VGP – The national target program on new style rural area building has been finalized ahead of schedule 18 months, said Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Vo Thanh Thong has affirmed. 

Photo: VGP/Thanh Chung 

Under the national target program in the 2016-2020 period, 50% of total communes must reach new rural area standards by 2020. However, by late June, 2019, 50.1% of communes met the target. 

Deputy Minister Thong made the announcement at a meeting of the Steering Committee on national target programs on July 25 in Ha Noi.

Accordingly, 5,458 communes met new style rural standards with 19 specific criteria, up 620 communes (equivalent to 6.96%) by late 2018. Under the report, 80 out of 644 district-level units in 36 provinces and cities were recognized as new rural districts (accounting for 11.6% of total national districts).

Especially, eight criteria in the national set of criteria on new rural development have been met and surpassed including socio-economic infrastructure, economics, production, culture, society, and environment. 

The National target programs have been deployed nationwide, serving to raise living standards for rural people. 

However, the progress of the new-style rural building program was slowly implemented in some localities and unequally realized among different regions including Red River Region (82.74%); the South East Region (70%); the Northern mountainous region (26.45%); the Central Highlands Region (37.73%); the Mekong Delta Region (42.77%); and the South Central Coastal Region (45.82%).

However, the disbursement rate of the Central budget was slow. As of late June, 2019, the disbursement rate hit over 35% of which disbursement rate of new development capital accounted for about 24% of the target./.