(VOVworld) – The national target program on building new rural areas has received consensus from the entire society. The achievements and experience collected over the past years are important premises for the Government to set out sustainable and effective targets for the future.

Building rural road in Yen Bai province

After 3 years of implementation, the program to build new rural areas has developed 5,000 production models, raising the production efficiency from 20 to 30%. The most measurable result is rezoning rice fields and cultivation land in association with commodity production areas in the Red River Delta and forming vast rice fields and mechanized agricultural production in the Mekong River Delta. Elevent piloted communes have obtained 15 to 18 out of 19 criteria  of new rural areas including those in Hanoi, Quang Ninh, Bac Ninh, Hai Phong, Bac Giang, Lao Cai, Yen Bai, and Hung Yen. 950 communes in the Red River Delta and northern central region fulfilled 10 criteria.

The results show that the program has widespread nationwide with the involvement of the whole political system from the central to the local and enthusiastic response from the farmers. Various role models and creative measures have been reported. Farmers in Vinh Phuc province donated tens of thousands of ha of land to build rural roads and infrastructure works. People in Thanh Tan commune, Kien Xuong district, Thai Binh province gave their land for road construction with a slogan “straight roads, straight lanes”. These achievements are partially attributed to communication work to make the people understand the new rural targets. Ho Xuan Hung is a consultant of the National Steering Board on building new rural areas.

"We have good policy, but we will not success if we fail to make the people understand that they do it for themselves and by themselves. The initial results have proved that we must have appropriate policies and people’s advocacy that they are doing for their benefit" Hung says.

The National Steering Board on building new rural areas said the criteria of zoning is the prior task to carry out other works. After 3 years, 68% of the communes finished their zoning plans while the target is 100%. Cao Duc Phat, Minister of Agricultural and Rural Development and Vice Chairman of the National Steering Board, says: "This is a shortcoming. Some localities have not strictly implemented the program. The zoning capability of localities and consultancy is behind requirement. It’s difficult to zone nearly 10,000 communes at a time. This year, well continue to instruct and support localities to fulfill this work."

The National Steering Committee has realized the need to adjust the criteria to suit each locality. The current criteria set for 7 economic zones are general, while each locality has its geographical and socio-economic differences. Some criteria are at high level such as income, the number of poor households, rural labor structure, and businesses’ contribution to rural infrastructure construction.  The Committee has assigned functional agencies and sectors to survey and adjust the criteria down to the real situation. Vietnam’s rural areas are changing toward effective and sustainable development, contributing to national industrialization and modernization for the goals of prosperous people, strong nation, and international economic integration.

To Tuan