Many Achievements of 10-Year New Countryside Construction

The enforcement of guidelines and policies on new countryside construction, especially agricultural and rural economic development together with agricultural restructuring in Vietnam, has delivered many remarkable achievements in the past 10 years.

The Scientific Workshop on “Theory and Practice in New Countryside Construction in Vietnam” held recently in Nam Dinh is an important forum to review the 10-year plan implementation of new countryside construction which focused on four contents: Solutions to strengthen rural-urban connectivity; Overall, integrated, ecosystem-based approach to new countryside construction; sustainable value system for rural development in Vietnam; and State administration renovation for new countryside construction: Current reality, orientation and solutions.

The workshop aimed to deeply assess the nature of rural changes; identify impact factors; analyze new countryside issues; summarize success lessons, good and creative ways; forecast future contexts, opportunities and challenges and set out key issues to prepare for new countryside construction models in the new period.

According to the report released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, after 10 years of implementing the new countryside construction program and restructuring the agricultural sector, livelihoods of rural people have changed significantly. Agriculture expanded 3.1% annually in the 2011-2015 period and 2.95% a year in 2011-2018. The share of agriculture to GDP decreased from 18.38% in 2011 to 14.57% in 2018. Agricultural production has shifted to products of stronger international competition, productivity and quality. Sector-specific production structure has been adjusted and transformed towards promoting local and national advantages and matching market demands. Agricultural, forest and aquatic product exports have achieved impressive growth, driven by opening international economic integration, making Vietnam the second largest agricultural exporter in Southeast Asia and 13th in the world, with the 10-year value amounting at US$261.28 billion (2008-2017), up 9.24% a year on average.

Scientific and technological research and application has produced positive results. Science and technology has accounted for over 30% of added value in agricultural production, especially in growing plants and farming livestock with the added value of up to 38%. High-tech application models in crop cultivation, animal husbandry and aquaculture have helped increase economic productivity by 10-30% on over 90% of rice area, 80% of corn area and 60% of sugarcane area. Production form was renewed. By 2018, Vietnam had 39 agricultural cooperative allies, 13,400 agricultural cooperatives and 35,500 farms. Households working in agriculture, forestry and fisheries account for 53.7%.

As of May 2019, Vietnam had about 11,200 agricultural enterprises. 27,000 value chain production models had been established, applied with high tech to form concentrated production areas. Incomes and livelihoods of rural people have been continuously improved in the 2008-2017 period, with per capita income increasing by 3.5 times from VND9.15 million to VND32 million. In the 2012-2017 period, the average income of a rural household rose sharply from VND75.8 million to nearly VND130 million. The income gap between urban and rural areas shrunk from 2.1 times in 2008 to 1.8 times in 2017. Poverty rate decreased rapidly to 5.35% in 2018.

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Cuong, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said, in the next 10-15 years, the agricultural and rural transition must avoid the risk of lagging behind. Future goals are ensuring the real subjective role of the people, ensuring sufficient capacity and opportunities of farmers to participate and enjoy the country's development achievements, stabilizing incomes of rural residents, and enhancing international competitiveness of the agricultural sector.

Minh Ngoc