Nearly 2,900 communes recognised as new rural areas

 Hanoi (VNA) – As many as 2,884 communes or 32.3 percent of communes nationwide were recognised as new-style rural areas by the end of November 2017, surpassing the target of at least 31 percent.

Of the total, 326 communes have met the new national criteria on new rural communes during 2016-2020, according to the Coordination Office of the National Target Programme on New-Style Rural Area Building.

As of December 15, 43 district-level units in 24 centrally-run cities and provinces have been certified as new rural areas, up 13 districts compared with the end of 2016 and exceeding the target of 38.

The General Statistics Office revealed that as of the end of  2016, 99.4 percent of communes nationwide have auto-accessible roads to commune centres. All communes and 97.8 percent of villages are connected with the national power grid. Meanwhile, 99.7 percent of communes have pre and elementary schools and 99.5 percent of communes have medical centres.

Some 3,854 production models have been connected with each other by value chains. There are 11,183 agricultural cooperatives, with each earning an average of 1.1 billion VND (48,400 USD) annually.

Notably, localities have set forth roadmaps to deal with debts in infrastructure construction.

However, the outcomes of the new-style rural area building remain unequal between regions across the country, with 1,101 certified communes in the Red River Delta and only 119 in the Central Highlands.

The national target programme on building new-style rural areas, initiated by the Vietnamese Government in 2010, sets 19 criteria on socio-economic development, politics, and defence, aiming to develop rural regions.   

The list of criteria includes the development of infrastructure, the improvement of production capacity, environmental protection and the promotion of cultural values.

 In 2015, the set of criteria was increased to 20.-VNA