A delegation of Cambodian Planning Ministry led by Minister Chhay Than on March 7 visited the northern province of Nam Dinh to study the model of rural area development.

At a working session with the delegation, Deputy Director of the Nam Dinh provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Phung Hoan briefed his guests about the province’s advantages and difficulties in building modern rural areas.

The Government’s National New Rural-Area Programme has 19 development criteria for rural areas to get the status of “new.”

Among them are the development of transportation and irrigation facilities and housing, poverty alleviation, environmental protection, and social and political stability.

Hoan said 96 communes (or 47 percent) in Nam Dinh are developing following this model.

By the end of 2012, over 4 trillion VND have been mosilised for building new style rural areas with more than 1.3 trillion VND coming from the State budget.

To date, 4 communes have met 15 criteria and 7 communes met between 11 and 13 criteria, Hoan said.

Minister Chhay Than said Nam Dinh’s experience in building modern rural areas, especially in infrastructure development, is very useful for his country.

The Cambodian Government has paid due attention to agriculture and rural areas, especially poverty reduction, he said, adding that the country’s poverty rate shrank significantly to 19 percent in 2012.

However, the minister said, Cambodia is seeking suitable polices for agricultural development in the context that the sector makes up a large amount in gross domestic product ( GDP ).

Later on the day, the Cambodian delegation made a fact-finding tour of a new rural area model in Hai Trung commune, Hai Hau district.-VNA