The northern mountainous province of Yen Bai has achieved encouraging results in its new rural area construction, according to the local authority.

One third of the province’s communes have met new rural criteria on planning, electricity, healthcare, education, security and social order.

Yen Bai province has spent nearly 2.15 trillion VND (101 million USD) in building new rural areas over the past three years.

The local authority said at present majority capital for this programme come from the state and local budget. In the time to come, the province will seek for more funds from residents and different economic sectors to increase capital for the programme.

The local authority said province strives to turn all its selected communes into new rural areas by 2015.

A new rural area has 19 criteria on infrastructure, living standard, poverty reduction, economic development, healthcare, culture, environment, security and social order.-VNA