Conference reviews new rural development emulation movement

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) held a conference in Ha Long city, Quang Ninh province on September 27 to review the emulation movement “The whole nation joins hands to build new-style rural areas” in the period of 2011-2020.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam spreaks at the conference. (Photo: baoquangninh.com.vn)
Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam spreaks at the conference. (Photo: baoquangninh.com.vn)

After more than nine years of implementation, the new rural development (NRD) programme has achieved important results, fundamentally changing the rural appearance and significantly improving the material and spiritual life of the people. So far, as many as 4,554 communes across the country (51.16% of the total) have satisfied all the criteria as new-style rural areas, up 34.01% compared to late 2015. Ninety three district-level units in 37 provinces and centrally-run cities (13.7% of the total) have been recognised by the Prime Minister to have completed the NRD tasks. The national average has reached 15.26 criteria per commune, with all the communes meeting five criteria or above. The average income per capita in rural areas is now VND35.9 million (US$1,543) per year.

Up to date, a total of 52 cities and provinces across the country have approved and implemented the “One Commune One Product” (OCOP) programme at the provincial level. It is expected that around 2,490 products will participate in the programme by 2020. Six cities and provinces have implemented the evaluation and classification for 265 OCOP products, including seven five-star, 100 four-star and 158 three-star products. The other localities have been actively coordinating with the Central Coordination Office on NRD to strengthen the advertising and trade promotion activities for OCOP products.

Addressing the event, MARD Deputy Minister Tran Thanh Nam praised the localities and units for their worthy, creative and effective models in building new-style rural areas and restructuring the agricultural sector.

Launching the NRD emulation movement for the next coming period, Nam asked units and localities to focus on designing practical targets and contents, accelerating the creation of emulation movements, and synchronously implementing agricultural restructuring associated with renovating the growth model and building new-style rural areas on the basis of promoting potential and advantages of each region. They were also urged to effectively carry out the detection, commendation, honouring and replication of the outstanding NRD examples.

The official called for joint efforts towards realising the goal of attaining an annual GDP growth rate of 3-3.2% for the whole agricultural sector and having 75% of the country’s total communes recognised as new-style rural areas by 2025.

At the conference, many units and localities shared their experience and worthy models, while proposing orientations and recommendations to remove difficulties in the implementation of the NRD programme.

On the occasion, the MARD presented certificates of merit to 92 collectives and 94 individuals with outstanding and active contributions to the NRD programme.

The MARD presents certificates of merit to collectives and individuals with outstanding contributions to the new rural development programme. (Photo: baoquangninh.com.vn)