Prosperity from New Rural Development Program

9:34:39 AM | 14/10/2020

Fostering the strength of great solidarity, Vi Thuy district has focused on building a clean, strong and comprehensive political system; mobilized all investment resources for socioeconomic infrastructure development, especially in agriculture, farmers and rural development; and strived to become a well-developed district by 2025.

Promoting agricultural strengths

As an agricultural district, Vi Thuy has focused on achieving inclusive agricultural production development. Its main agricultural products include rice, vegetables and aquatic products. Every year, it exceeds its targets by acreage, yield and output. Besides, many high farming models are deployed in the district. The crop and livestock conversion project has launched, converting 346 ha of mixed gardens into crops of high economic value and installing electric pumping stations to respond to climate change. The rice farming area reaches over 46,000 ha, with an average yield of 6.1 tons per ha. Besides rice, vegetables are one of three main agricultural products, annually cultivated on over 2,000 ha, which harvests 30,000 tons a year. Aquaculture is also one of local economic strengths, farmed on over 500 ha, with an output of over 3,000 tons. The district has over 17,000 head of cattle and over 600,000 fowls.

The collective economy has gradually developed. Many effective cooperatives and economic models have positively impacted production and increased income for their members. Vi Thuy district has introduced many production models that yield an average income of over VND100 million per hectare a year. The district has 19 agricultural cooperatives, 43 cooperative teams, 45 agricultural extension clubs and five farm models. The rural economy is developed by multi-crop production and cooperation

The National Target Program on New Rural Development continues to focus on strengthening and improving quality of new rural development criteria for rural communes and urban towns. The district had two new communes certified to achieve new rural development criteria as expected, bringing the total certified communes to four and Nang Mau Town certified to achieve urban civilization standards. Remaining communes have already met 12 criteria or more.

In the coming time, based on its three sub-region planning aimed to tap local potential advantages to boost production efficiency, Vi Thuy district will focus on restructuring the agricultural sector towards sustainability and adaptation to climate change; develop a clean, safe production value chain, with priority given to rice and aquatics; develop gardening economy, farm economy and cooperative economy with businesses adapting to VietGAP, Global GAP, organic production and branding.

Vi Thuy district has shifted its agricultural development approach from input growth to market-based development built on clean, safe value chain, smart farming and large-field farming, aiming to consume over 85% of output. The district will focus on developing green, smart, high-tech and 4.0 agriculture to make some key agricultural and aquatic products. By 2025, at least two key agricultural products are trademarked with local geographic indications.

The district will effectively apply Party and State policies to mobilize all economic sectors to invest in production and business; give priority to investment in agricultural production and processing industries; coordinate with the province to provide favorable conditions for local producers to apply scientific and technological progress to improve quality, scale and competitiveness; regularly hold dialogues and support enterprises to access local resources, capital and labor for production and business development investment.

Vi Thuy district will Improve the quality of communes that fulfill new rural development standards and will strive to have two or three communes recognized to achieve advanced rural development criteria. The remaining communes will meet 16 criteria or more.

The district will further facilitate the development of collective economy and cooperatives, with the focus of effectively applying Directive 39-CT/TU dated July 18, 2018 of the Standing Board of the Provincial Party Committee on strengthened Party leadership on development of private economy, collective economy and cooperative economy; coordinate with provincial authorities to enable the private economy to access land resources, natural resources, capital and information technology to invest in production development, especially key agricultural products. By 2020, Vi Thuy district will strive to have 60-70 companies active in all fields.

The district will consolidate and improve the quality of existing production cooperation forms. By 2025, it will build eight new cooperatives; and strengthen the coordination of authorities, scientists, companies and farmers to find stable consumption markets for agricultural products.

Industrializing, modernizing the economy

Vi Thuy district has assigned priority to modernizing and industrializing the restructured economy, and transforming economic development patterns from breadth to depth by reducing the share of agriculture and increasing the share of trade, services and industry and construction. From 2015 to 2019, the share of agriculture decreased from 57% to 55.01%, the share of trade and service accounted for 19.41% and the share of industry and construction made up for 25.58%. The labor structure has been gradually improved, with the rate of trained workers increased from 26.3% in 2015 to 42% in 2019. The socioeconomic infrastructure system has been invested and developed together with the National Target Program on New Rural Development to bring a better material and spiritual life for people.

The industry and handicraft sector grew at a fairly good pace. The output value was VND17,256 billion, 16.59% higher than the target set in the development resolution of the district. The share of industry increased gradually in the economic structure.

The trade and service sector has developed well. Vi Thuy district has nine markets which employed 1,115 workers. Trade and service companies increased by 1.33 times from 2015 to 2019. Total retail revenue of goods and services was VND2,750 billion, an increase of VND447 billion over 2015.

By unlocking its potential advantages and utilizing its internal strength, more than 20 years after establishment, Vi Thuy district has a totally new face, featured by increasingly comprehensive and sustainable development.

Source: Vietnam Business Forum