(HBO) – Thanks to the national target programme on building new-style rural areas, Cao Son commune of Da Bac district has gained a facelift while both material and spiritual life of local residents has continually improved, a stepping stone for Cao Son to surmount difficulties and boost development.
Villagers in Cao Son commune (Da
Bac district) harvest "dong rieng”, one of the crops that have generated high
profit.
Cao Son is about 8km from Da Bac township and
traversed by Provincial Road 433, which is a favourable condition for
developing economic and goods trading activities. It embarked on building
new-style countryside in 2011 with only three criteria met. Since then, the
local Party Committee, administration, and people have joined hands to satisfy
the remaining 16 criteria.
Ban Van Xuan, Vice Chairman of the communal
People’s Committee, said the yearly per capita income in Cao Son stood at only
11.3 million VND (over 490 USD) in 2011 but reached 19.6 million VND in 2015
when the household poverty rate was reduced to 42.4 percent.
He noted that considering the building of
new-style rural areas as a measure for raising income and sustainably reducing
poverty, the commune has made use of funding from the new-style countryside
building programme and other sources to boost agricultural production models
and community-based tourism on the basis of local potential and natural
advantages. As a result, per capital income increased considerably by the end
of 2021, to about 40.3 million VND on average, while the household poverty rate
was brought down to 11.5 percent.
Not only roads have been concretised, but other
essential infrastructure facilities like the power grid, schools, and health
stations have also been upgraded. During 2010 - 2020, more than 359 billion VND
was mobilised for building new-style rural areas. Notably, locals donated over
34 billion VND in cash, labour, and land to the task.
Between 2015 and 2021, Cao Son carried out seven
livelihood models while stepping up the development of products under the "One
Commune, One Product” (OCOP) programme with "mien dong” (a type of vermicelli)
and "ruou ngo” (corn liquor) recognised as three-star OCOP products. Besides,
it has capitalised on Provincial Road 433 to foster trade and services.
In 2011, Cao Son was recognised as a new-style
rural commune by the provincial People’s Committee.
Xuan added that to sustain the title and meet
advanced criteras, the commune will continue mobilising every possible resource
for improving essential infrastructure facilities, foster communications to
raise public awareness of environmental protection, expand concentrated
production models, and establish new cooperative groups on agricultural
production so as to create jobs and raise income for local residents.
