Achieving New Rural Standards - Challenges After Glory: Part 2

BHG - The title of a commune meeting the New Rural Area (NTM) standards is a source of pride for many localities. However, after that glory, the journey to maintain the standards is even more difficult, even becoming a "burden" when many communes fall into a state of declining criteria, facing the risk of having their NTM standards recognized as having been revoked.

Alarming numbers

Recently, the Provincial New Rural Area Coordination Office coordinated with the People's Committees of 11 districts and cities to review and evaluate the results of maintaining 19 new rural area criteria in communes recognized as meeting new rural area standards, including 43 communes meeting new rural area standards in the 2014-2020 period and 8 communes meeting new rural area standards in the 2021-2024 period.

Due to not meeting the standards on facilities, Ho Thau Kindergarten (Hoang Su Phi) could not reach national standards level 1 in the re-evaluation period.

As a result, the total number of criteria maintained according to regulations in 51 communes is only 791 criteria, lacking 178 criteria. Notably, only 5/51 communes maintain all 19/19 NTM criteria including: Phuong Do, Phuong Thien, Ngoc Duong (Ha Giang city), Xuan Giang (Quang Binh), Viet Lam (Vi Xuyen). The remaining communes are in a state of declining criteria. Specifically, 11 communes maintain 18/19 criteria, 13 communes maintain 16-17 criteria, 18 communes maintain 12-15 criteria. More worryingly, 4 communes only maintain 7-10 criteria.

With 15/21 recognized communes, Bac Quang leads the province in the number of communes meeting NTM standards. However, when compared with the National Criteria for NTM Communes in the period of 2021 - 2025, no commune maintains all 19 criteria. Not only Bac Quang district, but most localities in the province are also in a similar situation. The declining criteria are mainly in fundamental areas that have a direct impact on people's lives (transportation, electricity grid, schools, rural commercial infrastructure, etc.) or criteria related to socio-economics (income, poor households, multidimensional poverty, etc.).

In particular, the specialized agency has reviewed and evaluated 43 communes that have met the NTM standards in the 2014-2020 period to appraise and consider revoking the decision to recognize the communes as meeting the NTM standards according to regulations. Specifically, there are 5 communes in 3 districts that are subject to revoking the decision to recognize the communes as meeting the NTM standards, including: Phuong Tien (Vi Xuyen), Yen Phong (Bac Me) and 3 communes Thong Nguyen, Nam Ty, Ho Thau (Hoang Su Phi). Thus, with 3/3 communes subject to revoking the decision to recognize the communes as meeting the NTM standards, Hoang Su Phi district faces the risk of having "no" NTM communes. Of which, 2 communes Thong Nguyen, Nam Ty maintain 8 criteria, while Ho Thau only maintains 7/19 NTM commune criteria.

Previously, at the end of 2015, Mau Due commune achieved the NTM standard, honorably becoming the first locality in Yen Minh district in particular, and the Dong Van Karst Plateau Global Geopark in general, to win this title. However, only 5 years later, Mau Due commune was forced to submit a request to the Provincial People's Committee to withdraw from the list of NTM communes, due to its inability to maintain the prescribed criteria, especially the criteria on electricity and income. After analyzing and carefully evaluating the actual situation, on July 16, 2021, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee revoked the Decision recognizing Mau Due commune as meeting the NTM standard. This is not only regrettable but also leaves a profound lesson for localities in the process of building NTM: Achieving the standard is just the beginning, maintaining and constantly improving the quality of the new criteria is the key factor to be worthy of the name, ensuring sustainable development.

According to Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Nguyen Quoc Tri: Currently, Ha Giang has only 51/175 NTM communes, reaching a rate of 29.1%, much lower than the average of 52% in the Northern Midlands and Mountains region, 78% in the whole country. With this result, Ha Giang ranks 12/14 in the region and 61/63 provinces and cities, among the lowest in the country in terms of NTM construction.

