Abandon the thought of 'expecting' and 'relying' in new rural development

Power decentralization

A national online conference on the National Target Program (NTP) for New Rural Development and the National Target Program for Sustainable Poverty Reduction in the period 2021-2025 took place on April 21.

At the opening of the conference, the Standing Deputy Prime Minister (PM) and Head of the Central Committee for NTPs, Pham Binh Minh, said the NTPs have made important contributions to the national socio-economic development in the last period.

In particular, the program on building new rural areas associated with agricultural restructure has helped effectively promote rural economic development. The basic socio-economic institutions have been improved, especially in disadvantaged areas where people's living standards have been increased in both material and spiritual terms.

Poverty reduction and social welfare are continuously guaranteed and enable local people to access better essential social services. Many policies have come into life, acting as a lever to support the disadvantaged people.

"The NTPs have been popularized and strengthened attracting people to join in and helping them find their legitimate rights and interests, thereby promoting them to unite and participate actively and creatively in implementing their tasks and solutions taking potential and advantages in socio-economic development," said the Standing Deputy PM.

According to Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Quoc Phuong, the National Assembly (NA) approved the implementation of 3 NTPs for the period 2021-2025 including socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, sustainable poverty reduction, and the building of new rural areas.

In the new context with advantages intertwined with disadvantages and challenges, to concretize the NA's requirements, the Government has developed a Decree stipulating the management mechanism and implementation of the NTPs.

One of the Decree's key contents is the power decentralization of localities, especially at the grassroots level with the aim to improve the initiative and flexibility of authorities in managing and implementing the NTPs, at the same time, promote the role of residential communities in planning, organizing and monitoring the NTPs' implementation. 

In particular, the State's support is provided under conditions and partly extracted from the State budget. People and organizations participating in the NTPs should share their responsibilities to get close to sustainable economic development eliminating the idea of ​​"expecting, relying".

Ensure synchronization without overlapping

According to Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan, to improve the quality and efficiency, the programs should be deployed focusing on solving urgent problems after 10 years of implementation. Six thematic programs should be deployed in the period 2021-2025 including science and technology; one commune, one product (OCOP); environmental protection, food safety, and rural clean water supply; rural tourism development; digital transformation; improving the quality and efficiency in the implementation of security and social order criteria for new rural areas.

Minister Hoan also said that based on the total amount of capital from the central budget to support new rural construction, along with local budget capital, the provincial People's Councils should allocate such sources ensuring synchronous and non-overlapping with the remaining 2 NTPs.

According to Vice Chairman of Cao Bang provincial People's Committee Le Hai Hoa, in the period 2021-2025, Cao Bang strives to have at least 2 districts escape poverty, 2 others meet new rural standards and at least 50 communes meet new rural standards. t requested the Government to allocate funds soon and issue mechanisms and policies to implement the NTPs.  

“Cao Bang is reviewing to cut a lot of projects, shifting to only focus on urgent ones. I respectfully request the Standing Deputy PM, Ministers, and heads of central agencies to consider and pay attention to supporting more capital sources for Cao Bang. Along with support from the state budget, the province also needs more help to connect with businesses so that it can create more resources to achieve the above goal," said Mr. Hoa. 

Creating a legal basis for localities to implement NTPs

Meanwhile, Mr. Dang Ngoc Son, Vice Chairman of Ha Tinh province's People's Committee said Ha Tinh faced many difficulties and great challenges in implementing the NTPs. Firstly is low efficiency in organizing production. Secondly is a low percentage (28%) of households using standard clean water. Ha Tinh requests ministries and central agencies to urgently issue detailed guiding documents and circulars serving as a basis for the localities in implementing NTPs. 

Mr. Huynh Minh Tuan, Vice Chairman of Dong Thap province's People's Committee, said: "We strive to have 90% of communes meeting new rural standards by 2025, of which 30% are newly improved rural communes and 10% are rural communes... During the implementation process, Dong Thap encountered difficulties due to slow budget allocation. The Covid-19 pandemic also impacted making it difficult in allocating the provincial budget for implementing the program."

Standing Deputy PM Minh said that in recent times after the NA approved three NTPs, the Government and the PM directed relevant ministries and agencies to quickly build all documents to create a legal basis for localities in their NTP implementation.

In addition, the Government also issued Resolution No. 56/NQ-CP dated April 19, 2022, on the plan to allocate and assign the central budget capital for the period 2021-2025 and 2022 to the ministries, central and local agencies in implementing the NTPs. The Government has also sent a report to the NA Standing Committee asking for a decision. If the NA Standing Committee agrees, we can base on this to prepare a plan to allocate central capital and counterpart local funds.