
The statistics were revealed at a conference of the Ministry of Agriculture andRural Development (MARD) on Monday. It aimed to review almost three-yearimplementation of national target programme on building new rural areas in the2021-25 period.
Ngo Truong Son, chief of the Central Coordinating Office for New RuralDevelopment, said 73.65% of communes nationwide have been so far recognised asnew-style rural areas, increasing by 11.3% compared to 2020.
Nineteen centrally-run provinces and cities have all wards and communesrecognised as new-style rural areas. Hanoi and Nam Dinh, Dong Nai, Ha Nam, HungYen and Hai Duong provinces have received Prime Minister’s certificates ofaccomplishing the programme, he said.
The multidimensional poverty rate in rural areas in 2022 reached 5.4%, reducingby 1.7 percentage points compared to 2020.
But according to reports by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development,there are gaps in the progress of building new-style rural areas among regions.
Hundred% of communes in the Red River Delta and 91.4% in southeastern regionhave been recognised while the proportion in northern mountainous and CentralHighlands regions have been only 47.7% and 58.6%, respectively.
Sixteen districts located in 12 provinces have no communes achieving new-stylerural area title including Muong Lat district of central Thanh Hoa province, MuCang Chai district in the northern mountainous province of Yen Bai.
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan urged agencies andlocalities to apply new initiatives and models to accelerate building new-stylerural areas.
He said the national target programme is not just about building bridges, roadsand schools but also a multi-purpose programme focusing on six pillars.
They are rural tourism development; science and technology in service of newrural construction; digital transformation; environmental protection, foodsafety and rural clean water supply; One Commune One Product (OCOP) programme.Gender equality, nutrition for rural residents, agricultural extension areother sectors covered.
Minister Hoan raised the question about how to develop OCOP programme, urgingcommunities to engage in promoting their locality’s products.
“Dong Thap province has hundreds of OCOP products but I can not find any ofthem at the supermarket. Where have OCOP products been sold?” he asked.
“If we do not treasure products made by us, we can not expect the markets toaccept our products,” he added, proposing that criteria for OCOP productsshould not only product quality, packaging but also the participation of localcommunity in making the products and market management.
To speed up the new style rural area development programme, the MARD plans todouble State investment in the 2021-30 period in agriculture and rural areascompared to 2011-20 period, focusing budget on supporting disadvantaged ethnicminority, mountainous, border and island localities in shortening developmentgaps./.
VNA