The Provincial Electronic Information Portal respectfully introduces the speech of Mr. Dang Ngoc Hau - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee at the conference.

Dear delegates, and distinguished guests!

Dear Conference!

Implementing the Working Program of the Provincial People's Committee, today the Provincial People's Committee organized a Conference to evaluate the results of the implementation of the contents of the commitment signed between the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee and the Chairmen of the People's Committees of districts and the city on the management of natural resources and environmental protection in 2023 and deploy the tasks of the Natural Resources and Environment sector in 2024, to evaluate the achieved results, point out the limitations and causes of the limitations in the implementation of the task of state management of natural resources and environment in Son La province.

On behalf of the Provincial People's Committee, I warmly welcome the delegates, distinguished guests, and all comrades who attended the Conference. I wish you good health and happiness and our Conference a great success.

Dear Conference!

Implementing the Resolution of the Provincial People's Council, the decision of the Provincial People's Committee on the socio-economic development plan based on the tasks, solutions, and work programs assigned by the Provincial People's Committee and the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, in 2023, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment made great efforts to complete the assigned tasks and significant contributions to promoting socio-economic development in the province. The Department focused on reviewing, amending, supplementing, and specifying regulations on mechanisms, policies, planning, and plans under the conditions of the province, contributing to strengthening the effectiveness and efficiency of state management of natural resources and the environment, overcoming shortcomings and limitations arose in practice, promoting natural resources for sustainable socio-economic development and results achieved in all areas in 2023, specifically:

1. On the organization of signing commitments

In 2023, the province deployed the signing of commitments between the Chairpersons of the People's Committees of 12 districts and the city with the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee and 32 Mineral Exploitation License Holders with the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee on Natural Resources Management and Environmental Protection, and the Chairpersons of the People's Committees of districts and the city signed commitments with the Chairpersons of the People's Committees of communes, wards, and towns, the chairpersons of the People's Committees of communes, wards, and towns signed commitments with organizations and households in the area. For the district and commune levels, the signing of commitment events was to deploy, disseminate, and propagate the law on natural resources and the environment to organizations, particularly households and individuals in the area, and for the provincial level, after signing the commitments, the inspections for the signed commitments for 12/12 districts and the city and 16/204 communes, wards, and towns.

2. Regarding implementing environmental targets assigned to the Department of Natural Resources and Environment in the 2023 Socio-Economic Development Plan of the province, the results achieved are as follows: (1) The rate of collected urban solid waste reached 92.5% (equal to 100% of the assigned plan target) (2) The rate of collected rural solid waste reached 82% (equal to 100% of the assigned plan target) (3) The rate of treated urban solid waste reached 92.5% (exceeding 34.5% of the assigned target); completed 28/28 assigned tasks (including 22 duties in the Resolution of the Provincial People's Council and 06 jobs in the Decision of the Provincial People's Committee), achieving 100% of assigned tasks in 2023; contributed to the provincial budget revenue from the field of natural resources and environment, budget revenue from land in 2023 is over 650 billion VND/total revenue of 3,202 billion (accounting for 20.29%);

3. Other fields: To strengthen the inspection and handling of administrative violations in the field of natural resources and environment, handling 620 administrative violations in the field of natural resources and environment in the whole province (in the field of land, construction order.), the total fine amount is over 4,790 million, the amount of illegal profits is 599 million, and 03 cases in the field of minerals with the amount of 3.6 billion VND. The Department proactively coordinated with all levels, branches, and People's Committees of districts and the city to build and fully implement environmental criteria in new rural construction, implementing digital transformation with 06 indicators for Departments and branches including awareness,  institutions, infrastructure, human resources, network information security, and transformation activities for digitalization; district level alone adding 03 indicators consisting of digitalizing economic social activities and transformation at the commune level; classification results of digital transformation level in 2023, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment ranked 3rd/20 departments, boards, and branches.

However, besides the achieved results, the implementation of the 2023 program and tasks, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment still has the following shortcomings and limitations (This is also the case in some districts and the city):

(1) The work of propagating, disseminating, and implementing Conclusion No. 56-KL/TW dated August 23, 2019, of the Politburo on proactively responding to climate change, strengthening resource management and environmental protection is still limited

(2) The work of advising on resolving several problems and backlogs related to agricultural and forestry land and backlogs has not been consulted and proposed to be resolved completely

(3) Illegal mineral exploitation still occurs in some localities including Mai Son, Muong La, Song Ma, Moc Chau, and Van Ho

(4) There are still some household-scale coffee production, processing, and processing facilities that discharge untreated or inadequately treated wastewater and waste into the environment (In some communes of Mai Son district), causing environmental pollution, especially domestic water sources in the area

(5) The encroachment of agricultural and forestry land and illegal construction still occurs frequently but is slow to be handled or not completely handled

(6) The adjustment of land changes and the issuance of Land Use Right Certificates are still slow to be resolved, especially projects for the first issuance of Certificates, land surveying, and the construction of land databases

(7) The proactive completion of content submitted to the Provincial People's Council meetings is still passive, leading to low quality

(8) The procedures for handling records related to the fields of minerals and land are still prolonged in some cases, causing frustration for organizations and households.

The above limitations require the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to focus on overcoming them immediately in 2024, focusing on leading and directing the development of a plan to overcome them, proposing specific solutions, decentralizing management, and clearly defining the responsibilities of each level (province, district, commune) in advising and implementing state management of natural resources and environment to bring state management of this field in the province promptly, by legal regulations.

Dear delegates, distinguished guests, and all conference attendees!

At this Conference, I hope that the leaders of the Departments, boards, branches, People's Committees of districts and the city, and Mineral Activity License Holders will focus on contributing opinions and discussing, concentrating on the remaining limitations in the implementation in 2023, clearly stating the causes and proposing solutions to overcome them in the coming time to ensure the successful completion of the tasks and socio-economic development targets in 2024 assigned to the Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

In that spirit, I declare open the Conference to evaluate the results of the implementation of the commitments signed between the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee and the Chairperson of the People's Committees of districts and the city on natural resources management and environmental protection in 2023 and to deploy the tasks of the Natural Resources and Environment sector in 2024.

I wish the delegates and all the Conference attendees good health, happiness, and success.

Sincerely thank you./.

                *Title set by the Son La Provincial Electronic Information Portal.

                                                                                 Translated by Tuan Minh Dang