Border Commune Strives to meet Standards of New Countryside

It is very difficult for mountainous areas to bolster new countryside development and it is even much more difficult for border communes. For this mission, in addition to their own efforts, border communes still need the support of the Government and the helping hand of the social community.

Co Ba commune, Bao Lac district, Cao Bang province, is striving to achieve the standards of new countryside by 2025. Sharing the borderline with China, Co Ba has nine administrative hamlets, with seven with 545 households adjoining the borderline. Being a border commune with many difficulties, Co Ba commune has a low starting point to become a new countryside with a high poverty rate and a poor infrastructure system. With the effort and solidarity of the local government and the people, after nearly 10 years of carrying out the new rural development program, Co Ba has achieved many positive results and successfully raised people’s livelihoods. For sustainable development, the Co Ba Party Committee and people have strongly focused on restructuring crop and animal production and building efficient and sustainable agricultural economic models.

Ngo Thi Mi’s family in Lung Vay hamlet is one of the households escaping from poverty in 2020, thanks to the project of scaling up a cow-farming model launched by the province’s Fatherland Front. Her family was lent VND15 million to buy a cow. After seven months, her cow is now expected to start reproduction next month.

The cow-farming expansion project designed to create livelihoods for poor and near-poor households to escape poverty was launched by the province’s Fatherland Front in October 2019. Accordingly, 23 poor and near-poor households in Na Tao and Lung Vay hamlets in Co Ba commune were funded VND375 million to buy cows. This is one of support projects and programs launched in Co Ba commune to help poor households improve their livelihoods and escape poverty, enabling the commune to fulfill income and poverty criteria in the new rural development program.

In the past years, the Party and the State have launched many programs and projects on infrastructure construction, social policies for the poor, and preferential capital sources for people to develop the economy and build the countryside. Under the leadership and direction of the Party Committee and the government from district to commune levels, together with the effort of the people to escape poverty, Co Ba has made tremendous progress in economic development, infrastructure investment, political security and social order. Up to now, the commune has completed 12 out of 19 new rural development criteria. Rural roads from the administrative center of the commune to hamlets and villages are capable of supporting cars to travel all year round. 30% of roads in villages and alleys are paved with concrete for convenient transportation. 60% of irrigation canals are solidified to ensure water service for 82% of rice cultivation area. The income per capita is VND18 million a year. The poverty rate is 38.5%. 65% of livestock households have breeding facilities to ensure environmental sanitation.

Currently, the commune still has seven uncompleted criteria, namely: school, housing, income, poverty, education and training, culture and environment. These are all important criteria that directly relate to the life and economy of the people, forcing the Party Committee and authorities to seriously focus on finding solutions to achieve these criteria in the coming time. In particular, the commune drastically removes existing hardships to raise people's income with following solutions: Engaging people to restructure plant and animal production, encouraging hill-based production forms, and expanding fruit tree areas. The commune has collaborated with district agencies and specialized bodies to organize training courses to improve agricultural production know-how for households.

In the coming time, Co Ba commune will select easier criteria first and harder ones later to achieve 1-2 new countryside criteria a year. It will fulfil 17 out of 19 criteria by 2025 and all 19 criteria by 2030, with the two last being income and environment. To do this, in addition to the determination and effort of local authorities and the support of the people, Co Ba commune needs assistance from all levels and branches of the province and district, as well as the business community to accelerate the progress of new rural development.

By Duc Binh, Vietnam Business Forum