Vietnam to have 40% of communes recognised as new rural areas in 2018

ABO/NDO - Vietnam aims to have at least 39-40% or about 3,530 of the total communes that meet the criteria of a new rural area in 2018, up 5-6% from the previous year.

Deputy PM Vuong Dinh Hue (Image: VGP)

The country also aims to reduce the number of communes meeting less than 5 out of the 19 criteria to below 60 this year.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong said on February 28 that the programme to build new rural areas should give top priority to improving the income of local residents.

The second priority is environmental protection and third is cultural development in line with the specific characteristics of each area.

Meanwhile Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue urged the ministries and local authorities concerned to make bolder efforts to effectively build new rural areas and reduce poverty in a sustainable manner.

He called for action to restructure agricultural production, develop value chains and carry out the “One Commune, One Product” programme in order to realise the two aforementioned goals.

Deputy PM Hue asked the agriculture and labour ministries to replicate the exemplary new rural areas and formulate a new set of criteria to encourage rural districts to escape poverty.

Last year, 34.4% of Vietnam’s total communes met the criteria of a new rural area, exceeding the target of 31%, while the poverty rate also dropped by 1.51%, surpassing the set target of between 1.3% and 1.5%.

(Source: NDO)