Thai Nguyen takes lead in new-style rural area building

Thai Nguyen (VNA) – Thai Nguyen leads the northern mountainous provinces in constructing new-style rural areas with 40 out of 140 rural communes, or 27.9 percent, earning the status, according to Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Doan Van Tuan.

After five years of implementing the national programme, 32 communes in the province have satisfied 15-18 out of the 19 criteria set for a new-style rural area and no commune was reported with the achievement of less than five criteria.

The vice chairman said the province strives to have more than 70 percent of all communes recognised as new-style rural areas and increase the average number of criteria met by each commune to 17 by 2020.

It also expects the rate of local poor households to drop by 2 percent annually during the period and rural residents’ income to grow to 36 million VND (1612.8 USD) per person per year, he added.

To pursue the goals, the province plans to allocate over 8.7 trillion VND (389.7 million USD) for the programme between 2016 and 2020, including 2.2 trillion VND sourced from the State budget and more than 2.88 trillion VND raised by its funds.

It will create more incentives for the implementation of the programme, particularly applicable to poor and remote areas alongside those in support of large-scale production, advanced technology application and links between farmers and cooperatives in agriculture.

Local agribusinesses will be assisted in developing their brands and registering a trademark that enables their products to obtain higher value.

Additionally, the province will zone off large-scale farming areas for its key livestock, poultry and crops, for example, a 10,000-hectare area of hi-quality tea grown under VietGAP standards.

The funding will also be spent to construct and upgrade commune-based schools, medical stations, and culture and sport centres.-VNA