In early 2025, the light of the national power grid for the first time flared up across the villages of Nặm Cứm, Nặm Chan, and Pơ Mu in Nà Tấu commune, bringing joy and change in the lives of people here. However, achieving that result was a process of persistent dissemination and mobilization, step-by-step removing concerns in thoughts, helping people agree and voluntarily accompany the State during the project implementation process.

Voluntarily cutting down a part of the fruit tree area to yield land for the power line to pass through, Lò Văn Định, Có Hắm village shared: “My family lives near the commune center so we have had electricity for daily life for a long time. When knowing the line of the “Lightning up Điện Biên” program would pass through the family’s land, initially I was also concerned because it affected the trees. However, being clearly explained by the Party committee and authority that this is a guideline with long-term significance, helping many other households in the commune have electricity, I agreed. Therefore, I along with 25 households in the village are ready to coordinate, voluntarily donating land for the project to be completed.”

Not only in Nà Tấu, at that time, the “Lightning up Điện Biên” program was deployed simultaneously in 10 villages and residential clusters in the area of 6 communes of the old Mường Ảng district. To implement the project, it was necessary to use nearly 1,500m2 of permanent land to build pole foundations and about 228,000m2 of land within the route corridor, affecting nearly 400 households. Although the scope of impact was large, thanks to flexible and soft methods in dissemination and mobilization work, most households shifted from concern to consensus, voluntarily donating land, creating conditions for contractors to deploy the project on schedule.

Reality shows that, recently, not a few key infrastructure, residential, and transport projects had to adjust progress, even extending for many years due to obstacles in site clearance, causing time to become a “bottleneck” in implementing the provincial goals. To resolve this, comrades from the Standing Board of the provincial Party Committee, leaders of the provincial People’s Committee, and related departments and sectors regularly inspected the scene, directly dialogued with people, and directed the specific resolution of each obstacle. Many thematic resolutions, schemes, and plans were issued; specific policies were applied flexibly to shorten procedures and remove difficulties regarding land, planning, and capital sources.

A typical example is the 60m Road Project (now May 7th Road), a key infrastructure work that was “stalled” for many years due to a lack of people’s consensus. Right at the beginning of the 2020 - 2025 term, with the drastic and synchronous involvement of the entire political system, dozens of dialogues were organized; counting and compensation work was carried out publicly, transparently, taking people as the center. Thanks to that, the project was completed in late 2021, becoming an important highlight in the urban appearance of Điện Biên.

Similarly, the Project of the airport bypass road connecting Thanh Hưng commune (old) with Thanh Luông commune (old), started in late February 2023 but at many times fell behind schedule due to obstacles in site clearance. After many plan adjustments, by early 2024, the project still could not be deployed synchronously, causing concern among the people. Only when levels and sectors strengthened dialogue, listened to people’s opinions, and directly directed the removal of arising obstacles, was the “bottleneck” in mindset gradually resolved. Thanks to that, in 2024, the project was completed and put into use, contributing to improving transport infrastructure and facilitating households in the area.

The reality of deploying many projects in the provincial area shows that for site clearance work to be effective, it needs to start with a change in people’s awareness. When people are fully informed, clearly understand the long-term goals and significance of each project, and see their responsibilities and benefits associated with general development, concerns will be removed. However, to do that, officials must regularly stick to the grassroots, dialogue directly, listen to opinions, and clearly explain each related content. Arising issues are considered thoroughly and handled flexibly, ensuring harmony of interests between the State and the people.

With many years directly participating in site clearance work, Trần Minh Giáp, Vice Chairman of the Mường Ảng commune People’s Committee shared that the biggest obstacle does not lie in the recovered land area but in the psychology and thinking of the people. When they do not clearly understand the guidelines and fear their rights are affected, people easily develop concerns, or even lack consensus. Therefore, grassroots officials must be persistent in dissemination, explain thoroughly, speak for the people to understand, and act for the people to trust. Only then will people be ready to cooperate and voluntarily hand over the ground.

It can be said that thanks to flexible methods, taking ideological work as the focus, many works and projects in the provincial area that previously faced long-term difficulties and obstacles have been cleared, completed, and put into use, promoting investment efficiency, contributing importantly to promoting local socio-economic development.