(VOVworld) –Villagers of hamlet 6, Quang Thinh commune in Quang Ninh province now can enjoy better transportation thanks to a new 400-meter-cement-road which has been put into operation. Quang Thinh commune has been targeted to have basically completed the criteria for new rural development by 2015.
People in hamlet 5 are actively participating in building rural roads (Photo: quangninh.gov.vn)
Standing on the new road, the head of hamlet 6 Pham Van Thanh said he was so happy and called it the road of the Party’s will and the people’s heart. More than 100 local households have voluntarily contributed nearly 2,400 USD and 700 workdays to clear the ground to build the road.
“Over the past years, the commune’s authorities have helped villagers understand the new rural development program’s goal. Everyone is eager to believe in the Party’s direction and implement the program enthusiastically. In particular, when the program to build rural roads was launched, the locals were ready to donate their land and trees. In the past, villagers faced many difficulties with transportation, so they strongly supported the idea of a new road.”
Bui Thi Lan’s household is a poor one in hamlet 6. Though she lacks agricultural land for production, she’s ready to give her little amount of land for the new rural development program. Lan said land donation is the responsibility and duty of a citizen, and they should sacrifice their personal interest for the community’s benefit.
“I only have 5 perches of land for rice cultivation. But in order to make the hamlet more beautiful, my family is glad to donate almost all our land to build the hamlet’s road and cultural house.”
Hamlet 4 is considered to be in the best developed state as it’s near the commune’s center with an inter-commune road running through. Last year, under the form of joint cooperation between the state and people, a house of culture was built, costing about 47,000 USD. Most worthy of note was that the 300-square-meters of land that the house was built on was donated by Cao Thi Hong’s family. Ms. Hong shares her feeling:
“We had nothing except the land to donate to the program. My family hasn’t made full use of all my land so we decided to donate part of it to build a cultural house, where all the villagers can gather for meetings and discussions with others from neighboring villages.”
During the implementation process, and to create reliability for villagers, a communications board was set up to make the locals thoroughly understand the goals and significance of the national new rural development program. To date, locals have donated nearly 7,000 square meters and contributed nearly 47,000 USD and thousands of workdays to building an 8-kilometer asphalted inter-commune, inter-hamlet road as well as cultural houses. Bui Van Luong, Chairman of Quang Thinh’s People’s Committee, says:
“We have mobilized local people to get involved in the new rural development program and they strongly believe in the Party and State’s direction. Although the construction of public works has encroached on local residents’ land, they are ready to give their land to the program without any requirements. I think this is part of the program’s success. Economic development and agricultural restructuring is one of most difficult tasks for the new rural development program but we aimed to increase the area for growing tea and improve the quality of Hai Ha district’s tea brand. We’ll change over to growing tea with a higher economic value and call on villagers to grow sugarcane.”
A proper policy matching people’s desire and a democratic means of implementation have helped the land donation movement for the development program in Quang Thinh commune in Quang Ninh province to be fruitful, creating a new face for the area.