The Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance have been tasked with allocating sufficient financial resources to localities for rural development, especially in disadvantaged areas.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh, head of the Central Steering Committee for the target programme on new-style rural area building, assigned this task during a conference held in Hanoi on July 15.

The two ministries should advise the Government on commending and rewarding localities that perform well in this field, he suggested.

He requested Dak Nong, Dien Bien, Cao Bang, Son La and Bac Kan provinces, which currently have no new-style rural communes, to promote the programme so each province can report at least one new-style rural commune that meets the criteria by the end of this year.

The steering committee for the programme should continue to collect feedback on amending and supplementing the current set of criteria, which includes the construction of infrastructure and public facilities, production capacity improvement, environmental protection and cultural preservation.

The committee should also conduct fact-finding tours and host conferences that provide an opportunity to discuss the set of criteria in-depth and assess whether they are appropriate for the context of each locality, he concluded.

The committee will award the 10 most outstanding provinces.

Members proposed the Government amend and supplement the following criteria: development of irrigation systems, information and communications, production organisation, education, health, the environment, and local system of political and social organisations. They recommended supplementing the criteria on planning, transport and electricity.

To date, 889 communes and five districts have been recognised as new-style rural areas.-VNA