Thua Thien-Hue works hard on new rural development

Thua Thien – Hue (VNA) – The central province of Thua Thien – Hue plans to spend nearly 1.79 trillion VND (78.5 million USD) on its new rural area development scheme in 2018.

Of the amount, around 124 billion will come from the central budget, 350 billion VND from the province’s own coffer, 200 billion VND from other programmes, 75 billion VND from local communities’ contribution and the remaining from loans, businesses’ investment and other economic organisations.

The locality will strive to have ten additional communes meeting the standards of the national programme on new-style rural areas during this year.

Priority will be given to reducing poverty rate among households, improving incomes for locals, protecting the environment and ensuring food safety.

Policies will be reviewed and adjusted towards supporting production development and attracting investment into rural areas and agriculture.

Since 2011, the provincial authority has mobilised over 5.1 trillion VND (223.8 million USD) for the new rural area programme, nearly half of which (2.17 trillion VND) sourced from credit.

Thua Thien - Hue has 104 communes joining the scheme. By the end of 2017, the rate of communes recognised as new-style rural areas stood at 22.1 percent.

However, many communes could lose the title after the new criterion on poverty line was applied, which set the line at 700,000 VND per capita per month in rural area.

According to latest statistics of the province’s Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, the average poverty rate among rural households rose to 12.05 percent under the new criterion, almost double the rate under the old one. -VNA