Building Nghe An into a typical province in cooperative economic development and new rural construction

(Baonghean.vn) - On the morning of December 6, Comrade Nguyen Thien Nhan - Politburo member, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front had a working session with the Provincial Farmers' Association and the Provincial Cooperative Union on the agricultural development situation in the province in 2016, orientation for 2017; promoting the role of these two units in agricultural development in the area.

Also attending, on the Central side were comrades: Vo Kim Cu - Chairman of the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance; Luong Quoc Doan - Vice Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Vietnam Farmers' Union.

On the side of Nghe An province, there were comrades: Nguyen Dac Vinh - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation; Nguyen Xuan Son - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council; Thai Thanh Quy - Alternate Member of the Party Central Committee, Chief of the Provincial Party Committee Office; Dinh Viet Hong - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; leaders of the Farmers' Association, the Provincial Cooperative Union, the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Nghe An province and a number of departments and branches.

Comrade Nguyen Thien Nhan chaired the meeting.

Reporting to the working delegation, Chairman of the Provincial Farmers' Association Nguyen Huu Nhi said that despite many difficulties, agricultural, forestry and fishery production still achieved a good growth rate, the economic structure within the sector continued to shift in a positive direction, the growth rate of production value in 2016 is estimated at 4.5/plan 4.0 - 4.5%.

Regarding rural development, by the end of December 2016, the whole province had 36 communes meeting the new rural standards recognized by the Provincial People's Committee; by the end of 2016, the whole province had 145/431 communes meeting the new rural standards, reaching 33.64%. The average number of criteria in the whole province reached 13.5 criteria/commune; 2 district-level units completed the task of building new rural areas.

To achieve the above results, the role of the Farmers' Association and the Provincial Cooperative Union has been promoted. Every year, the Associations at all levels have maintained and built 266 effective economic models. Up to now, 248,308 farming households have registered to become good farming households at all levels, of which, the number of farming households achieving the title of good farming households at all levels is 136,159 households.

Bringing mechanization into agricultural production in Hung Tan - Hung Nguyen. Photo archive.

However, according to the head of the Provincial Farmers' Association: The restructuring of the agricultural sector is still slow and not synchronous; some policies related to agriculture, farmers and rural areas are still supplemented and amended slowly, such as: Farmers have difficulty accessing credit lending policies...

Regarding cooperative development, the province now has 2,906 cooperative groups with over 36,000 workers and 650 cooperatives. The total number of cooperative members is 265,732 and more than 52,000 workers work regularly. To date, Nghe An has 339 cooperatives converted according to the 2012 Law on Cooperatives.

Speaking at the meeting, Chairman of Nghe An Cooperative Union Le Phuc An raised many recommendations on issues such as: only 191/650 cooperatives have been rented land for headquarters, especially the access to loan capital for cooperatives is very difficult.

“Currently, Nghe An only has 22 cooperatives that can access loans from commercial banks with outstanding loans accounting for only 0.2% of the outstanding loans of the banking system. The Cooperative Union proposes that there must be guidelines and conditions created for cooperatives to borrow capital,” proposed comrade Le Phuc An.

Comrade Dinh Viet Hong - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee affirmed that Nghe An will focus on proposing solutions to create conditions for agricultural land accumulation and focus on direction in 2017.

Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Dinh Viet Hong said that Nghe An is very interested in building and expanding economic models to increase farmers' income in building new rural areas. In addition, Nghe An focuses on proposing solutions to create conditions for agricultural land accumulation and will focus on directing in 2017.

At the meeting, comrade Nguyen Thien Nhan acknowledged the province's achievements and presented the content of developing new-style agricultural cooperatives - a breakthrough to restructure agriculture and increase sustainable income for farmers.

Regarding the tasks in the coming time, the Chairman of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front suggested that the province should have a program for agricultural and rural development in the period of 2015-2020; in which the focus is on developing cooperative economy and should establish a steering committee to implement this content with direct guidance from Party committees at all levels. "It cannot be assigned solely to the Farmers' Sector and the Cooperative Union", Comrade Nguyen Thien Nhan emphasized.

Comrade Nguyen Thien Nhan - Politburo member, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front identified a number of contents for developing new-style agricultural cooperatives in Nghe An in the coming time.

On the other hand, Nghe An must support the implementation of the 5 readiness of farmers. “That is, each commune must have at least 10 farmer households who understand cooperative economy and are ready to participate in cooperative economy; 3/10 of them must be trained to be leaders and managers of cooperatives; must discuss with each other to determine the main products of the cooperative and know the unit providing technical support; be ready with the method of product consumption; must know the capital support policy”, comrade Nguyen Thien Nhan pointed out.

On that basis, the province reviewed cooperatives and applied the 5 readiness to cooperatives that have not applied them to improve operational efficiency; on the other hand, it is necessary to increase the rate of farmer households participating in cooperatives.

“The Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, the Farmers’ Association and the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance commit to coordinate with the province when Nghe An issues a project on cooperative economic development. Thereby, building the province into a model in cooperative economic development and new rural construction,” affirmed comrade Nguyen Thien Nhan.

Comrade Nguyen Dac Vinh - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee received the instructions of the Chairman of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front.

At the end of the meeting, Provincial Party Secretary Nguyen Dac Vinh accepted the guidance of the Chairman of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front; at the same time, he affirmed that Nghe An is very interested in the development of agriculture, rural areas and farmers and has had resolutions and projects on this issue. Regarding the development of cooperative economy, it is expected that the Provincial Party Standing Committee will approve it by the end of December 2016.

Thanh Duy