Focus on 'finishing' new rural areas

Building a new rural area is a long-term journey, requiring consensus and high determination from each locality. In Thai Nguyen province, there are currently 35 communes that have not met the standards, so quick but steady and correct steps are needed. Strengthening inspection, supervision and implementing many specific and effective solutions will be the "key" for communes to soon complete the new rural area goals.

Mobilizing and integrating many investment resources contributes significantly to the effective implementation of the Program.

Rural areas are increasingly prosperous

After more than 15 years of implementing the National Target Program on New Rural Development (NTM), Thai Nguyen province has achieved many comprehensive results. The total resources mobilized to implement the Program in the 2021-2025 period in the whole province reached over 85,000 billion VND. Of which, capital mobilized from voluntary contributions of people and the community, including both in-kind and labor converted into money, was nearly 1,300 billion VND. To date, the province has established more than 1,000 cooperatives and developed nearly 180 craft villages.

The above results have contributed to fundamentally changing the appearance of rural areas, significantly improving the material and spiritual life of the people.

However, in reality, there are still many difficulties and limitations, such as the quality standards in some localities are not yet sustainable, the development gap between regions is still large, and a part of localities still depends heavily on State support.

The cucumber growing model in Phieng Kham village (Cam Giang commune) brings quite high economic efficiency to households in the group of farmers with the same interest.

According to the review after merging administrative units, up to now, the whole province has 42/77 communes meeting the NTM standards, contributing to clearly changing the appearance of many rural areas. However, with 35 communes still not "reaching the NTM finish line", it requires more drastic measures in inspection and supervision, combined with specific, practical solutions, to speed up the progress and soon complete the set goals.

Barriers not easy to overcome

Among the 35 communes that have not yet reached the NTM target (mainly concentrated in the northern communes of the province), Ba Be is one of the localities with many difficulties, having only achieved 5/19 criteria so far. The whole commune has 33 villages, of which 18 are in the highlands with many economic limitations. The criteria for schools are a big challenge, as all 8 schools in the area have not met the standards; most of the schools are currently facing degraded and unsynchronized facilities, failing to meet the increasingly high requirements of teaching and learning.

Ms. Hoang Thi Nhung, Principal of Nam Mau Primary and Secondary School (Ba Be Commune), said: The school currently lacks many facilities. The construction area is limited while the number of school locations is large and scattered in villages and hamlets. Most of the classrooms at the school have teaching and learning conditions that are only just meeting the minimum learning needs of children from the highlands. We hope to receive attention and investment from superiors so that the children can have a safer, more solid and spacious learning environment.

People participate in making concrete roads for people in Phong Quang commune.

To speed up the progress towards the NTM finish line, the Department of Agriculture and Environment has coordinated to organize delegations to visit and grasp the actual situation in 35 communes on the roadmap to the NTM finish line.

Mr. Nguyen My Hai, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment, provided more information about the actual difficulties in the localities after the survey: The communes that have not completed the NTM criteria are mainly extremely difficult localities, located in mountainous areas with strongly fragmented terrain.

Socio-economic infrastructure still has many limitations, such as rural roads in many places are degraded and substandard; school facilities, medical stations, and cultural houses are not uniform and lack equipment; irrigation systems, clean water sources, and electricity have not been fully invested in, especially in remote villages.

In particular, the northern communes of the province have a very high poverty rate. If we consider the multidimensional poverty standard, the average poverty rate in most localities is over 60%. This is a difficult condition to achieve NTM in the near future.

In order to achieve the goal of bringing communes to meet NTM standards in the coming period, all levels and sectors will strengthen inspection and supervision at the grassroots level; at the same time, clearly assign responsibilities to each unit in charge of the criteria in each commune. The Department of Agriculture and Environment will advise the Provincial People's Committee to establish a NTM Coordination Office to support the direction, monitoring, inspection and guidance of departments and sectors in implementing the criteria under their management.

Many NTM criteria in communes need to strive to complete.

Consensus to Breakthrough

In order for communes to soon complete the goal of building a new rural area, it is necessary to first focus on implementing each specific criterion, with a roadmap and appropriate steps. For the missing criteria, the assigned sectors and units must closely follow the grassroots, inspect the reality to build a support plan with the right focus. The main difficulties currently focus on traffic infrastructure, schools, cultural facilities and environmental sanitation.

Along with that, the need for capital support, technology transfer, and vocational training for rural workers is also extremely urgent. Therefore, the solution is to strengthen inspection and monitoring of progress; at the same time, mobilize maximum resources, integrate programs and projects, and encourage people's participation, thereby ensuring progress and improving the quality of NTM criteria.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Nam, Head of the Department of Economic Cooperation and Rural Development of Thai Nguyen province, said: Along with the direction and supervision from the province, communes need to develop detailed plans to implement each missing criterion, clearly defining the content, time, resources and responsible unit.

On that basis, localities need to boldly propose specific support needs such as investment in essential infrastructure, funding to upgrade schools, cultural works, environmental treatment systems, as well as technical support and loans for production development. Proactive planning, combined with practical recommendations, not only helps all levels and sectors accurately grasp the situation but also creates conditions for allocating resources in the right direction, contributing to helping communes soon complete the NTM target.

Continue to identify the construction of new rural areas as a central, regular and long-term task of the entire political system. This is a continuous process, with a starting point but no end point. The program must be implemented in a comprehensive and sustainable manner, associated with restructuring the agricultural sector, developing the rural economy, protecting the environment, preserving national cultural identity and improving the quality of people's lives, with the people as the subject and center of the process.

A corner of La Bang commune today.

The focus of the Program is to guide people to develop appropriate economic models, actively apply high science and technology, and link production according to value chains with support for product consumption.

Localities pay special attention to developing OCOP products, strengthening production area linkages and connecting OCOP products with inter-regional agricultural ecosystems. The goal is to promote agricultural and rural development, create jobs and increase income for people.

During the implementation of the Program, localities continue to promote the role of autonomy, self-management and creativity of the community, ensuring the principle of clear decentralization and delegation of power, encouraging initiative and creativity. The central government and the province play a role in guiding, promulgating mechanisms, policies and targeted support, closely linking the construction of new rural areas with the urbanization process, developing modern and civilized rural areas, contributing to narrowing the development gap between regions.

The "finish line" of NTM does not stop at completing some criteria on paper, but the core is to improve the quality of people's lives in a substantial and sustainable way. This requires localities to avoid chasing achievements, to identify the right focus, close to actual needs and to implement it firmly.

With high political determination, people's consensus and appropriate solutions, the goal of bringing communes to the "finish line" of NTM can completely become a reality, contributing to creating a breakthrough in socio-economic development in rural areas.

Thai Nguyen province aims to have 100% of communes meeting NTM standards by 2030, at least 50% of communes meeting advanced NTM standards, and 10% or more of communes meeting modern NTM standards. To complete this goal on schedule, it is necessary to have the drastic and synchronous participation of the entire political system; localities must proactively mobilize and effectively use resources, prioritizing weak criteria such as schools, environment and income. Promoting socialization in the fields of education, health care and culture is also a feasible direction, both reducing budget pressure and increasing community participation in the process of building NTM.

Source: https://baothainguyen.vn/kinh-te/202509/don-lucve-dich-nong-thon-moi-fe96f1d/