As many as 5,458 communes across the country have been recogised as new-style rural areas so far this year, up 620 compared to the end of 2018, according to the Central Coordination Office on New Rural Development.

These communes met over 15 out of the 19 criteria of the new-style rural building programme initiated by the Government in 2010, including those on infrastructure, economy, culture, society, environment and production organisation.

Many localities have put forth important initiatives such as building sample new-style rural areas in the central province of Ha Tinh; building new-style rural areas at hamlets and villages in central Thanh Hoa and Nghe An provinces, and tapping rural tourism in Lai Chau and other northern mountainous provinces.

After implementing a project supporting underprivileged hamlets to develop rural areas, the country has counted 762 hamlets and villages recognised by the People’s Committees of provinces. 

Notably, debts in building new-style rural areas have been completely repaid.

However, there is still a big gap in the implementation of the programme in localities and regions. For example, the Red River Delta achieves 82.47 percent, the southeastern region 70 percent, the northern mountainous region 26.45 percent, the Central Highlands 37.73 percent, the Mekong Delta 42.77 percent, and the south-central region 45.82 percent.

Besides, the disbursement of the central budget for developing new-style rural areas remains low, at over 35 percent as of June 2019.

The Central Coordination Office on New Rural Development said it will direct localities to continue implementing effectively projects on building new-style rural areas in specific regions, including disadvantaged communes.

The office will also soon complete a project on developing a system of supplying Vietnamese farm produce in rural areas.