When the challenge is greater than the achievement

One of the core goals of building a new rural area is to improve people's lives. However, in Yen Phong commune (Bac Me), the implementation of the two most important criteria, income and poor households, faces many challenges. According to regulations, by 2024, the average income per capita of the commune must reach at least 45 million VND. However, the actual figure in Yen Phong commune is only 30.25 million VND/year, nearly 15 million VND lower than the requirement. The multidimensional poverty rate is at an alarming level when there are still 67.89% of poor households, 5.2 times higher than the standard level (below 13%). This means that out of every 10 households, nearly 7 households are poor, creating a huge gap compared to the goal of meeting the new rural standards.

Many intra-village roads in Nam Ty commune (Hoang Su Phi) are degraded but lack funds for maintenance and repair.

Chairman of Yen Phong Commune People's Committee, Nguyen Binh Giang shared: We have implemented many solutions to improve livelihoods and increase income for people, but the results have not been as expected. Because Yen Phong is a purely agricultural commune, agricultural production is fragmented and small-scale, while the local labor force is mostly untrained and lacks vocational skills to switch to higher-income industries. On the other hand, building a new rural area requires large investment resources, but Yen Phong's local resources are limited; investment mobilization mainly depends on the budget of higher levels. This slows down the progress of infrastructure construction, affecting investment attraction as well as improving production conditions and improving the quality of life for people...

Traffic is considered the lifeblood of the economy, however, in many new rural communes, the contents of criterion number 2 on traffic are still not smooth, becoming a "bottleneck" in the process of socio-economic development. According to regulations, at least 80% of village and inter-village roads must be hardened, but in reality, this rate in Nam Ty commune (Hoang Su Phi) only reached 51.21%. The whole commune has 11.59 km of hardened roads but is currently seriously degraded and 5.75 km have not been hardened. Similarly, the content of criterion number 2 on traffic requires 100% of alleys and hamlets to be clean and convenient for travel all year round, of which at least 75% must be concreted and hardened. However, this rate of the commune only reached 54.59% (equivalent to 32.1 km meeting standards out of a total of 58.8 km). There are still 8 km of seriously degraded roads and 18.7 km of unpaved roads, directly affecting people's quality of life.

Chairman of Nam Ty Commune People's Committee, Nguyen The Soan shared: We do not want to "fall below the standard" but to maintain the NTM standard is also very difficult. The traffic infrastructure is degraded but there is no maintenance fund, people's income is unstable, while the budget support resources are limited. Although the local government has made efforts to mobilize social resources from the people to maintain and upgrade the roads, compared to the actual needs, those contributions are just "a drop in the ocean". The underlying cause comes from the difficult economic conditions. The average income per capita is only 38.8 million VND/year, 6.2 million VND lower than the NTM standard; the rate of poor and near-poor households remains high, up to 40.7%.

The criteria for schools in building new rural areas require that 100% of educational institutions must meet minimum standards for facilities, of which 50% or more must meet level 1 standards. However, the lack of classrooms, functional rooms, playgrounds for children, asynchronous teaching equipment, limited investment resources, etc. have become barriers that make it difficult for schools to maintain and improve quality according to new rural standards. For example, Ho Thau Primary and Secondary School (Hoang Su Phi) has not yet met this requirement due to a lack of functional classrooms and teaching equipment according to regulations. Meanwhile, Ho Thau Kindergarten was recognized as a level 1 national standard in 2018, but by 2023, when re-evaluated for recognition, the school could not maintain this title because it had not fully met the criteria for facilities.

Principal of Ho Thau Kindergarten, Le Thi Hang, worries: “Failure to maintain standards leads to many consequences, not only affecting the quality of learning but also reducing the opportunity for children to access the best education right from the first years of life. Although the school always tries, difficulties still pile up. Many items such as classrooms and offices are degraded but lack funds to repair and upgrade; limited land funds make expanding the playground unfeasible. Moreover, 85% of young families are poor or near-poor households, so mobilizing social resources for education is even more difficult.”

With 178 criteria still lacking in maintaining and improving the quality of NTM criteria in 46/51 communes meeting the standards in the province, there is a large gap between the NTM standards on paper and real life. This requires fundamental, synchronous and long-term solutions, not only to overcome the unmet criteria but also to create a foundation for sustainable development, put the NTM program into practice, and effectively change the face of the countryside.

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Final episode: Don't let the New Rural Area... run out of new

Article and photos: THU PHUONG