New rural construction in the Mekong Delta is a big undertaking, to meet the expectations of the people. The movement of new rural construction has initially created a new look for rural areas. However, the natural characteristics of the area with many rivers has posed many difficulties for the process of building new rural areas. At the preliminary conference on three years of implementation of national target programme on building new rural areas in the Mekong Delta region held by the Steering Committee of national target programme on building new rural areas in Hau Giang on 25th February, many creative ways of mobilising people and power to build new rural area were put forward.
Great efforts in new rural area construction
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in the past 3 years, the Mekong Delta has mobilised about VND121,340 billion to build new rural areas. In particular, the budget capital, credit capital, corporate capital and community capital account for 31.2, 47.3, 4.3 and 17.2 percent, respectively. Thereby, by the end of 2013, averagely, communes in the Mekong Delta reached 9.23 criteria, increasing by 3.19 compared to 2011 (8.36 criteria reached averagely, an increase of 3 criteria).
Compared to 2011, the provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta have increased criteria rate compared to that of the whole country (averagely more than 3 criteria); no communes fail to reach criteria of new rural area. This has shown the efforts of the committees, the governments and the people in the Mekong Delta despite difficult conditions.
However, there are still 62 communes reaching less than 5 criteria, which are located in the provinces of Tien Giang (39 communes), Ben Tre (7 communes), Ca Mau (10 communes), etc. This requires further efforts of the governments and people of these communes. Besides, the inspection and evaluation of performance of criteria in a number of localities has not been fully paid attention to, subjective and tends to chase movement.
Mr Le Huy Ngo, former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), mentor of the national target programme on building new rural areas said: The resource arouse in people is a highlight of the Mekong Delta. The construction of new rural area should focus on improving life of the people. When life of the people gets better, advocating for the remaining criteria will get easier.
"What is the most difficult thing in the process of building new rural areas? That is capital for infrastructure. According to calculation, averagely each commune needs investment rate of VND300 billion to reach 19 criteria of new rural communes. Meanwhile, the current capital of VND1 billion per commune is too little, said Mr Nguyen Thanh Nguyen, Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of Long An Province. The most difficult point of the provinces in the Mekong Delta is that they are divided by dense waterways and canals while the soil remains soft; educational level is still low; economic structure is still largely based on agriculture which is not effective; there is still lack of infrastructure, especially that of transport, irrigation, electricity and clean water; the life of a part of the population, especially ethnic minorities, remains low and is frequently affected by floods. Those are the impacts which are slowing the progress in implementing the building of new rural area in the Mekong Delta.
Based on people
There are proposals that there should be distinguished criteria for building new rural area in the Mekong Delta. There are also comments warning that criteria for building new rural area shouldn’t be pursued rigidly. It is important to understand that the construction of mew rural area is changing the lives of the people in the direction of shortening the gap between rich and poor and creating conditions for people in the countryside to enjoy the life.
"People know, people discuss, people contribute, so that the construction of new rural area will be more efficient," said Mr Pham Van Quynh, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Can Tho City, said. The fact is that the construction of new rural area will get high quality and save more if people join.
Mr Tran Hoang Duyen, District Party Committee Secretary of Phuong Long, Bac Lieu Province shared that people are quite indifferent to works done by contractors hired by the localities. However, when people get involved, they enthusiastically join the work. A project on the construction of rural roads, if done by contractor, will cost VND26 billion but will only cost VND13 billion if the people and officials of those localities take part in. Besides, the quality is very high.
"I wish new rural areas in the Mekong Delta could get high competitiveness and rural ecology," said Mr Le Huy Ngo, former Minister of MARD. In fact, a lot of localities are still trying to figure out ways to increase income for people in the context of limited agricultural output and fragmented production models. Therefore, finding stable output for agricultural products and improving the livelihood of the people by restructuring agricultural labour in rural areas are still radical measures to increase people’s power involving in building new rural areas.
Many comments suggest that the criteria be divided into "hard" and "soft" in the process of building new rural area. However, former Minister of MARD Le Huy Ngo had a sharing that needs to be carefully taken into consideration: "Any criterion has to meet the satisfaction of people. The satisfaction level of the people should be considered a measure for the process of building new rural areas."
According to Mr Le Huy Ngo, in the process of building new rural areas, the characteristics of the people of the South, who are spontaneous, generous, close to nature and willing to share with the community, should be noted. This is an important factor to bind the villages.
According to the MARD, the Mekong Delta has so far 18 communes which reach 19 criteria, equivalent to 1.4 percent (1.2 percent in the whole country), the number of communes which reach 15-18 criteria is 4.7 percent (5.7 percent in the whole country), the number of communes which reach 10-14 criteria was 36 percent (28.9 percent in the whole country), the number of communes which reach 5-9 criteria is 53 percent (47.2 percent in the whole country), the number of communes achieving less than 5 criteria is 62, equivalent to 4.9 percent (17.3 percent in the whole country) .
Addressing the conclusion of the conference, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat emphasised: "The most important thing is to gain the trust of the people. The golden principle is democracy, openness and transparency in the process of building new rural areas. Localities have to be dynamic, creative and have appropriate steps and take satisfaction of the people as a measure in the process of building new rural areas.
PV
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