In his recent visit to Binh Dinh province on the occasion of coming Tet holiday, Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong had meetings and talks with local leaders at provincial level to commune levels, former leaders of the province and the local people. The visit was short but left a deep impression of the erudite, credible and open-minded top leader of the party.
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Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong visited and offered gifts to family of Mr. Vo Trung Thanh, a poor family at Phu Van cell, Phu Phong town, Tay Son district. Photo: Van Luu
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“I am happy as people are happy”
“All of you, the local authorities and local people, show happiness to welcome me, a Party General Secretary. And I am also happy to visit Nhon Loc” – said General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong as he was visiting Nhon Loc commune, An Nhon district – one of 4 communes in Binh Dinh under the programme of building typical new countryside.
The statement was released after the General Secretary listened to brief review over socio-economic development and the new countryside building programme of the locality in the last year. All of the local officials and people at the meeting respecfully and colloquially called him “ Uncle Secretary”. Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong not only shared the happiness and congratulated Nhon Loc commune for its achievements but also paid attention to very specific issues. He was supprised at the fact that Nhon Loc had 3 doctors, met 12/19 criteria of the new countryside, cooperative sector of the locality gained 300 million VND in profit and only 5.7% of the commune’s households was under the poverty line.
The local authorities and people suggested that the required contribution rate (20%) to the new countryside building programme should be lower because Nhon Loc was still poor. Responding to such the concern and suggestion, the General Secretary explained that the new countryside building was a long-term programme while there were more than 10.000 communes all over the country; there were 62 poor districts with thousands of poor communes. “What do you think if the central government asks for your help instead of relying on the government’s help?” – asked Mr. Trong. And the General Secretary suggested that the people should contribute the programme through many ways: land donation for road building, cooperation between the government and the people in performance task of the new countryside building. In the context of financial straits, the locality should concretize the criteria of the programme in succession, adapting them to specific situation of the locality.
Responding to opinions about low salaries and allowances for commune officials, Mr. Trong took an example about higher salaries of labours in enterprises than the state sector. Then, the General Secretary came to a conclusion: We shouldn’t compare salaries such way. If all people worked in business sector, there would be no leadership in the political system. Mr. Trong said that he didn’t mean to make an excuse for the low salaries of the public labour. Salary policy was a great issue. The central government would find ways to improve the salaries.
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