After more than 10 years of implementing the National Target Program on New Rural Construction, up to now, Dien Bien province has had 21/115 communes recognized as meeting the new rural standards. According to Plan No. 1986/KH-UBND dated June 29, 2022 of the Provincial People's Committee on implementing the National Target Program on New Rural Construction by 2025, the goal is that by the end of 2025, the whole province will have 32 communes meeting the new rural standards. Thus, in the period of 2023 - 2025, the whole province must have 11 more communes meeting the new rural standards and 100% of the communes meeting the standards must maintain the new rural standards. It is expected that the communes meeting the new rural standards in the period of 2023 - 2025 include: Muong Pon, Muong Nha, Phu Luong (Dien Bien district); Sa Long (Muong Cha district); Muong Bang (Tua Chua district); Ang Cang (Muong Ang district); Muong Luan (Dien Bien Dong district); Quai To, Quai Cang, Quai Nua (Tuan Giao district) and Pa Khoang (Dien Bien Phu city). This is really a very difficult task for a mountainous province like Dien Bien. Because over the past 10 years, all favorable communes have been focused on by districts, towns and cities to build to meet NTM standards. The 2023 - 2025 period is mostly difficult communes. Meanwhile, the increasingly improved targets and criteria for building NTM is a big challenge.

Muong Luan commune is a pilot commune for new rural construction in Dien Bien Dong district since the beginning of the implementation of the National Target Program on New Rural Construction in the province. After more than 10 years of implementation, Muong Luan commune has only completed 17/19 new rural criteria. Currently, the commune has 2 unfinished criteria: Income and multidimensional poverty rate. Up to now, the average income of the commune has reached over 19 million VND/person/year; the multidimensional poverty rate is 24%. Meanwhile, according to the set of criteria for new rural communes by the end of 2025, the income criterion must reach over 48 million VND/person/year; the multidimensional poverty rate must reach under 13%. Thus, in the next 2 years, Muong Luan commune must strive to increase by 25 million VND/person/year and reduce the poverty rate by more than 11% to meet the new rural standards. Based on current conditions and resources, it is very difficult for Muong Luan commune to "reach the finish line" of the new rural area according to the province's plan.

Because of these specific difficulties, Dien Bien Dong district has repeatedly requested the Provincial People's Committee to postpone the time for Muong Luan commune to achieve the NTM standard. At the Provincial People's Committee meetings on the NTM content, Mr. Bui Ngoc La, Chairman of Dien Bien Dong District People's Committee, proposed: By the end of 2025, Muong Luan commune will achieve the NTM standard, which is almost impossible. If all resources are focused on completing the plan and bringing Muong Luan to meet the NTM standard, it will not be sustainable. Because the actual income and poverty rate compared to the NTM criteria are too large. Meanwhile, the "static" criteria such as: Traffic roads, irrigation, cultural houses... are increasingly degraded, there is no funding for upgrading and repairing. Therefore, instead of focusing on bringing Muong Luan to the finish line, Dien Bien Dong district chose to build the communes: Phi Nhu, Noong U, Chieng So to be recognized as basically meeting the standards.

Similarly, as a model commune for building new rural areas in Tua Chua district, after 10 years of construction, Muong Bang commune has been recognized by the Provincial People's Committee as basically meeting new rural standards. In the period of 2021 - 2025, Muong Bang commune is one of 11 communes expected to reach the new rural target according to the province's plan. However, after adjusting the administrative boundaries of Tua Chua town, some favorable villages and hamlets of Muong Bang commune were merged into the town, causing Muong Bang commune to drop its new rural criteria. By the end of 2022, Muong Bang commune had only met 14/19 new rural criteria. Within 2 years (2023 - 2025), Muong Bang commune must complete the remaining 5 criteria (including 2 very difficult criteria: income and multidimensional poverty rate) which is very difficult.

The challenges of Dien Bien Dong and Tua Chua districts mentioned above are also common difficulties of many other districts. By the end of 2022, the whole province had 21 communes recognized as meeting NTM standards, but some communes were in a state of "forced ripening" with many immature criteria or registered "owed" criteria. Up to now, very few communes have completed the quality improvement and debt repayment of NTM criteria. The debt of old criteria has not been paid while the new criteria are increasing, causing NTM communes to "run out of breath". Through the review and application of the new set of criteria, many NTM communes have fallen below the standards of some recognized criteria.

According to information from the Provincial New Rural Area Coordination Office, after requesting communes that have met the standards and communes that have basically met the new rural area standards to review the criteria according to the set of criteria for the 2021 - 2025 period, most communes have had their criteria and component indicators reduced compared to the time of recognition of the new rural area. Typically, in Dien Bien district, there are 12 communes that have been recognized as meeting the new rural area standards, but 100% have dropped from 1 to 3 criteria. The main dropped criteria are: poor households, income, labor, and planning. According to statistics, by the end of 2022, the whole province will have 90/115 communes meeting criterion No. 11 on labor, a decrease of 25 communes compared to 2021; 69/115 communes meeting the criteria for production organization and rural economic development, a decrease of 6 communes...

Building a new rural area has a starting point, not an ending point, so improving the quality of the new rural criteria reflects the development of the Program. This requires the process of building a new rural area to be continuous, without rest, because people's lives are getting better and better, and the countryside is becoming more prosperous. At each stage, the Central Government assigns goals and targets to the province; according to the decentralization, the province assigns goals and targets to the district-level authorities for implementation. However, each goal and target set must be close to the current situation and implementation capacity of each commune and each locality. At the same time, localities must proactively develop plans and organize implementation in a scientific and methodical manner; local Party committees and authorities need to have full and clear awareness to focus on leading and directing implementation. In particular, it is necessary to eliminate the disease of achievement, the mentality of being satisfied and content. For difficult and frequently fluctuating criteria such as: Income and poverty rate, it is necessary to develop a plan to synchronously implement solutions to complete sustainable criteria such as: Effectively implementing national target programs; socio-economic development projects; developing OCOP products, local agricultural specialties to create jobs and increase income for people.