VietNamNet Bridge - Some provinces have been praised as pioneers in the movement to build a new countryside, but they are big debtors.

After five years of implementation, the movement of building a new countryside has changed the face of many rural areas with concrete roads, cultural houses, new markets and other facilities. However, it has also brought about big debts.

As reported by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), by early 2016 the total debt of the movement of building the new rural arrears was estimated at over VND15,000 billion. 

Some provinces that are pioneers in this movement as Bac Ninh, Thanh Hoa, and Thai Binh are also the biggest debtors, with VND1,600, VND1,500 billion and VND1,200 billion, respectively. Up to 40% of the communes participating in this program are debtors, with an average amount of VND4.2 billion.

The movement not only aims at making the new face for the countryside but creates a new value for rural Vietnam. Of course, becoming a debtor is not a value to pursue but in fact the criteria of new rural areas are leading rural areas toward that way.

Of the 19 criteria being recognized as the new rural commune, there are too many difficult criteria, such as the number of kilometers of concrete roads and public works. 

The quantified values create necessary impetus for development but with the different conditions of localities, from the people to topography to culture ... the pursuit of values that are quantified by documents is the path of voluntarism, like forcing a man of 1.6m tall to stand on tiptoe with another man of 1.7 m tall. 

Forty percent of communes in debt have to stand on tiptoe to meet the standards, and the consequences of the pursuit of the new rural criteria are not just tired legs.

What will the debtors do to pay the debt? Some provinces preferred selling land, resources that have been almost exhausted, and that's the easiest way to make the cultural space of villages disappear. It was an outcome that causes new rural criteria to be in conflict with each other.

Another measure used by many localities is mobilizing people’s financial contributions. The local media has reported that in some villages, even newborn babies, the elderly and the disabled have to pay this kind of fee. 

Tragedies occurred as the dead were not allowed to be cremated because they did not fulfill this financial duty when alive. The cultural institutions being recognized as the new countryside have indirectly undermined the peace of rural villages because of the financial duties.

What is the new countryside? Is it a village with modern markets worth tens of billions of VND which are left fallow across the country? Is it the village of ethnic minority people who have to live in modern houses amid the forest? Is it the place where people have to submit petitions for land loss and are tired and exhausted with financial duties?

Building the new rural areas is a continuous process, not a short-term target and a race between villages. 

Thus, the criteria that exhaust the people and drain the esteem of local authorities need to be replaced with indicators that cause the sustainable development of rural villages, with policies that create enrichment opportunities, the chance to live in peace and foster happiness for the people.

Framing criteria to cover the rural villages of Vietnam in the same uniform is an imposed value. It has been in conflict with the message that the Government has set out for this term.

The government of creativity is to create new opportunities, new values, not impose criteria on the life of the people.

Pham Trung Tuyen