Khanh Son with aspirations to reach new heights

In 2024, Khanh Son district completed the goal of escaping poverty one year ahead of the plan set by the Resolution of the District Party Congress for the 2020-2025 term. This is an important driving force for the district to develop to a higher level, aiming for a higher goal, becoming a "mountainous ecological sub-urban area" as directed by the Politburo in Resolution No. 09 on building and developing Khanh Hoa province to 2030, with a vision to 2045.

Mr. Nguyen Tan Tuan - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee and leaders of Khanh Son district visited the Khanh Son Fruit Festival in 2024.

Early escape from poverty

Going up the mountain to Khanh Son mountainous district in early spring, from the top of the pass, in the morning sea of clouds covering the highland valleys, I arrived at the extremely disadvantaged commune of Thanh Son. Taking me to visit the extremely disadvantaged village of Ta Giang 2, the most remote and difficult area of the commune, Vu Quang Lam - Vice Chairman of Thanh Son Commune People's Committee happily said: "Ta Giang 2 is much different from before. Electricity, roads, schools, stations, water... are all available; people's lives and economies have developed much more than before thanks to the conversion of ineffective crops to fruit trees, especially durian trees. Only about 5 years ago, this village had more than 90% of poor households, but now the number of poor and near-poor households has decreased to less than 50% of the 185 households in the village".

Through the extremely disadvantaged communes and villages of Khanh Son district, wherever I went, I felt the new vitality in all the highland villages. I was even more excited when I heard Mr. Dinh Van Dung - Deputy Secretary of the District Party Committee, Chairman of Khanh Son District People's Committee share: "Since the end of 2024, Khanh Son has met all the criteria on: Rate of poor and near-poor households; socio-economic development level of commune-level administrative units; average income per capita; mountainous, highland and border districts to be removed from the list of poor districts. Regarding the rate of poor and near-poor households in the locality, in 2024 it will be 31.67%; of which there are 1,620 poor households (20.17%), 908 near-poor households (11.3%). The average income per capita of the district has reached 36.12 million VND/person/year, an increase of 1.53 times compared to the end of 2020. These are all very difficult criteria to achieve for mountainous localities, but the district has achieved them”.

Khanh Son mountainous district is home to 13 ethnic groups, 73.54% of whom are the Raglai ethnic minority accounts for the district's population. Looking back at the very low starting point of Khanh Son district to see that the district has completed the goal of escaping the list of 74 poor districts nationwide in the period of 2021 - 2025 one year earlier than the plan set by the Resolution of the District Party Congress for the term 2020 - 2025 is a proud achievement of the Party Committee, government and people of the whole district.

Building a mountainous ecological sub-urban area

The early escape from poverty is an important driving force for Khanh Son district to realize its aspiration to reach new heights, with the goal of becoming a “mountainous ecological sub-urban area” as directed by the Politburo in Resolution No. 09. Currently, Khanh Son has completed the steps to establish the Khanh Son District Regional Planning Project to submit to the Provincial People's Committee for approval. Accordingly, the district has identified 3 development sub-regions. Of which, sub-region 1 includes To Hap town and the communes: Son Trung, Ba Cum Bac, Ba Cum Nam - the administrative - political - cultural - social center of the district; urban development, trade - tourism services, agricultural production support services, multi-industry industrial clusters with a focus on processing agricultural and forestry products. Sub-region 2 includes the communes of Son Binh and Son Hiep - an area for agricultural and forestry economic development, intertwined with tourism and services, prioritizing community tourism, eco-tourism, and experiential tourism models associated with a cool climate. Sub-region 3 includes 2 communes of Thanh Son and Son Lam - an area for high-yield agricultural development and industrial crops, forming agro-ecological zones, encouraging intertwined tourism services.

Khanh Son District Children's House invested

With this orientation, in the near future, Khanh Son District will gradually develop into an eco-tourism area, with unique and distinctive landscape and cultural ecological values, imbued with national identity, integrating agro-forestry ecological spaces. In addition, the district's urban system is developed according to the forest ecological sub-region model on the basis of forming urban areas with high density of trees, ecology, friendly to nature, creating green belts, green infrastructure... to gradually turn Khanh Son into a unique destination of the province with valuable ecological and cultural spaces, a center of mountainous tourism, with a focus on exploiting the cultural aspects of Khanh Son lithophone heritage and gong culture...

Mr. Bui Hoai Nam - Secretary of Khanh Son District Party Committee shared: "The resolutions of the Politburo, the National Assembly, and the Government on the construction and development of the province have had specific orientations and mechanisms for the province to focus resources and invest in Khanh Son district to develop quickly and sustainably. The district will exploit all potentials and advantages; effectively use all investment resources of the Central and the province to accelerate the development speed, building Khanh Son into a forest ecological sub-urban area as directed in Resolution No. 09 of the Politburo. From there, Khanh Son will join hands with the entire provincial Party Committee to complete the goal of turning Khanh Hoa province into a centrally-run city by 2030”.

HAI LANG
Translated by T.T