Illustrative photo (Photo: VNA) DakLak (VNA) – Leaders of the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak have highlighted the need to multiple goodexamples and practices in building new-style rural areas at a conference heldin early November to review a decade of the work.
StandingVice Secretary of the provincial Party Committee Pham Minh Tan said thenational target programme on building new-style rural areas has spread acrossthe province, helping give rural areas a facelift and improve the living conditionsof local people.
TheVice Secretary asked agencies and authorities at all levels to research ways toduplicate good models in an effective manner, and pay more attention to localcultural characteristics in rural development.
Healso required deep research into agricultural restructuring, with a view todeveloping local strong products for export.
Authoritiesand sectors should study existing weaknesses and problems such as unevenperformance among localities, limited results in agricultural restructuring,and unsustainable quality of new-style rural areas, in order to designsolutions to them, the Party official said.
Participantsat the conference shared experience in communication activities and resource mobilizationfor building transport infrastructure, as well lessons in building productionmodels to increase locals’ income. They also discussed difficulties andsolutions in building new-style rural areas in ethnic and especially disadvantagedareas.
Chairmanof the People’s Committee of Ea Sup district Nguyen Van Dong said his border districtis among the poorest in Dak Lak, with large acreage but small population. Whenstarting the building of new-style rural areas, the district faced difficultiesin getting local people settle down, and in defining key products. Ea Sup hasstarted with criteria deemed easier to achieve, or criteria with breakthroughmeaning. After nearly 10 years, the district has achieved 112 out of the total171 criteria in building new-style rural areas.
KrongBong district is in a similar situation. Vice Chairman of the district People’sCommittee Y Thuc Eban said his district had a low starting point as a poorlocality. Krong Bong decided to create a breakthrough in transport in order to givethe local rural areas a facelift and facilitate activities in other fields.
Thedistrict launched communication activities to encourage local residents tocontribute working days, land and money. The construction work was carried outin a transparent manner. At present, six out of the district’s 13 communes haveachieved the criterion on transport.
Atprovincial level, the administration and agencies have promulgated manydocuments to instruct the new rural area building campaign, with attention paidto raising the public’s awareness about the work. Many educational campaignshave been conducted such as “All people unite to build new-style rural areas, civilizedurban areas”, “Dak Lak farmers join hands to build new-style rural areas” and “Allpeople protect the fatherland’s security”.
Thebuilding of new-style rural areas has contributed significantly to improvingrural infrastructure, developing cultural establishments and enhancing ruralliving standards. During 2011-2015, the household poverty rate in the provincedropped by 14.81 percent. The rate reduced by 6.56 percent in the 2016-2018.Average per-capita income is estimated at 29.4 million VND (1,268 USD atcurrent exchange rate) in 2019.
Themovement has successfully engaged many people and changed the way of thinkingof the majority of local residents. During the past decade, people in Dak Lakcontributed more than 1,240,000 sq.m of land, more than 1.6 trillion VND andover 2,100 working days to construct essential infrastructure facilities.
Totalcapital for the new-style rural building programme in Dak Lak for 2011-2020 isestimated at more than 140.7 trillion VND. As of June 2019, 43 communes in theprovince were recognized as new-style rural areas, three more than the target,and accounting for 28.3 percent of total communes in the province. Onedistrict-level administrative unit –Buon Ma Thuot city- has also earned the title.
Theprovince aims to have 61 communes recognized as new-style rural areas by theend of 2020./.
