"Smart Village" spread to stimulate rural development

The movement of new rural construction in Binh Duong has taken place strongly and achieved many important results. Thereby, the countryside’s face is renewed, people's lives are improved, making this movement in the province become sustainable and efficient.

Scaling up the smart model

By inheriting results achieved in the previous period, together with the involvement of the whole political system and the strong support of the people, over the past 2 years of the advanced new rural construction, model new rural construction in 2021-2025, Binh Duong has 29/41 communes recognized as meeting advanced rural area standards, 3 district-level units were recognized as meeting new rural area standards and completed missions of new rural construction.

The results achieved in the construction of new rural areas facilitate rural economic development, improve people's income, well maintain and gradually improve the completion level of criteria on irrigation, electricity, information and communication, rural clean water supply, ensuring to meet the production and daily-life needs of the people; take good care of education - training, build cultural life, contribute to protecting national defense - security and social order.

Planting sugar pomelos according to VietGAP good practice is developed in Bach Dang Agricultural Cooperative.

In 2010, Bach Dang commune was selected to pilot the construction of new rural areas. By the end of 2013, the commune achieved 19/19 criteria in the national set of criteria for new-style rural areas and became an example of this movement. In 2021-2025 period, Bach Dang commune continues to implement the construction of advanced new rural areas, model rural areas, and pilots the "Smart Village" according to a plan approved by Provincial People's Committee.

The "smart village" piloted in Bach Dang commune is home to many initiatives related to current issues and needs of the community, such as technology, agriculture, employment, labor productivity for rural people, community cohesion, health care, education... Notably, information technology will be applied into the production management process, ensuring the cohesion between new rural construction and developing green urban areas. It is expected that by 2025, over 80% roads managed by the commune will be installed with energy-saving lighting systems, have green trees on both sides of roads, and 100% of important intersections will be installed with security cameras.

From the first pilot in Tan Uyen town, now Phu Giao district is also building a "Smart village" in their district. The project focuses on key issues, such as smart institutions, smart resources, smart infrastructure, smart services, smart production and business. According to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ngo Thi Phuong Lan, Rector of University of Social Sciences & Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City, Phu Giao district has performed well the national target program on new rural construction. The district's socio-economic infrastructure is invested quite synchronously. Up to now, the people material and mental lives in Phu Giao district have been improved... The above good results created a foundation for Phu Giao district to deploy the "Smart Village" model; In which, the high-tech agricultural foundation will create a premise towards building standards for smart rural communes.

Focus on implementation

According to the plan, by 2025, Binh Duong province will reach 100% of communes meeting the advanced new rural standards, of which at least 10 communes will meet standards of model new rural construction. At the same time, to complete the pilot construction of "Smart Village" in Bach Dang commune and spread it to remaining communes, suitable to the actual conditions of each locality. Thereby, improving the living standards of rural people, increasing income by at least 1.8 times compared to 2020.

Pham Van Bong, Director of Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that in order to complete the targets of new rural construction by 2025, the province identified some key solutions. In particular, to develop production and business, link production with consumption, develop OCOP products, craft villages, community tourism services, rural tourism associated with conservation and promotion of traditional cultural values, create jobs, heighten people's incomes, maintain and fulfill the following criteria: income, poor households, employment rate...

Besides, speeding up the effective implementation of the "Smart Village" model in Bach Dang commune as a basis for replication in the province; continue to replicate modern security surveillance and community surveillance, ensure the maintenance of social order and security, in order to stimulate rural economic development. Simultaneously, improve the quality and efficiency of inspection, monitoring and evaluation of results of the national target program on new rural construction, agricultural restructuring and sustainable poverty reduction, through a digital map and a database to regularly update results for grassroots level, infrastructure works, and OCOP products in the province. In particular, maximize the role of supervision and social criticism of the Fatherland Front, socio-political organizations, and the self-governing and supervisory role of residential communities in the construction of new rural areas.

The construction of "Smart Village" of Bach Dang commune is expected to create a foundation for building smart new rural areas in the future, ensure that the new rural construction is associated with the industrial and urban development of the province.  There is still a lot of work to be done, but the results achieved of the new rural construction in the past time have helped Binh Duong confidently move towards the goal of expanding "Smart Village" across the province.

Reported by Thoai Phuong - Translated by Ngoc Huynh