commune has directed with utmost concentration and determination; mobilized the entire political system and the entire population to participate; especially, maximized the people's mastery in implementing the criteria. Thanks to synchronous and in-depth implementation solutions, after nearly 4 years of building the new rural area, Nghia Xuan commune has achieved positive results, mobilizing 85.5 billion VND to build the new rural area criteria, of which the Central Government directly supported 1.52 billion VND; the province 21.37 billion VND; the district 9.16 billion VND; the commune 1.9 billion VND; the people contributed and donated land worth 33.18 billion VND; other sources 18.3 billion VND...

Nghia Xuan Commune People's Committee decorates to prepare to receive the Certificate of recognition of meeting NTM standards.

In the process of implementing the new rural construction, the criterion identified as difficult but Nghia Xuan commune has tried to implement quite well is the traffic criterion. Within 4 years, the commune mobilized 37.2 billion VND, accounting for 43% of the new rural construction budget to complete the traffic system, with a total length of 82 km, of which inter-commune roads are 11.26 km; inter-village roads are 8.12 km; village roads are 42.38 km long; intra-field roads are over 20 km. Before implementing the new rural construction, there were only 2.96 km of asphalt roads, but now 3.31 km of asphalt roads and 4.99 km of concrete roads have been built, reaching 100%; 4.73 km of inter-village roads have been concreted, of which 0.9 km are integrated into the project, and 3.83 km have been implemented by the people, reaching 58%. In addition to the 12.27 km of inter-village roads that have been concreted, the commune has completed an additional 11.08 km, bringing the total number of kilometers of inter-village concrete roads to 23.35 km, reaching 55%; the commune is currently continuing to pour sand and gravel on intra-field roads, ensuring that they are not muddy during the rainy season...

To serve production, the commune invests an average of over 1 billion VND per year to maintain and repair irrigation works and nearly 3 billion VND to upgrade the power grid. Up to now, the whole commune has 16.48 km of canals, of which 10 km have been concreted, reaching 60.7% and 13 transformer stations/52.06 km of power lines, basically meeting the electricity demand for consumption and production for the people.

Another strength that Nghia Xuan commune continues to affirm and promote is the development of trade and services. After being built according to the planning of the province's rural market network in 2005, Dinh Market became the second largest commercial center of the district; with National Highway 48 passing through and being the location of Phu Quy Sugarcane Factory (NASU), business activities are increasingly bustling. Recently, to ensure business for the people, the commune has mobilized 3.74 billion VND to build a new market hall; repair and upgrade the outdoor area to accommodate non-regular business households; in addition to repairing the road system, drainage system, sanitary works in the market are built every year, creating a clean and airy space for people to do business. The commune continues to apply science and technology to production, improving sugarcane productivity; Strongly develop service industries, mechanical repair, transportation... around the sugar factory to create more jobs for workers...

Nghia Xuan commune people build new rural roads.

For the comprehensive development of the new rural areas, the commune also focuses on consolidating the political system, investing in upgrading facilities for teaching and learning, ensuring conditions for cultural activities, and medical examination and treatment needs of the people. Nghia Xuan commune is assessed by superiors as one of the localities with a comprehensive and strong political system, ensuring security and order; synchronous and complete cultural facilities when 15/15 hamlets have achieved the title of Cultural Village. Currently, the commune has met national standards on health and universal education. Thanks to creating regular jobs for over 90% of local workers, when starting to build the new rural areas, the commune had 24% poor households, with an average income per capita of 11 million VND. By 2015, the commune had only 6.6% poor households (148 households), with an average income per capita of 18 million VND (the regulation for poor households in area II communes is allowed to be below 10%).

Currently, although 19/19 criteria have been met, according to Chairman of the Commune People's Committee Truong Van Chinh, Nghia Xuan still has to try hard because some criteria such as traffic, irrigation, cultural facilities, schools, and poverty rate have been met but not 100% complete. On the other hand, during the implementation process, although people from the same province support, even willing to pay money, donate land and dismantle the surrounding walls for the hamlet and commune to open roads, due to people's difficult income (4/15 villages are in the especially difficult category), it affects the mobilization of resources from the people...

The proposal of Nghia Xuan commune is that, after the commune is recognized as a new rural area, in order to improve the quality and increase the sustainability of the criteria, it hopes to continue to receive support from the province and district in terms of cement to complete 100% of the transport and irrigation infrastructure. In addition, there should be more support in training, transferring science and technology, and new varieties into production to increase crop productivity, contributing to creating jobs and stable income, thereby improving the lives of the people.

Ha - Huong