Advanced new rural construction in Nghe An: Many places are showing signs of slowing down?

Difficulties at the grassroots

Nam Thanh Commune (Yen Thanh)new rural finish lineSince 2014, it has been one of the top finishing communes in the province. However, while most of the communes that have reached the new rural standard in this period have now reached the advanced new rural standard, Nam Thanh commune is still "stagnant" in the commune that has met the new rural standard!

Talking to us, Mr. Hoang Van Sam - Chairman of Nam Thanh Commune People's Committee gave the reasons why the commune is slow to reach the finish line.advanced new rural areasCompared to other communes: After reaching the new rural finish line, most of the people in the commune had a satisfied mindset, so the criteria stagnated for a long time. Welfare works built before 2014 were degraded, and at the same time, mobilizing people to invest with the State in building welfare works in some hamlets encountered difficulties, especially cultural houses, while in the later period, Nam Thanh commune did not collect from the land auction budget, but the support mechanism from the higher levels for new rural communes improved little.

After the merger of hamlets, the cultural houses of the old hamlets did not have enough space, forcing them to be planned in a new area, while the people did not agree to donate land to clear the ground for the hamlet cultural houses. On the other hand, the investment cost for building new cultural houses was high, and the commune did not have the budget to support.

Mr. Sam gave an example: The cultural house of Minh Chau hamlet was planned in a new location, but it involved 79 households with land for production. Because each household only had an area of ​​less than 10 m2 for rice cultivation, the compensation was insignificant, causing people to refuse to donate land. Therefore, up to now, the cultural house of Minh Chau hamlet has not been renovated. For Tay Ho hamlet, there was a need to build a new cultural house on the old location, but due to insufficient investment capital, the hamlet only upgraded some necessary items.

Mr. Nguyen Huu Dien - Secretary of Tay Ho hamlet Party Cell said that because the commune is determined to reach the advanced new rural area goal by the end of 2023, the hamlet mobilized contributions from the people, along with socialized resources and the commune's support of 50% of the total investment, the hamlet has upgraded a number of necessary items, with a total cost of about 230 million VND.

When meeting with some people in Nam Thanh commune, they said that key cadres need to be more proactive in the process of implementing and improving new rural criteria; propaganda work on building advanced new rural areas needs to be regular and continuous so that all classes of people understand and follow the Party and State's policy on building new rural areas, which "has a starting point, not a stopping point".

Similarly, Tan An commune (Tan Ky) reached the new rural area goal in 2015, but until now there is still no plan to reach the advanced new rural area goal. Mr. Cao Tien Thin - Chairman of Tan An Commune People's Committee said: Because building advanced new rural areas requires a large investment source, the locality has not been able to achieve it.

“Although the locality reached the new rural finish line in 2015, up to now, the commune still has no plan to reach the advanced finish line in the 2021-2025 term, because the commune budget does not have enough to invest in improving the criteria, especially the criteria for traffic, schools, communal cultural houses, hamlets, etc. Therefore, for the commune to reach the advanced new rural finish line, it must be after 2025,” Mr. Cao Tien Thin shared.

Mr. Pham Hong Son - Vice Chairman of Tan Ky District People's Committee said: In the district, there are many communes that reached the new rural area goal from 2014 to 2016, such as Nghia Dong, Tan An, Tan Phu... but up to now, no commune has reached the advanced new rural area goal.

The reason is that localities do not have investment resources, while the State only supports cement for road construction. “In 2022, Tan Ky district selected Nghia Dong commune to finish as an advanced new rural area, but the locality was stuck with security and order criteria, so it missed the deadline. Currently, Tan Ky district is selecting Nghia Dong and Ky Tan communes to finish as advanced new rural areas in 2023, but so far it has not been confirmed, although the criteria have been basically completed,” said Mr. Pham Hong Son.

Focus on hard criteria

According to Decision No. 318/QD-TTg dated March 8, 2022 of the Prime Minister promulgating the National Criteria for New Rural Communes and the National Criteria for Advanced New Rural Communes for the 2021-2025 period, an advanced new rural commune must complete 19/19 criteria and 75/75 targets, an increase of 18 targets compared to a commune meeting new rural standards for the 2021-2025 period and an increase of 26 targets compared to a commune meeting new rural standards in the previous period. This poses many difficulties and challenges for localities.

Communes striving to reach the advanced new rural target after 2021 are facing more difficulties because the criteria set by the Government are more demanding. In addition, some localities are on the path to merge communes, so the planning for the period up to 2030 must be adjusted, taking into account the year 2035.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hang - Deputy Chief of Office in charge of the Office of Coordination of the National Target Program on New Rural Construction of the province

One of the most difficult criteria is criterion number 17 on environment with the following indicators: The rate of households equal to or more than 20% using clean water according to standards; the rate of hazardous solid waste collected, transported and treated to meet environmental protection requirements must reach 100%; the rate of plastic waste generated in the area that is collected, reused, recycled and treated according to regulations must reach 90%...

In addition, communes also face difficulties in investment capital, while advanced new rural criteria require large investment resources. Any locality that cannot attract investment projects and programs will have a very difficult time.

“Currently, the most difficult thing is clean water, because this is a hard content in the environmental criteria for advanced new rural communes. To overcome this content, localities need to have solutions to connect to clean water works in the area for people to use. Or the district must have a specific plan to build clean water works in clusters of communes,” said Mr. Nguyen Van Hang.

Nghe An has set the target of building new rural areas by 2025: 82% of communes will meet new rural standards (of which 20% will meet advanced new rural standards, 5% will meet model new rural standards) and 11 district-level units will be recognized for completing the construction task and meeting new rural standards (of which 1 district will meet model new rural district). Up to now, the whole province has had 309/411 communes meeting new rural standards, of which 53 communes will meet advanced new rural standards, 6 communes will meet model new rural standards, 7 district-level units will meet new rural standards. Strive to increase the total number of advanced new rural communes to 87 communes and model new rural communes to 12 communes by the end of 2023.