Substantial Development of Rural Areas

Substantial development of rural areas is the goal of the National Target Program on Rural Development for the period 2021 - 2025. Currently, the National Target Program is accomplishing goals of the program in the period 2016 – 2020 and preparing for a long term journey.

At the meeting of the Central Steering Committee for National Target Program on Rural Development, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung assessed that the program has boosted rural economic development, significantly changed the face of rural areas and improved the lives of rural people. However, the implementation still has some limitations that need to be fixed soon. The new countryside program is not only the inauguration of roads, the completion of village and commune works, but also improving the quality of life and increasing income for farmers. Meanwhile, many places have yet to pay attention to the development of industry, handicrafts and rural tourism. The control of security and order as well as environmental pollution in some areas are still negligible.

According to Mr. Nguyen Minh Tien, Chief of Central Coordination Office on New Rural Development, 2020 is considered as a banner year, the time to re-evaluate what has been done in the period 2016 - 2020 and set new standards for the phase 2021 - 2025. The Central Steering Committee has identified two key tasks, including: Focusing on accomplishing goals of the program in the period 2016 - 2020; preparing necessary conditions for the program in the period of 2021 - 2025. Accordingly, projects must be developed to complete the legal framework, mechanisms and policies to support the implementation of the program in the next stage.

The basic goal of the next period is to have at least 80% of the communes qualifying the new rural standards. The current figure is 60%; however, the remaining 40% of communes are in very difficult conditions. Among the solutions to implement the program in the period of 2021 - 2025, the first priority is to increase resources so that all communes must meet the criteria of essential infrastructure having direct impact on people such as traffic, irrigation, environment, information technology. Besides, in addition to strengthening propaganda, we must restructure agricultural production. For example, many localities have large land funds, we can change from planting inefficient forests, low-value trees to planting high-value hardwood trees or converting them to orchards (pomelo, oranges, guava, jackfruit, mango). It is necessary to invest in raw material areas, roads and irrigation systems. We have to promote agriculture and handicrafts production activities as well, with a focus on rural products, aiming to promote traditional specialty products of each region and increasing people's income and promoting rural tourism potential areas in difficult conditions. There must be an increased rotation of qualified staff, for example, selecting capable officers at the department or sector level to be the key leaders at district level in disadvantaged areas; choosing officers with enthusiasm and capacity in district departments and agencies to become key leaders at commune level. By doing that, it is possible to turn principles and solutions into specific actions at the commune and district levels. “With overall solutions on increasing investment resources and transforming the rural economic model as well as staff solutions, the Program on Rural Development in disadvantaged regions and ethnic minority areas will be productive, step by step keeping up with other regions in the whole country in the coming time,” said Mr. Tien said.

In order for the National Target Program on Rural Development to be more productive and sustainable, Mr. Nguyen Minh Tien said that the most important solution is continuing to propagate and raise awareness of people in building new rural areas. It is important to formulate projects to complete the legal framework, mechanisms and policies to support the implementation of the program in the next stage, such as building the investment policy of the the program for the period of 2021 - 2025; building a national set of criteria on rural development for the period 2021 - 2025; and consolidating the coordination office system at all levels. The basic goal of the next period is to have at least 80% of the communes meeting the new rural standards (currently this figure is 60%); in which, at least 40% will qualify for advanced standards, 10% will become models new style rural communes. It is expected that the total mobilized capital to implement the program in the period 2021 - 2025 is over VND2,000 trillion.

By Minh Ngoc, Vietnam Business Forum