Mobilize all investment resources for rural transport infrastructure

The province’s goal is that by 2025, Dong Nai will reach the goal of advanced new rural areas (NTM). Specifically, the whole province has 100% of communes meeting advanced rural standards, with at least 5 districts completing advanced rural areas; 25% of communes completed the model NTM district and Xuan Loc district completed the model NTM district.

To achieve the above goals, localities are racing to complete the tasks set out in building new rural areas. One of the biggest difficulties facing localities today is investing in rural infrastructure, especially investing in rural transport infrastructure.

Long-term and expensive criteria

Throughout the process of building new rural areas, investment in rural infrastructure, especially investment in rural roads, has always been focused on by localities. However, investing in transport infrastructure requires large investment capital and lengthy procedures… so this is still one of the difficult problems for localities in building new rural areas. In particular, the sets of NTM, advanced NTM, and model NTM criteria for the 2021-2025 period continue to set higher requirements than in the previous period.

Dinh Quan district set a goal of achieving advanced NTM district standards by 2023 but progress was behind. The reason why Dinh Quan is slow compared to the set target is because a number of criteria have not been met, including criteria on traffic investment. Specifically, regarding the criteria for rural roads invested by the district, Dinh Quan needs to invest in 22 district roads with a length of 150km, but so far the locality has only deployed 9 routes with a length of 55km. For the remaining routes, the district has issued documents adjusting the investment period to 2026-2030. Currently, the locality is still completing the remaining criteria as well as submitting documents to the Central Government for recognition of meeting advanced NTM district standards.

Cam My district is also one of the localities aiming to reach the advanced NTM district in 2024. Investment in rural roads is focused on local resources for implementation. To date, the entire district has 184km of rural roads managed by the district that have been asphalted and concreted. However, regarding the criteria for roads invested in by the district, the district has only reached 47.9%, while it is required to reach 100%.

According to Vice Chairman of Cam My District People’s Committee Le Van Tuong, the district will continue to focus on reviewing and reviewing roads that have investment potential will be implemented in the period 2021-2025; For routes that cannot be implemented immediately, the district will move to the next stage (2026-2030).

Chairman of the People’s Committee of Nam Cat Tien commune (Tan Phu district) Le Van Hai said that the locality is very determined to complete the criteria to achieve an advanced NTM commune by 2024. One of the major difficulties of the locality is about traffic criteria. The commune has 2 roads that need investment with a length of more than 2km. These roads have very low population density, most of them are ethnic minority households, so economic conditions are still difficult. Meanwhile, each household’s contribution to road construction is quite high. The locality has actively mobilized people to donate land to build roads. As for investment funds, the commune hopes to receive support from the district and province to reduce people’s contributions.

Prioritize all resources

Investment in rural infrastructure, especially investment in rural roads, is an area that the provincial government and localities will continue to focus on, prioritizing all resources in the coming time.

Tan Phu is a mountainous district with a large area and a difficult economy, so investing in rural infrastructure in general and rural roads in particular is always a difficult problem.

Vice Chairman of Tan Phu District People’s Committee Pham Ngoc Hung shared that one of the local problems and difficulties in building advanced rural areas is investing in transport infrastructure. Specifically, in the district there are still 3 roads with a length of nearly 15km that do not meet the criteria for district road standards. According to planning, these 3 roads need to be invested in and upgraded with an estimated capital need of nearly 178 billion VND. At the commune level, in 2024, there are 5 communes aiming to meet advanced rural standards and need to meet road criteria. Accordingly, the above communes need to invest more than 83km of commune, hamlet, hamlet and inner-field roads with large investment capital. The locality hopes that the province will have a specific mechanism for the district, especially in allocating budget for investment in transport infrastructure and clean water…

Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of the province Le Van Call commented that completing the 2024 goal is very important in completing the province’s goal of achieving advanced rural areas for the whole period of 2021-2025. . The central government does not allow “debt” criteria when recognizing advanced NTM districts, so localities must make efforts to complete the set goals. Tan Phu district in particular has a large area and is more difficult than other localities, so it needs a special mechanism in building new rural areas. However, the district also needs to make efforts to mobilize socialization resources from people and sponsors to actively take part in the budget.

Recently, leaders of the Provincial People’s Committee have held many meetings to discuss solutions to remove obstacles and difficulties for localities in building new rural areas. Faced with recommendations about difficulties in investing in rural infrastructure in localities, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee Vo Van Phi requested relevant departments and branches to continue researching and reviewing current legal regulations. On that basis, advise and propose to the Provincial People’s Committee to handle recommendations from localities; promulgate regulations to support and encourage effective implementation of the new rural development program.

Binh Nguyen