After three years implementing a national programme on new ruraldevelopment, 11 communes in five Central Highland provinces havesatisfied all the 19 of the programme’s criteria thanks to their effortsin mobilising support from the people, reported radio The Voice ofVietnam.
Among the 19 criteria for new rural development,developing a rural traffic system is one of the hardest to achievebecause it is expensive. But Ea O commune in Dak Lak province’s Ea Kardistrict has found a way.
Over the past three years, the communehas managed to build two bridges and 90 km of paved roads connectinglocal hamlets and communes, worth around 3.5 million USD. The key wasgetting 500 households in the commune to voluntarily contribute theirland use right, money and labour to build new roads.
Nguyen MinhChuyen, Chairman of Ea O commune People’s Committee, said that withlocals' support, the commune may complete the national rural developmentprogramme by 2015.
"In order to encourage local people tosupport the programme, it’s important to acknowledge their contributionsin appropriate ways. For example, we went to every household to ask fora contribution, stated the contributions clearly in a report, and afterthe work was completed, we honoured them for their donations inpublic," he said.
Similarly, the communes of Quang Dien, EaTul and Ea Nuol have succeeded in mobilising contributions to their newrural development. Hundreds of households in these communes voluntarilymoved their houses, donated their land, money and contributed theirlabour to building welfare facilities and making roads.
NguyenLoc, a resident of Krong Ana district’s Quang Dien commune, donated 600square meters of his fields to make roads and encouraged his neighboursto follow suit.
"My decision was supported by everyone in myfamily because we understood that we ourselves will ultimately benefitfrom this program. Once the roads are completed, it will be easier forus to travel and this will also increase local land prices," Loc said.
The national rural development programme has also seen improvements in communes with an ethnic minority.
SeniorLieutenant Colonel Nguyen Minh Manh is the political commissar ofBrigade 198, which has provided assistance to three communes in Dak Lakprovince in implementing the national rural development programme.
Manhattributed the programme’s success in ethnic minority areas to effortsby the local authorities to make residents aware of the programme andprovide them with clear instructions on the State’s rural developmentguidelines and policies. Another important factor in the programme’ssuccess, he added, is that officers and soldiers get close to the peopleand stand ready to support them at any time.
"We take part inany works by the local people, from supporting their daily chores tobuilding roads, dredging irrigation canals, and so on… And this hascreated close bonds between the soldiers and the local people, making iteasier for us to complete the new rural development programme, andcarry out unanticipated tasks," he said.-VNA