Nam Dinh (VNA) – A nationalconference was held under the chair of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in thenorthern province of Nam Dinh on October 19 to review 10 years implementing thenational target programme on new-style rural areas.

At its seventh session in August 2008, the10th-tenure Party Central Committee issued Resolution No. 26 on agriculture,farmers and rural areas. 

This resolution set the target that material andspiritual lives of rural residents will be unceasingly improved, with fasterprogress in disadvantaged areas. Besides, agriculture will be developed towardscommercial production and high productivity, quality, effectiveness andcompetitiveness that can firmly ensure national food security in both short andlong terms. 

It also aims to build new-style rural areas withmodern socio-economic infrastructure, with 50 percent of all the communes to berecognised as new-style countryside by 2020.

To realise this resolution, the Governmentapproved a national target programme on building new-style rural areas for 2010– 2020. It also launched an emulation movement calling on the whole nation tojoin hands in the work.

Statistics show that thanks to efforts by thewhole political system and society, great achievements have been obtained overthe past decade.

Notably, the new-style countryside buildingtarget has been reached almost two years ahead of schedule. As of October 2019,4,665 communes or 52.4 percent of the total nationwide have been recognised asnew-style rural areas, 2.4 percent higher than the target set for 2020. Amongthem, 63 communes have satisfied advanced criteria.

Eight provinces and centrally-run cities havehad all of their communes winning the recognition, namely the provinces of NamDinh, Ha Nam, Hung Yen, Thai Binh, Dong Nai and Binh Duong, and the cities ofDa Nang and Can Tho.

Meanwhile, 109 district-level localities in 41provinces and cities have gained the title.

In particular, with all of their communes anddistrict-level localities meeting all criteria, Dong Nai in the south and NamDinh in the northern region have completed the task.

The annual per capita income in rural regionsrose three-fold, from 12.8 million VND (over 550 USD at the current exchangerate) in 2010 to 35.9 million VND in 2018. The income gap between rural andurban areas also dropped from 2.1 times to 1.8 times during the period. Thehousehold poverty rate in those areas has also declined sharply, by about 1.5percent each year on average.

Rural socio-economic infrastructure has beenimproved considerably, thus gradually meeting people’ daily and productionneeds and keeping up with local development demand. After more than nine years,over 206,740km of rural roads have been constructed or upgraded across thecountry.

Additionally, cultural and social aspects havereceived more attention. The rate of collected solid waste has been increasing,from 44.1 percent in 2011 to 63.5 percent at present.

Over the last nine years, more than 2.4quadrillion VND have been mobilised for building new-style countryside, with27.7 percent from the State budget, 57.6 percent from loans, 4.9 percentcontributed by businesses, and 9.8 percent donated by people.

Aside from reviewing the 10-year programmeimplementation, the conference on October 19 was also meant to set uporientations and tasks for carrying out the work in the years to come.

Prior to this event, a ceremony was held onOctober 18 to honour prominent collectives and individuals in the work between2010 and 2020. On this occasion, PM Phuc also launched an emulation movement onbuilding new-style rural areas for 2021 – 2025./.