A woman on a newly-opened road in the mountainous district of Sơn Hoà in Phú Yên Province. —  VNA/VNS Photo Phạm Cường

 PHÚ YÊN — For the last five years, authorities in the central province of Phú Yên have been effectively mobilising public resources and residents’ contributions to improve rural roads.

Chairman of Sơn Hoà District People’s Committee Tô Phương Bắc said that between 2017 and 2020, the district invested over VNĐ66 billion (US$ 2.86 million) to build roads in mountainous communes of Sơn Hà, Sơn Nguyên, Sơn Xuân, Suối Bạc, Suối Trai and Cà Lúi.

Of the funds, local people contributed VNĐ14 billion($608,000). All communes in the district now have concrete roads.

Trần Thị Khởi, a resident of Cà Lúi Commune, said previously the only route from the commune to Trà Kê in the neighbouring commune of Sơn Hội was almost impassable during heavy rain.

“Wholesalers hesitated to buy our farming products. We usually had to sell the products at low prices,” Khởi said.

“After the new 12-km road opened for traffic last year, we could travel and transport our products easily,” she said.

Chairman of Sông Hinh District People’s Committee Đinh Ngọc Dạn said that besides public investment, local authorities also called on residents’ contributions to improve the roads.

People donated land, money and labour to help complete the roads, he said, adding that in the last three years, 148 km of urban roads in the district were concreted.

Nguyễn Phương Đông, director of the province’s Transport Department, said that in the last five years, as part of a project on transport development, 362 out of 478km of rural roads in the province have been improved with investment of over VNĐ300 billion ($13 million).

Eighty out of 83 communes in the province now meet transport requirements in the criteria set for a new-style rural area. 

Đông said that although the province last year struggled to fund the project, some districts opened new rural roads with a total length of over 50km.

Trương Văn Phương, head of the province’s Committee for Ethnic groups, said that improved roads in rural communes helped local people transport their products to other communes and other districts, thus improving incomes and living conditions. 

The improved transport infrastructure also helped narrow the gap between ethnic people in mountainous communes and those living in lower areas, he said. — VNS