The number of communes meeting all criteria of new-style rural areas is expected to reach 3,300 – 3,400 (or 37 – 38 percent of the total communes across the country) this year, according to the Coordination Office of the national target programme on new-style rural.
At the district level, the number will reach at least 53.
A total of 3,069 communes and 43 districts earned the title of new-style rural area as of the end of 2017.
Also this year, the number of communes meeting less than five criteria is expected to fall below 100.
According to Nguyen Minh Tien, head of the office, the volume of rural roads built during the past six years was more than five times the volume built from 2001 – 2010.
As of the end of 2016, all communes nationwide were connected to the national power grid, 99.7 percent had primary schools and kindergartens, 99.5 percent had medical stations, 99.4 percent had concrete roads to communal centres, and 4,498 communes had concentrated water supply stations.
As many as 3,854 value chain-based production models have been established, helping form some large-scale production areas.
In particular, the programme on “One Commune, One Product”, successfully piloted in Quang Ninh province, has been expanded to many localities and become one of the focuses in rural economic development.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has coordinated with the Vietnam Women’s Union (VWU) to encourage women’s involvement in the new-style rural area building programme.
MARD Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong highlight the increasingly important role of women in agriculture and new-style rural building, pointing to the fact that male labourers tend to shift to non-agricultural sector and move to urban areas to work.
Women play the central role in socio-economic, cultural development, participate directly and actively and encourage their family members to join in infrastructure building and agricultural restructure, Cuong added.
Large-scale agricultural cooperatives and farms will be developed with application of science and technology towards connected and safe production.
Research will be conducted on developing climate change-resilient livelihood models for women, while the project on assisting women’s start-ups in agriculture and rural areas will be accelerated.
