On December 26, Thai Binhauthorities recognised 71 communes meeting all 19 new-style rural areacriteria in 2014 and rewarded them with 71.5 billion VND (3.4 millionUSD).
In 2014, total investment mobilized from allsources for the drive amounted to more than 6.3 trillion VND (301.09million USD), of which 3.5 trillion VND came from local communities’contribution.
The national target programme onbuilding new-style rural areas, initiated by the Vietnamese Governmentin 2010, includes 19 criteria on socio-economic development, politics,and defence, aiming to boost rural regions of Vietnam.
Thelist of criteria includes the development of infrastructure, theimprovement of production capacities, environmental protection, and thepromotion of cultural values.
As many as 185 communes acrossVietnam achieved all 19 criteria, and nearly 600 others met between15-18 criteria. On average, each commune fulfilled 8.47 criteriacompared to 4.7 in 2011, according to a report issued at a May 16conference of the steering committee for the national target programme.
The country aims to have 20 percent and 50percent of all communes nationwide meet all the requirements by the endof 2015 and 2020, respectively.-VNA