LookAtVietnam – Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Ho Xuan Hung said on September 16 that a new rural development model will be implemented

A new rural model aims to lift the incomes of rural residents and modernise their lives. Picture shows a new-style bridge over the PoKo river in Kon Tum province.

A Government resolution says the target programme development of new rural areas is meant to create and organise the livelihoods for rural residents in a move toward civilisation and modernisation.

It states that traditional customs and the ecological environment within developing urban areas should be preserved. To achieve this, the socio-economic infrastructure system will be synchronised and developed with village or commune construction planning and the socio-economic plans of individual sectors.

State funding will leverage efforts made by the rural communities and help enhance knowledge, human resources training and proper organisation for local cultural living.

The system will form production organisations in accordance with demands of modeen agriculture and commodities production implemented according to “one village - one product”.

New model would be implemented in 10,000 communes, the 970 poorest to be given priority.

Another main goal of the draft programme is for more than 50 per cent of all communes to aim for meeting the new rural development standards, specifically educated labour forces, hygienic living and farming that uses advanced production methods.

Annually, VND120-150 billion (US$6.7-8.3 million) will be mobilised for each commune to implement the new model.

“Poor communes in difficult areas will receive priority and 100 per cent of their funding from the State budget. Other communes will receive 30-90 per cent of their funding from the State, forcing them to mobilise the rest from other resources,” said Hung.

To successfully build the model in all of the nation’s communes, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has drafted a number of projects, including: developing commune-level infrastructure; shifting, economic structures; eliminating hunger and reducing poverty; reforming agricultural production models; improving education, healthcare and cultural life; and supplying clean water and a hygienic environment.

Pham Hung Cuong of the World Bank’s Sustainable Development Department said,” if the program is successfully implemented nationwide, it will have great effects on the country’s development.”

However, it is necessary for the ministry to co-operate with other relevant sectors to reach a comprehensive result. It must also consider the culture and characteristics of each commune and reform financial mechanisms to ensure the programme runs smoothly.

Deputy Minister Hung said the ministry would help mobilise human resources in rural areas by providing State-sponsored technical and financial support, but he also said local people would be responsible for building the new model in their areas.

Tang Minh Loc, deputy head of MARD’s Department for Co-operative and Rural Development, said that currently the average annual household income in rural areas was VND16 million ($888) and that 16.2 per cent were considered poor households.

Nearly 50 per cent of all villages do not have a nursery school and only 12 per cent of their labour forces have been educated.

The ministry also showed that the living environments have yet to show improvement, with only 38 per cent of households raising farm animals in hygienic conditions and only 12 per cent of communes operating drainage systems.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News