Dak Lak expands good examples in building new-style rural areas

Illustrative photo (Photo: VNA)

Standing Vice Secretary of the provincial Party Committee Pham Minh Tan said the national target programme on building new-style rural areas has spread across the province, helping give rural areas a facelift and improve the living conditions of local people.

The Vice Secretary asked agencies and authorities at all levels to research ways to duplicate good models in an effective manner, and pay more attention to local cultural characteristics in rural development.

He also required deep research into agricultural restructuring, with a view to developing local strong products for export.

Authorities and sectors should study existing weaknesses and problems such as uneven performance among localities, limited results in agricultural restructuring, and unsustainable quality of new-style rural areas, in order to design solutions to them, the Party official said.

Participants at the conference shared experience in communication activities and resource mobilization for building transport infrastructure, as well lessons in building production models to increase locals’ income. They also discussed difficulties and solutions in building new-style rural areas in ethnic and especially disadvantaged areas.

Chairman of the People’s Committee of Ea Sup district Nguyen Van Dong said his border district is among the poorest in Dak Lak, with large acreage but small population. When starting the building of new-style rural areas, the district faced difficulties in getting local people settle down, and in defining key products. Ea Sup has started with criteria deemed easier to achieve, or criteria with breakthrough meaning. After nearly 10 years, the district has achieved 112 out of the total 171 criteria in building new-style rural areas.

Krong Bong district is in a similar situation. Vice Chairman of the district People’s Committee Y Thuc Eban said his district had a low starting point as a poor locality. Krong Bong decided to create a breakthrough in transport in order to give the local rural areas a facelift and facilitate activities in other fields.

The district launched communication activities to encourage local residents to contribute working days, land and money. The construction work was carried out in a transparent manner. At present, six out of the district’s 13 communes have achieved the criterion on transport.

At provincial level, the administration and agencies have promulgated many documents to instruct the new rural area building campaign, with attention paid to raising the public’s awareness about the work. Many educational campaigns have been conducted such as “All people unite to build new-style rural areas, civilized urban areas”, “Dak Lak farmers join hands to build new-style rural areas” and “All people protect the fatherland’s security”.

The building of new-style rural areas has contributed significantly to improving rural infrastructure, developing cultural establishments and enhancing rural living standards. During 2011-2015, the household poverty rate in the province dropped 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 at current exchange rate) in 2019.

The movement has successfully engaged many people and changed the way of thinking of the majority of local residents. During the past decade, people in Dak Lak contributed more than 1,240,000 sq.m of land, more than 1.6 trillion VND and over 2,100 working days to construct essential infrastructure facilities.

Total capital for the new-style rural building programme in Dak Lak for 2011-2020 is estimated at more than 140.7 trillion VND. As of June 2019, 43 communes in the province were recognized as new-style rural areas, three more than the target, and accounting for 28.3 percent of total communes in the province. One district-level administrative unit –Buon Ma Thuot city- has also earned the title.

The province aims to have 61 communes recognized as new-style rural areas by the end of 2020.