Big difference in new communes
In fact, after the merger, the new communes will increase in population and area, creating favorable opportunities to increase the ability to synchronously plan, linking socio -economic development with new rural construction. However, the merger of communes with different levels of development is the biggest obstacle. According to recent instructions from the Central Government, the standard level of the lowest commune will be used as the common standard for the new commune. Specifically, if a model new rural commune merges with a commune that only meets new rural standards, the commune will only meet new rural standards, forcing localities to return to the starting line to strive to reach the finish line of an advanced new rural commune.
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| Viet Lam commune gives breeding buffaloes to poor households to improve income criteria. |
The newly established Con Lon commune, which was established on the basis of merging the two old communes of Sinh Long and Con Lon, is a typical example. The commune has an area of about 160.76 km2 and a population of about 5,734 people. If the old Con Lon commune is mentioned for its achievements in building a new rural area and reaching the finish line in 2016, Sinh Long commune is currently an extremely difficult locality, with nearly 709 households in the whole commune, of which 80.6% are poor households. By the end of 2024, Sinh Long commune has achieved 6/19 criteria to meet the standards of a new rural commune, with an average income per capita of 18.2 million VND/person/year.
Similarly, the old Viet Lam commune was considered a model in building a new rural area, as it was the first commune in the old Ha Giang province to be recognized as meeting the new rural standards in 2013. After merging with Quang Ngan commune, a particularly difficult commune that has only completed 6 criteria, completing the criteria for building a new rural area has become difficult. In fact, the infrastructure system in Quang Ngan commune still has many dirt roads located in 8 villages and does not have national grid electricity. Mr. Ly Van Khoi, Nam Chang village shared that the whole village has 28 households but there are no concrete roads yet. He hopes that after the merger, there will be more investment to have electricity and roads, so that people will have less difficulties.
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| OCOP products in Tien Nguyen commune. |
Thuong Lam commune (new) was established on the basis of merging two communes Khuon Ha (meeting NTM standards) and Thuong Lam (meeting advanced NTM standards). But after the merger, Thuong Lam commune is still only a NTM commune.
Exploiting internal strength and consensus from the people
Faced with the challenge of "losing" standards, the new communes quickly came up with specific directions to maintain and improve the quality of the new rural areas.
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| Thai Hoa commune people focus on developing cage fish farming on Lo river. |
Comrade Nguyen Trong Doan, Secretary of the Party Committee of Con Lon commune, affirmed his determination: although the merger will make Con Lon no longer a new-style rural commune, the locality will overcome difficulties and exploit its potential strengths to rise up. Con Lon is oriented towards sustainable development with Shan Tuyet tea trees and medicinal plants. The whole commune currently has more than 900 hectares of Shan Tuyet tea - a type of tea grown at an altitude of 800 - 1,000 m. Shan Tuyet tea has become a key product to help people reduce poverty and get rich. Secretary of the Khuoi Phin village Party cell, comrade Hoang Van Dau, shared: the village currently has an ancient tea garden with 2,000 trees, of which 170 trees are 200 - 600 years old. Khuoi Phin Cooperative is producing and processing ancient tea trees, which are highly appreciated by the market.
With the spirit of innovation and creativity, the Party Committee and people of Con Lon commune are determined to achieve the goals, striving to basically meet the standards of a new-style rural commune by 2030, with an average income per capita of over 51 million VND/year, and a poverty rate of 4-5%/year.
In Viet Lam commune, comrade Hoang Thi Thanh Huyen, Secretary of the commune, said that the commune will focus resources and all solutions to complete the low criteria and especially will focus on propaganda to create consensus among the people when applying mechanisms and policies to gradually improve the NTM criteria.
The spirit of dissatisfaction with the achieved results is also clearly shown in the new Thuong Lam commune. Comrade Nguyen Van Hoa, Secretary of the Commune Party Committee, said that he has stepped up propaganda and mobilization work for the people; continued to shift the crop structure towards concentrated commodity production, linking the development of homestay tourism and rural industries, services, agriculture , aquaculture...
Build a suitable roadmap
According to the report of the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Tuyen Quang province, by October 2025, the whole province has 35 communes meeting the NTM standards (old Tuyen Quang province has 24 communes, old Ha Giang province has 11 communes), 1 commune meeting the advanced NTM standards (Thai Hoa commune). On average, the whole Tuyen Quang province currently meets 11.9 criteria/commune. Of the 35 communes that have met the standards, 18 communes maintain 19 criteria, 15 communes meet 15-18 criteria, 46 communes meet 10-14 criteria and 38 communes meet less than 10 criteria, showing that there is still much to do to narrow the development gap between regions. The "One Commune One Product" (OCOP) program is considered a bright spot of the province, the whole province has 454 OCOP products with 3 stars or more, including 2 national 5-star products, 24 4-star products and hundreds of 3-star products. Over 97/124 communes and wards have OCOP products.
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| With favorable natural conditions, Con Lon commune is considered the rice granary of the old Na Hang district. |
Comrade Ngo Van Thuong, Deputy Head of the Coordination Office of the National Target Program on New Rural Development, said that the most difficult criteria are still income and poverty rate. We will continue to advise the province to implement the integration of the New Rural Development Program and sustainable poverty reduction according to the Government's direction. This consolidation not only saves resources, but also helps the policy go into practice, ensuring that all people - especially those in remote and isolated areas - benefit.
