Rural areas continue to be driving forces for socio-economic development

Speaking at the conference, Mr. Tran Thanh Nam, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, member of the Central Steering Committee for national target programs for the period 2021-2025, emphasized that there is not much time left in the 2021-2025 period, while the volume of targets and tasks that need to be strived to complete is very large. Therefore, right in 2024 – the acceleration year of the period, we need to have more drastic and effective solutions for direction and implementation.

“We affirm that the National Target Program on New Rural Construction continues to be the goal and motivation for socio-economic development in rural areas, improving the quality of life, and material and spiritual well-being of rural people, step by step building “Ecological agriculture, modern countryside, and civilized farmers”,” Deputy Minister Tran Thanh Nam emphasized.

According to Deputy Minister Tran Thanh Nam, aiming to increasingly improve the quality of material and spiritual life of rural people, the National Assembly and the Government have approved the National Target Program on New Rural Construction for the period 2021-2025.

After 3 years of implementation, with the close direction and attention of the National Assembly, the Government, the Prime Minister, and the Head of the Central Steering Committee for the national target programs for the period 2021-2025, the close coordination of all levels and sectors, together with the efforts and determination of the entire political system at all levels from the central government to localities, especially with the agreement, support, and active participation of all classes of people, the National Target Program on New Rural Construction has continued to achieve important results, creating strong changes; the rural landscape is increasingly modern, socio-economic infrastructure continues to be invested in cải creating and upgrading in a modern and synchronous way; agricultural economic thinking has initially spread, impacting the economic development process in rural areas; the rural environment and landscape are increasingly being improved in a bright, green, clean, beautiful, safe, and culturally rich direction, adapting to climate change and sustainable development.

By April 2024, the system of mechanisms, policies, and guiding documents for implementing the National Target Program on New Rural Construction have been issued and adjusted adequately, ensuring consistency, synchronization, and better suitability with the reality and specific conditions of different regions, fundamentally removing difficulties and obstacles and creating more favorable conditions for localities to carry out the program.

So far, there are about 78% of communes nationwide meeting the new rural standards; of which, 1,860 communes meet the advanced new rural standards and 340 communes meet the new rural model standards; 283 districts in 58 provinces and cities have been recognized as completing tasks/achieving new rural standards; of which, 03 districts (including Tien Yen, Dam Ha of Quang Ninh province; Xuan Loc of Dong Nai province) have been recognized by the Prime Minister as meeting advanced new rural standards; 15 provinces and cities have 100% of communes meeting new rural standards and 100% of district-level units recognized as reaching/completing tasks on new rural areas; 5 provinces (including Nam Dinh, Dong Nai, Hai Duong, Hung Yen, Ha Nam) have been recognized by the Prime Minister as completing the new rural construction task.

Mr. Ngo Truong Son, Head of the Central Office for New Rural Coordination, said that the new element for the period 2021 – 2025 is that, along with issuing the National Target Program on New Rural Construction, the Prime Minister has issued 6 specialized programs. To date, these specialized programs have supported the construction of new rural areas to achieve initial results, especially the One Commune One Product Program (OCOP) has had strong development, contributing to promoting the potential, advantages, and indigenous values of the regions and localities; arousing creative and innovative thinking, conveying traditional cultural values, and the essence of the nation in each product, contributing to promoting rural economic development in the direction of “integrating multiple values.”

Currently, the country has had 12,075 OCOP products recognized as reaching 3 stars or more; of which, 42 products have been recognized as 5 stars at the national level. The quality and reliability of OCOP products are gradually affirming their position in the market and being prioritized by consumers. However, besides the achieved results, during the implementation process, especially at the grassroots level, there are also some difficulties and limitations that need to be addressed; some new problems have arisen.

At the conference, the delegates also focused on analyzing the advantages, disadvantages, shortcomings, limitations, difficulties, and obstacles that need to be timely overcome and resolved; they proposed solutions to accelerate the progress of completing the targets and tasks of the program, especially in provinces that currently have no district-level units recognized as reaching new rural standards; districts that are still “blank communes with new rural standards,” over 1,500 communes so far have less than 15 criteria; the plans for implementing new rural construction for localities that have to reorganize administrative units, the mechanism for encouraging communes in Region II, Region III of ethnic minority and mountainous areas to strive to meet new rural standards in the context of very limited support resources from the central budget, and so on.

The delegates also talked about the progress of the specialized programs, especially the central point models, which are very slow at present. It is necessary to clearly define the causes and solutions for handling and overcoming them. To date, there have been some districts recognized as reaching advanced new rural standards. So, in the coming time, what are the contents, criteria, and methods for building new rural model districts to suit the actual conditions and characteristics of each region and area?

According to Mr. Ngo Truong Son, OCOP products in the past time have experienced rapid growth in quantity. Accordingly, some issues have been raised that need attention in order to improve the quality of all aspects to ensure sustainable development, truly promote the potential and advantages of localities and regions, combined with preserving and promoting the beautiful traditional cultural values of the nation, contributing to boosting rural economic development. Has rural tourism been prioritized, focused on, and developed in proportion to the potential and room for development of localities or not? Environment, food safety, and clean water are still unresolved issues, directly affecting the living and production activities of rural people; however, so far, the level of investment and support from localities is still very limited. So, what is the reason for this?

The tasks and solutions to continue maintaining and improving the quality of new rural construction are increasingly substantial, effective, and sustainable. At the conference, the localities contributed many ideas and proposed solutions to implement the Program that is increasingly qualitative, effective, and sustainable.