Hanoi's New Rural: Shortening the Gap Between Rural and Urban Areas

Implementing Program No. 04-CTr/TU in the period of 2021-2025, the special mark for Hanoi's rural areas is a strong economic breakthrough. The clear changes in economic development have impacted the criteria in building advanced and exemplary new rural areas, bringing many positive changes to localities.

Party's will, people's heart

Implementing Resolution No. 26-NQ/TU dated August 5, 2008 of the 7th Conference of the 10th Central Executive Committee on agriculture, farmers, rural areas and the National Target Program on new rural construction, the Hanoi Party Committee has identified the development of agriculture, farmers, rural areas, in which new rural construction is a key and continuous political task.

Therefore, from the 15th Congress of the Hanoi Party Committee (term 2010-2015) to the 16th Congress (term 2015-2020), the Standing Committee of the City Party Committee identified “Agricultural development, new rural construction, improving farmers’ lives” as an important task and was built into one of the major work programs, the focus of the entire term, which is Program No. 02-CTr/TU.

Entering the 17th Congress (term 2020-2025), the Hanoi Party Committee issued 10 work programs for the entire term, in which the issue of “three rural areas” continued to be raised in Program No. 04-CTr/TU on “Promoting the effective implementation of the National Target Program on new rural construction associated with restructuring the agricultural sector and developing the rural economy, improving the material and spiritual life of farmers in the period 2021-2025”.

To direct the implementation, in all three phases above, the Hanoi Party Committee established a Steering Committee for the program headed by the Standing Deputy Secretary of the City Party Committee (from December 2024, the program will be headed by the Deputy Secretary of the City Party Committee and Chairman of the City People's Committee).

Determining that the propaganda work to help people understand and agree is the top priority, Director of the Hanoi Department of Agriculture and Environment Nguyen Xuan Dai said that immediately after the Central Government deployed the National Target Program on New Rural Development, the Hanoi Party Committee directed the city's information and communication agencies to proactively, actively, and focus on deeply and widely propagating the Central Government's and the City Party Committee's program on the purpose, meaning, and importance of new rural development to all classes of people in the capital. Through that, it has created a strong change in awareness and action among cadres, party members, and all classes of people.

From the belief that "rural construction is a State project", people have understood that "new rural construction uses many resources, in which the resources from the people are the main ones", eliminating the idea of ​​waiting and relying on others. Every year, the city has organized training courses for cadres working on new rural construction at all levels, from districts, towns, to leaders of communes, villages... In particular, over the past years, the city has always paid attention to and arranged large resources for rural development even in difficult times in terms of capital. As a result, in the period of 2010-2024, Hanoi mobilized more than 183,000 billion VND to invest in new rural construction. Of which, in the period of 2010-2020, Hanoi mobilized nearly 97,000 billion VND; in the period of 2021-2024, it was more than 86,800 billion VND. Of which, the capital mobilized outside the state budget is 4,012.7 billion VND, accounting for 4.6%.

From practice, Secretary of Dan Phuong District Party Committee Tran Duc Hai said that in recent years, thanks to the consensus of the people, Dan Phuong has attracted large resources to build new rural areas. Especially in the period of 2016-2020, people have enthusiastically donated land and contributed labor to build alleys and intra-field traffic routes, implementing the movement of building "roads with flowers, houses with numbers, streets with names". In the period of 2021-2025, people continue to socialize to implement the movement of bright, green, clean, beautiful, safe, civilized and modern villages...

The Program Steering Committee has maintained order, seriously implemented quarterly meetings; established delegations and organized many inspections of the implementation work in localities. Along with that, the city's departments, branches and sectors, based on the direction of the City Party Committee, have focused on directing and developing annual programs and plans, closely following the grassroots to guide implementation, ensuring the completion of the set goals.

Rural economy flourishes

Implementing Program No. 04-CTr/TU in the period of 2021-2025, the special mark for the rural areas of Hanoi is a strong economic breakthrough. The clear changes in economic development have impacted the criteria in building advanced and exemplary new rural areas, bringing many positive changes to localities.

In Phung Xa commune (Thach That district) - where there is a famous metalworking craft village in the country, the people's lives are vibrant all year round. Phung Xa people produce products ranging from simple ones, such as steel wire, flower doors, folding doors, hinges, pressed corrugated iron to highly technical products such as wood sawing machine parts, punching machines, hot rolling machines, boilers, etc.

According to Secretary of the Phung Xa Commune Party Committee Nguyen Doan Tuyen, the commune has more than 3,600 households, of which 208 are enterprises and more than 1,200 are production and trading households, attracting thousands of workers inside and outside the commune to work... Of which, 20% of these enterprises have revenue from tens of billions to hundreds of billions of VND/year. The profession has developed, so the average income of households in Phung Xa is very high, reaching 115 million VND/person/year, this is the highest income level in rural communes in the city...

Meanwhile, in Trung Chau Commune (Dan Phuong District), along with agricultural production, in recent years, the profession has developed very well. According to Secretary of the Trung Chau Commune Party Committee Do Van Dang, the whole commune has more than 600 households developing professions and bean sprout production alone has more than 100 households participating, each household creating jobs for about 5 workers. Currently, Trung Chau brings to the market about 100 tons of bean sprouts every day. The revenue of a household making bean sprouts can reach 15-20 million VND/day. Thanks to the development of the profession, no one in Trung Chau is unemployed, the average income of the commune in 2024 is estimated to reach 90 million VND/person... According to the assessment of the Office of the Coordination of the New Rural Development Program of Hanoi City, from 2019 to present, the city has evaluated 3,317 OCOP products (One Commune One Product Program), including 6 5-star products, 22 potential 5-star products, 1,571 4-star products and 1,718 3-star products. In addition, the city also has 1,336 cooperatives, 1,574 farms, about 500 craft villages, 70 industrial clusters in operation, contributing to job creation and increasing income for people...

By the end of 2024, the average income in rural areas in the city will reach about 73.8 million VND, an increase of 18.8 million VND/person/year compared to 2020. Many localities have high average income, typically districts such as Hoai Duc, Dan Phuong reaching 86 million VND/person/year, Dong Anh reaching more than 85.8 million VND/person/year, Gia Lam reaching 83 million VND/person/year... By the end of 2024, the city will have no more poor households according to the poverty line for the period 2022-2025, reaching the target 1 year ahead of schedule. The majority of rural households have solid, spacious houses; The gap between the inner city and the suburbs is narrowed.

In addition, the models of "smart villages" and "smart communes" are differences in the implementation of Program No. 04-CTr/TU of the City Party Committee compared to previous stages. The role of the people as the main subject in the socio-economic development of the capital is firmly affirmed, and rural areas are becoming more and more civilized and modern.

By Minh Ngoc, Vietnam Business Forum