In the period of 2026 - 2030, Tuyen Quang aims to build 25 more communes meeting NTM standards, 2 communes meeting modern NTM standards and 7 wards completing the task of building NTM. These are ambitious but feasible numbers, based on the foundation that has been built. Up to now, the disbursement result of the National Target Program on New Rural Construction has been over 243,609 million VND, reaching 47% of the plan.
According to Dr. Ngo Xuan Thanh, Deputy Director of the Center for Economic, Financial and Statistical Information, Institute of Economic and Financial Strategy and Policy, Ministry of Finance, the merger is opening up not only a larger development space for Tuyen Quang, but also a need to clearly identify the communes that are capable of completing and those that are facing difficulties to have appropriate support plans to achieve the goal of having over 50% of communes meeting the NTM standards by 2030. In particular, it is necessary to provide a roadmap for each commune, classified by development level, thereby identifying priority communes that can meet the standards first, creating motivation for other communes. Promote the effective implementation of investment credit policies for agriculture, rural areas and component programs and projects of the NTM Construction Program. At the same time, strengthen exchanges and learning, share experiences with localities with good models and practices to replicate and develop in the province.
With the drastic participation of the entire political system and the consensus of the people, the immediate difficulties will be the driving force for new communes not only to meet the standards but also to move towards building advanced and model new rural areas, contributing to creating an increasingly rich, civilized and sustainable rural appearance.
Comrade Do Tan Son, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment Strong decentralization, real empowermentFrom the results of a comprehensive review of the current situation of each commune, the sector has clearly identified groups of fundamental criteria and groups of criteria that need to prioritize resources in the coming period. The focus is on building villages that meet new rural standards as a stepping stone for new rural communes; improving income criteria; combining new rural construction with rural tourism development. In particular, the sector has advised the Provincial People's Committee to promote decentralization, giving real power to the commune level in planning, organizing implementation and resolving problems at the grassroots level, ensuring autonomy along with responsibility. When power is properly delegated and responsibility is fully implemented, the implementation process will be truly effective, creating sustainable livelihoods, narrowing the gap between localities after the merger, bringing the new rural areas into depth and sustainability.
Take people's satisfaction as a measureImplementing the direction of the Provincial People's Committee on accelerating the completion of the new rural criteria, the Party Committee and the government of Yen Lap commune identified this as a key political task, an opportunity to change the face of the homeland and improve the quality of life for the people. In the coming time, the Party Committee of the commune will focus on leadership, make efforts to "reach the finish line" on time with specific commitments: doing things substantively, not having any outstanding debts, and resolutely saying no to the disease of achievements. Completing the 19 new rural criteria must go hand in hand with sustainable quality. In addition, the commune takes people's income as the foundation. Spacious infrastructure is only a necessary condition; a prosperous life for the people is a sufficient condition. Building new rural areas is a journey "with a starting point but no ending point". With the close attention of the province and the consensus of the people, Yen Lap commune strives to become a bright spot in the general development picture of Tuyen Quang.
Many difficulties after the mergerThong Nguyen commune was merged from two communes Thong Nguyen (old) and Xuan Minh, in which Thong Nguyen commune (old) was recognized as meeting new rural standards since 2015, Xuan Minh commune has just met 16/19 criteria. After the merger, the construction of new rural areas encountered many difficulties due to the expansion of administrative boundaries, the need to consolidate the system of records, criteria and management methods. Many indicators are no longer suitable for the scale of the new commune, especially infrastructure, income, poverty reduction and environment. Currently, the commune is urgently reviewing all criteria, classifying them according to the level of completion to build a specific implementation roadmap. The commune also focuses on mobilizing resources, prioritizing weak criteria; at the same time, assigning clear tasks to each department, each mass organization and each village; especially creating consensus among the people, joining hands to complete the new rural goals in the new period.
Reaching out to the big marketI believe that New Rural communes have a great advantage when developing OCOP products: synchronously invested infrastructure, favorable production and business environment, and support programs accessible right from the grassroots. We hope that in the coming time, management agencies will continue to train in e-commerce and digital technology to create conditions for cooperatives to participate more in consumption connection programs. From those advantages, my cooperative currently has 7 3-star products and 2 4-star products with OCOP certification. Since the beginning of the year, we have produced nearly 15 tons of turmeric starch for domestic supply. In particular, we have cooperated with pharmaceutical companies to export 10 tons of turmeric starch to the US market.
Hope the program brings practical valueAfter the administrative boundary merger, what people hope for is that the new rural development program continues to be effective, bringing practical values to daily life. We hope to have easier access to livelihood models and production support resources to increase income sustainably, especially for poor and near-poor households. In addition, unfinished projects from the old commune need to be reviewed and prioritized for completion to avoid waste and meet the essential needs of the community as soon as possible. Local authorities also need to publicize the implementation roadmap for each new rural criterion so that people have the opportunity to participate and monitor from the beginning. When the new rural program is truly people-centered, from planning to implementation, the gap between new villages and communes will be narrowed and the goal of new rural development will become fair, effective and sustainable. |
Article and photos: Le Duy
Source: https://baotuyenquang.com.vn/kinh-te/202512/go-kho-trong-xay-dung-nong-thon-moi-3db2cf7/
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