Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong speaks at the conference. (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – Middle-income trap, climate change and internationaleconomic integration are posing great challenges to agriculture, farmers andrural areas in Vietnam, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development NguyenXuan Cuong said at a conference held in Hanoi on October 5.
According to Cuong, each commune in the country has met an average 15.32criteria of new-style area and more than half of the communes nationwide (4,554communes) have been recognised as new-style rural areas as of October.
However, many problemsremain, he said, citing examples such as wide development gap between thelocalities, low rural income despite increases of 3.4-3.5 times from ten yearsago, and environmental pollution.
It is a must to identify challenges in building new-style rural area in thepast decade so as to shape up a more suitable plan in the coming time, hestressed.
At the event, Dang Kim Son from the Agricultural Market and InstitutionalResearch Centre pointed out that the country lacks a comprehensive strategy toconnect rural and urban areas, making it difficult to narrow down gap betweenrural and urban areas.
He suggested the establishment of an inclusive development model whichencourages the development of rural economy.
Meanwhile, another expert at the conference said at in the past ten years,agriculture still accounted for 50 percent of the rural jobs, while the rurallabour market is aging rapidly as rural residents tend to migrate to urbanareas for jobs. Therefore, it is important to have vocational training policiesfor rural workers, and setting up good coordination between vocational schoolsand employers is a good choice./.
VNA
