Hanoi (VNA) – As many as 2,884 communes or 32.3 percent of communesnationwide were recognised as new-style rural areas by the end of November2017, surpassing the target of at least 31 percent.
Of the total, 326 communes have met the new national criteria on new ruralcommunes during 2016-2020, according to the Coordination Office of the NationalTarget Programme on New-Style Rural Area Building.
As of December 15, 43 district-level units in 24 centrally-run cities andprovinces have been certified as new rural areas, up 13 districts compared withthe end of 2016 and exceeding the target of 38.
The General Statistics Office revealed that as of the end of 2016, 99.4 percent of communes nationwide haveauto-accessible roads to commune centres. All communes and 97.8 percent ofvillages are connected with the national power grid. Meanwhile, 99.7 percent ofcommunes have pre and elementary schools and 99.5 percent of communes havemedical centres.
Some 3,854 production models have been connected with each other by valuechains. There are 11,183 agricultural cooperatives, with each earning anaverage of 1.1 billion VND (48,400 USD) annually.
Notably, localities have set forth roadmaps to deal with debts ininfrastructure construction.
However, the outcomes of the new-style rural area building remain unequalbetween regions across the country, with 1,101 certified communes in the RedRiver Delta and only 119 in the Central Highlands.
The national target programme on building new-style rural areas, initiated bythe Vietnamese Government in 2010, sets 19 criteria on socio-economicdevelopment, politics, and defence, aiming to develop rural regions.
The list ofcriteria includes the development of infrastructure, the improvement ofproduction capacity, environmental protection and the promotion of culturalvalues.
In 2015, the set of criteria was increased to20.-VNA