Experience in removing temporary houses from Dien Bien

In 2023, the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front launched a campaign to build Great Solidarity houses for poor households in Dien Bien province. In just 9 months, until May 2024, the 70th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu Victory, 5,000 houses for the poor in Dien Bien province were completed. The lesson learned from completing the goal of building houses for the poor in Dien Bien province is to mobilize the people's strength and be open and democratic.

Building Great Solidarity houses for poor households in Dua village, Quai To commune (Tuan Giao district, Dien Bien province). Photo: Tien Dat.

Dien Bien is a mountainous province with a long border, adjacent to Laos and China; population of over 640,000 people, with 19 ethnic groups living together. In recent years, despite always receiving attention from the Party, State, Central departments, ministries and branches through many policies, Dien Bien is still a poor province, the poverty rate accounts for 25.68%, people's lives are still very difficult, thousands of poor households still live in dilapidated houses.

In 2023, towards the 70th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu victory, the Standing Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee chaired and coordinated with Dien Bien province to organize the development and implementation of the Project to mobilize support for building Great Solidarity houses for poor households (referred to as Project 09) with the goal of mobilizing social resources to support ethnic minorities in Dien Bien province and the Northwestern provinces to build over 8,000 Great Solidarity houses, of which Dien Bien province was supported to build 5,000 houses for the poor.

Immediately after that, Dien Bien Provincial Party Committee issued a plan to implement the Housing Project in the province; established a Steering Committee and a working group to support the implementation of the Project at 3 levels (province, district, commune). The Project's propaganda work was carried out regularly, with many diverse and effective forms, such as: through village meetings, propaganda by radio loudspeaker system, mobile propaganda team. through screening teams to each household. In addition, social policy banks and joint stock commercial banks propagated and disseminated preferential credit policies for housing loans implemented according to the national target program for socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

With the motto "Community helps, households proactively build houses", the 50 million VND budget is to support house building, not to give houses, so households must proactively build houses, mobilizing other resources to build houses (if possible). At the same time, people are proactive in choosing house models that suit their customs and family conditions, and are encouraged to build traditional houses when households have prepared materials in advance.

According to the report of the Standing Committee of the Fatherland Front Committee of Dien Bien province, the people in the province highly agreed with the policy and plan to implement the Project, the beneficiary households were excited and actively participated in building houses. Along with the propaganda work, the organization of review, appraisal and approval of the subjects supported to build Great Solidarity houses was carried out in accordance with the correct procedures, evaluated from residential areas, ensuring the right subjects, objectivity, publicity and transparency. There were no cases of petitions or complaints related to the support for building houses.

After reviewing, the province has approved a list of 5,000 poor and near-poor households to be supported to build Great Solidarity houses. Of these, 447 households are in extremely difficult circumstances and are unable to build their own houses. The Steering Committees at all levels have plans to assign forces to take charge of building houses for these households. In addition to the support source of the 250 billion VND Project, households have proactively mobilized and borrowed from family, relatives, and borrowed capital from preferential housing programs of the Social Policy Bank and joint stock commercial banks with a total amount of 166,202 million VND.

The Steering Committees of some localities mobilized organizations and businesses in the area to support construction materials for households to build houses. Political and social organizations and armed forces mobilized union members, members, and soldiers of the armed forces to help households dismantle old houses, transport construction materials, and build new houses with over 115,000 working days. For households in especially difficult circumstances who are unable to build houses themselves, the Steering Committees of communes, wards, and towns assigned agencies, units, and political-social organizations to preside over and mobilize resources to help households build houses.

After more than 9 months of implementation, Dien Bien province has completed the construction of 5,000 Great Solidarity houses for poor households, more than 3 months ahead of the project's progress requirements, helping poor households in Dien Bien province to celebrate the Lunar New Year of Giap Thin 2024 in new, safe, cozy houses filled with the affection of compatriots across the country.

From the practical implementation of the Project to mobilize support for building Great Solidarity houses for the poor, according to information from the Standing Committee of the Fatherland Front Committee of Dien Bien province, the lesson learned is to thoroughly propagate and mobilize people's strength, so that people can proactively build houses, on the basis of all resources being public and transparent.

Firstly, it is important to attach importance to propaganda work so that every cadre, civil servant and people, especially poor households, can benefit from, understand and fully perceive the purpose, meaning and effectiveness of the Project, thereby creating consensus among the people; mobilizing the participation of the entire political system.

Second, the implementation of the Project must have strong leadership and direction from Party committees; authorities at all levels, sectors, the Fatherland Front, socio-political organizations; and specific tasks must be assigned to members of the Steering Committee and support teams.

Third, the work of reviewing, evaluating, and approving beneficiaries must be carried out publicly, democratically, and transparently from village to village, avoiding creating negative public opinion, comparisons, and complaints among the people.

Fourth, the implementation of housing construction is integrated with national target programs, especially the national target program on socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, to create more resources, increase the value and use value of the house, and at the same time associate it with the responsibility and will to rise of poor households.

Fifth, households are free to choose house models that suit their conditions and customs and must proactively build their own houses.

Sixth, the Steering Committees at all levels regularly monitor the situation, inspect and supervise the implementation of the Project to promptly direct, urge and propose solutions to remove difficulties in the implementation process.

Seventh, strictly implement the information, reporting, preliminary and final review of the Project implementation. Encourage and reward groups and individuals who have made many contributions to the Project implementation.

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Immediately after the closing of the 10th Congress of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, Politburo member and Chairman Do Van Chien answered the press: Determined to eliminate temporary and dilapidated houses for the poor and near-poor nationwide in 2025. Chairman Do Van Chien affirmed: "With the entire political system involved, we will definitely be able to do it. Because of difficulties like Dien Bien, in 9 months the Vietnam Fatherland Front has built 5,000 houses, so with great determination, I believe that we will eliminate all temporary and dilapidated houses by 2025, contributing to the work of hunger eradication and poverty reduction".

Source: https://daidoanket.vn/kinh-nghiem-xoa-nha-tam-tu-dien-bien-10293683.html