Vibrant Transformation of Ethnic Minority in New Countryside Development

From a very low starting point and still facing many difficulties but with breakthrough solutions, many mountainous areas throughout the country have achieved remarkable results in New Countryside Development.

Many positive changes

Determining the implementation of the National Target Program on New Countryside Development is a key task to change the face of ethnic minority and mountainous areas, many preferential mechanisms and policies to support localities have been issued. Notably, the support resources for extremely difficult communes and the communes meeting less than 5 criteria, is prioritized and 4-5 times higher than other localities.

The Prime Minister has also approved the project on "Supporting villages and hamlets of difficult communes in border, mountainous, coastal areas and islands to build new countryside construction in association with sustainable poverty reduction in the period 2018 - 2020”. In particular, it includes an additional amount of about VND1.4 trillion to support 3,513 villages and hamlets in 36 provinces to implement the project. According to the statistics in the period of 2016 - 2019, the ethnic minority and mountainous regions had mobilized nearly VND900 trillion to invest in the National Target Program on New Countryside Development, accounting for 78% of the total mobilized capital of the whole country (nearly VND1.3 trillion). Of which, about VND70.6 trillion comes from people through their land donations and labor days.

Thanks to the large investment resources, through the National Target Program on New Countryside Development, the lives of ethnic minorities nationwide have improved markedly. The rate of household poverty, extremely difficult communes in ethnic minority and mountainous areas has decreased by 3-4%/year. Up to now, 61.3% of the communes in ethnic minority and mountainous areas have reached criterion No. 10 of income and 60.7% of communes have completed the criteria of household poverty rate. As of March 2020, the whole country had 2,947 ethnic minority and mountainous communes meeting the new rural standard (equivalent to 45% of the total number of communes). On average, each commune has reached 14.87/19 criteria. Some provinces in ethnic minority and mountainous areas have had district-level units recognized to meet the new rural standards, such as: Tran Yen district (Yen Bai province), Nga Nam town (Soc Trang province) and Tieu Can district (Tra Vinh province), and Tay Tra district (Phu Yen province).

Sources of investment need to be diversified

According to the report by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, although the results of New Countryside Development have produced positive changes, many localities still face difficulties, especially in remote and border villages and hamlets. Therefore, in general, the results of New Countryside Development in these areas still have a big gap compared to other areas and regions of the country.

Currently, there are still six provinces with the percentage of communes meeting New Countryside Development standards below 20%, including five provinces in the northern mountainous region: Ha Giang, Cao Bang, Bac Kan, Son La and Dien Bien. The demand for New Countryside Development of these provinces is very large, but the ability to mobilize resources is very limited because they are mainly poor areas with low starting points, and the number of enterprises investing in the agricultural sector is small and farming households still make up the majority of production.

The localities are interested in investing in infrastructure but have not focused on allocating adequate resources for other key areas. The capacity of grassroots cadres, especially in mountainous communes and ethnic minorities, is still limited. Besides, the impact of natural disasters is becoming more and more complicated, causing damage to property and people and seriously affecting people's daily life and production, thereby directly affecting the capability to maintain the criteria of economic, social infrastructure, income, household poverty and environment.

Therefore, to meet the demand for investment capital in the context of limited budgets and low budgets of poor provinces, highland provinces need to integrate different sources of capital. In particular, they need to focus on building specific economic development solutions suitable to the specific conditions of each place. All programs and projects implemented in countryside areas are closely linked to the New Countryside Development program like the integration of agricultural, farmer and rural support projects, national target programs and capital of socialization. Besides, for mountainous and border provinces, due to complicated terrain conditions and large investment norms compared to lowland provinces, the Government also needs to increase the level of direct capital support for the program, especially development investment capital.

In the period of 2021 - 2025, the Central Steering Committee of the National Target Program for New Countryside Development sets the target of having at least one province recognized by the Prime Minister to complete the task of building a new countryside; 100% of the Northern mountainous provinces have at least one district-level unit that meets/completes the task of building a new countryside, in particular, encouraging the recognized districts in the 2016-2020 period to continue striving to become model new rural districts. The specific New Countryside Development programs and projects approved will also continue to be accelerated, with priority given to difficult areas, ethnic minority and mountainous areas; and diversifying and integrating resources to improve investment efficiency, especially essential infrastructure works for socio-economic development (transport, electricity, water, schools, health stations), and ensuring connectivity and proper response to climate change.

Source: Vietnam Business Forum