Over 5,600 communes qualified as new rural areas

Nguyen Minh Tien, Chief of Staff of the Central Coordination Office for New-style Rural Building said in 2021, the National Target Program on building new rural areas has achieved the results exceeding the target set by the Government and the Prime Minister.

Specifically, there are 5,615 communes qualified as new rural areas nationwide, accounting for 68.2%, up 5,8% from 2020. In which, 503 communes meet the advanced standards of new rural area, 43 communes reaching exemplary standards. On average, each commune fulfills 17 criteria for new rural area, up 0.6 criteria from 2020.

213 district-level units of 54 provinces and cities are recognized to be qualified as new rural areas, an increase of 40 units compared to 2020. 14 provinces have 100% administrative units meeting new rural standards in which Nam Dinh, Dong Nai and Hung Yen have been certified to meet all criteria on new-style rural areas. Thai Binh, Can Tho, Hai Duong are the provinces that have all district-level units recognized to complete the tasks of building new-style rural area and are applying for the certifications of the Prime Minister.

Regarding the implementation of One Commune One Product Program (OCOP), 62 provinces and cities has organized the evaluation and classification for 5,400 OCOP products which are rated three stars or more, up 1,400 products from the plan. In which three-star OCOP products accounts for 62.3%, four-star product accounts for 35.8% and potentially five-star products account for 1.6%. There are more than 2,900 OCOP entities of which 39.8% are cooperatives, 27.4% are enterprises, 31.5% are production facilities and the rest is cooperative teams. In addition, twenty five-star OCOP products have been recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in 2021.

Regarding resource mobilization for the OCOP program, the whole country mobilized VND449,157 billion from different sources by the end of November 2021, equivalent to 97.6% of the amount in 2020.

According to Nguyen Minh Tien, based on the results achieved in 2021, the target set for 2022 will be nearly 73% of communes qualified as new rural areas of which 6% of communes will meet the advanced and exemplary standards of new rural area. Besides, at least 235 district-level units will be recognized to complete new rural standards, an increase of 20 units compared to 2020. Along with that, seven or eight provinces and cities will completely meet all standards of new rural area and 6,500 products will be produced under the criteria of the OCOP program, up 1,100 products compared to 2020.

mẫu; có ít nhất 235 đơn vị cấp huyện được công nhận đạt chuẩn NTM (tăng trên 20 đơn vị cấp huyện so với năm 2021); 7-8 tỉnh, thành phố được công nhận hoàn thành nhiệm vụ xây dựng NTM; khoảng 6.500 sản phẩm được chuẩn hóa theo bộ tiêu chí sản phẩm OCOP (tăng 1.100 sản phẩm so với năm 2020).

Tran Thanh Nam, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development applauded the results the Central Coordination Office for New-style Rural Building has achieved in 2021.

According to Deputy Minister Tran Thanh Nam the workload the Central Coordination Office for New-style Rural Building  had to handle in 2021 was huge with a great number of documents and drafts for the implementation of the National Target Program on building new rural areas in the 2021-2025 period. However with solidarity, enthusiasm and cooperation among staffs of the Office, all works have been done in an effective and professional way.

Deputy Minister Tran Thanh Nam also emphasized the rural area was very specific as it involved many fields such as politics, society, science and technology, environment, tourism, economy, OCOP program and security. Therefore the Office would have a lot of work to do in 2022, and each staff would need to promote solidarity and cooperation to keep the Office running smoothly.

The Deputy Minister of the MARD also noted that the criteria for new-style rural areas must be closely monitored as well as fairly and accurately evaluated. The Central Coordination Office for New-style Rural Building should make a detailed plan for coordinating with the relevant agencies and units, being prepared for the implementation of the National Target Program on building new rural areas in the next period.