Building new rural villages: When people are in favor

People of Chi Khe commune (Con Cuong) harvest rice. Photo: Le Thang

In 2018, the district had 7 villages and hamlets registered to meet the new rural standards. Up to now, the villages and hamlets are making efforts to complete the criteria to reach the finish line on time.

Bai Gao village in Chau Khe border commune has over 90% of the population being Thai ethnic group. The main source of income of the people depends on agricultural production. Starting from a low base, the infrastructure conditions of Bai Gao village are lacking. Therefore, in 2018, after registering to meet the NTM standards, the village management board held a meeting with the people to discuss and determine to implement.

In addition to focusing on building new rural areas, people in Bai Gao village are also being promoted to preserve good traditional cultural features. Photo: Ba Hau

With the motto of “doing easy things first, doing difficult things later”, the Party Committee and the government from the district to the commune have gone down to each household to “hold hands and show people how to do things”, guiding people to build fences and renovate their houses. Implementing the criteria for infrastructure construction, along with the cement source supported by the State, the village has mobilized people to donate land, contribute working days, materials and funds to build 2 km of inter-commune roads; 2 kmmain village road

For economic development, in addition to sugarcane cultivation, Bai Gao villagers also focus on livestock development, taking advantage of their free time to establish construction teams and groups to create jobs for dozens of village workers.

Bai Gao village chief - Mr. Lo Van Hung excitedly said: "Understanding the meaning of the new rural construction program, although there are many difficulties, everyone agrees to contribute their efforts to implement the criteria. Up to now, the income of Bai Gao villagers has reached 28 million VND/person/year, the poverty rate has decreased to 10/96 households. Currently, the village has achieved 14/15 criteria, and the environmental criteria are about to be completed, determined to reach the new rural standards in 2018".

In Bai Oi village, Chi Khe commune, to increase income, people have taken advantage of the local strengths to develop the economy such as: investing in intensive cultivation of nearly 100 hectares of lemon trees in the direction of goods for an income of 30 million VND/ha. Along with that, people in the village also take advantage of the land area to grow grass to raise cattle and buffaloes in captivity; exploit 260 hectares of hilly land to plant raw material forests and rotate crops on alluvial land. Up to now, the average income per capita of people in Bai Oi village has reached over 28 million VND/person/year. Thanks to the fairly developed economy, when there was a policy to renovate and build a village cultural house, people voluntarily contributed at least 500 thousand VND per household and contributed more cement, sand, gravel, labor, etc.

Currently, the village has achieved 12 criteria, but has not yet achieved 3 criteria: health, traffic, and environment. According to Mr. Le Van Tam - Secretary of the Bai Oi village Party Cell: "To achieve the new rural standards according to the plan, the village management board continues to organize meetings with the people, based on the opinions and consensus of the people to jointly implement the remaining criteria. For the environmental criteria, people will be encouraged to build garbage pits at home, and at the same time plant flowers and trees along both sides of the village roads; and for the traffic criteria, when there is a source of cement support, people are willing to contribute working days to implement it."

With the motto of the State and the people working together, the inter-commune road as well as the intra-village road in Bai Gao village have been paved. Photo: Minh Hanh

In 2018, Con Cuong district had 7 villages registered to reach the NTM finish line. Due to the characteristics of a mountainous district, the villages and hamlets in the area still have difficult criteria to achieve such as: income, employment, housing, etc. To overcome difficulties, Con Cuong district has policies to encourage and mobilize people to promote local strengths to develop the economy, focusing on production, livestock, and restructuring crops and livestock in accordance with actual conditions to create value.

With housing criteria, the district advocates relying on socialized resources, mobilizing people to contribute working days, and for businesses, officials, workers and civil servants, material contributions...

The movement to build new rural areas in Con Cuong always receives the support of ethnic people in the area. Photo: Ba Hau

Mr. Nguyen Khac Sy - Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Con Cuong district said: "The district also has a mechanism to support each village reaching the NTM target with 50 million VND, at the same time, there are policies to encourage and mobilize people to promote local strengths to develop the economy, sending cadres to the grassroots to directly guide people. Up to this point, Con Cuong district has 1 commune (Yen Khe) and 1 village (Quyet Tien, Chi Khe commune) meeting the NTM standards.