The national programme on building new rural areas must be enhanced this
year in order to meet the target as scheduled, Deputy Prime Minister Vu
Van Ninh has said.
The goal calls for 20 percent of communes throughout the country to meet the standards of "new rural areas" by 2015.
The long-term programme targets sustainable development of the economy,
culture and society of rural areas and must be implemented in stages
with patience and careful consideration, he said.
Ninh
also pointed out that problems related to planning and capital
mobilisation has hindered the implementation process and need to be
tackled in order to increase efficiency.
"Focus must be
placed on providing training to enhance the capacity of local
authorities as well as on raising residents' awareness of the importance
of building new rural areas," he said.
According to a
report by the programme's Central Steering Committee, 11 communes are to
meet the standards of new rural areas this year with 100 per cent of
their officials scheduled to receive training. Training will also be
provided to half of the officials of other communes.
Meanwhile, development of plans for each commune would be sped up, 90
percent of which would be completed and approved this year.
Priority should be given to developing the infrastructure in selected
communes while boosting their agricultural production through the
application of high farming techniques and advanced technology and new
models of co-operative production, the committee said.
By
the end of 2011, more than 54 percent of the communes had approved their
overall plans and about 8 percent had finished their detailed planning.
A total 3.31 trillion VND (157.6 million USD) was spent on developing
the infrastructure for new rural areas.
Some provinces, including Phu Tho, Thai Binh, Ha Tinh, An Giang, completed their overall new rural area plans.
The programme was launched in 2010. /.
