New rural construction: Determining the appropriate direction

( Quang Ngai Newspaper) - Besides the positive results, the National Target Program on New Rural Development (NTM) in the province still has certain shortcomings and limitations. Some NTM criteria are no longer suitable for current conditions and contexts, so they need to be overcome and adjusted.

Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment Ho Trong Phuong assessed that compared to 15 years ago, the appearance of infrastructure and the quality of life of rural people have changed a lot, making an important contribution to the province's sustainable poverty reduction. However, the implementation of the new rural construction program for the period 2010 - 2024 has revealed shortcomings and limitations that need to be overcome, namely: Many communes in remote, mountainous areas have not met the standards, infrastructure conditions are still difficult; communes and districts that have met the new rural standards face the risk of falling below the standards, due to difficulties in maintaining and improving the quality of the criteria.

Improving the quality of public administration, aiming at people's satisfaction is one of the key tasks in building new rural areas. In the photo: Handling administrative procedures in Huong Tra commune (Tra Bong). PHOTO: THANH PHONG

In addition, the environment, waste and wastewater treatment in rural areas have not been thoroughly resolved; infrastructure serving agricultural production has not met requirements, and there is a lack of agricultural product storage systems. Agricultural production has not made a breakthrough in improving productivity and increasing the value of agricultural products. “The above shortcomings and limitations show that the NTM program is like a “tight shirt”, especially in the context of digital transformation and strong application of science and technology as it is today. Therefore, the NTM construction program in the current and upcoming period needs to be “changed into a new shirt”, not only with appropriate criteria, but also with innovation in implementation, implementation and management methods”, Mr. Ho Trong Phuong commented.

Resolution No. 19-NQ/TW dated June 16, 2022 of the 5th Conference of the 8th Party Central Committee on agriculture, farmers, and rural areas to 2030, with a vision to 2045, sets out the goal that rural development in the coming period must ensure substance, depth, and efficiency, for the benefit of the people; towards building sustainable rural development and associated with the urbanization process.

According to Chairman of Mo Duc District People's Committee Pham Ngoc Lan, the effectiveness of the NTM program must be measured by the quality of life and happiness of the people. Therefore, it is necessary to make efforts to overcome the shortcomings of NTM construction in the period of 2010 - 2024. The focus is on integrating and promoting agricultural economic development towards green transformation and digital transformation to increase output, quality and value of products, ensuring the most important goal of creating jobs and increasing local income for rural residents in a sustainable manner.

In the coming time, in the context of merging administrative units, in addition to changing the coordination and management mechanism for implementing the new rural construction program, a more synchronous and comprehensive implementation method is needed. Chairman of Nghia Hanh District People's Committee Dinh Xuan Sam said that after rearranging the system of commune-level administrative units, the communes will be larger and larger in scale, which is a new element of the new rural construction program. Therefore, it is necessary to calculate and adjust and supplement the new rural criteria to ensure that they are suitable for actual conditions and convenient in the implementation process through integration with the tasks and plans of poverty reduction programs in ethnic minority areas. In addition, the new rural program needs to supplement investment resources for information technology infrastructure, meeting the needs of applying digital transformation to production, management, and product consumption. Thereby meeting the requirements of economic development, especially in the agricultural sector towards green and circular development.

Replicating effective economic development models associated with OCOP products contributes to increasing people's income. In the photo: 3-star OCOP products of Huong Vi Moi facility, in Hanh Thuan commune (Nghia Hanh). PHOTO: THANH PHONG

In fact, many localities that have achieved the NTM standards in the 2014-2020 period are facing the risk of falling short of the standards, especially the infrastructure criteria. Therefore, the construction of advanced and model NTMs needs to be specifically calculated to ensure efficiency and sustainability. Vice Chairman of Duc Pho Town People's Committee Tran Ngoc Sang said that the quality of infrastructure works after achieving NTM standards in some localities in the town has rapidly deteriorated; environmental pollution, ineffective waste treatment; and limited environmental protection awareness among some people. Not to mention natural disasters causing negative impacts on the results and sustainability of the achieved criteria in many localities. Therefore, the construction of advanced and model NTMs needs to be comprehensively calculated and evaluated to suit the conditions and ensure balance between localities and regions. At the same time, focusing on environmental protection and rural landscapes; Preserving cultural identity, ensuring social security, towards modern, prosperous and happy countryside.

According to Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment Ho Trong Phuong, the new rural development program should inherit and promote the results of 11 components, including developing economic and social infrastructure, ensuring synchronous connections between rural - urban areas and regions associated with improving the quality of public administrative services, promoting digital transformation in new rural development. At the same time, replicating effective production models, associated with synchronous and widespread implementation of the OCOP program, thereby ensuring real, effective and in-depth new rural development, all for the benefit of the people.

Source: https://baoquangngai.vn/kinh-te/nong-nghiep/202504/xay-dung-nong-thon-moi-xac-dinh-huong-di-phu-hop-98216cd/