Binh Duong heading towards smart new rural area construction

Binh Duong has just organized a preliminary review of 3 years of implementation of the National Target Program on building new rural areas for 2021-2025 to evaluate the achieved results, shortcomings and limitations to thereon identify the plannings and targets that need to be adjusted, and solutions to implement new rural construction in the province in the coming time to achieve real and sustainable effectiveness.

Delegates visit the booth displaying the province's OCOP at the conference summarizing 3 years of new rural construction

70% of communes meet advanced new rural standards

Determining new rural construction as a task with a starting point and no ending point with the ultimate goal of improving the material and spiritual life of rural people and shortening the gap between rural and urban areas, all levels, sectors and localities have made efforts in reality to synchronously deploy the program with socio-economic development planning harmoniously linked with the urban development roadmap of the province, districts, towns and cities.

In particular, investment in developing important infrastructure projects has been made to transportation, electricity, water, healthcare, education, culture to have facilitated connection and narrowed the gap between urban areas and rural areas of the province. Many good, creative and effective ways have proven their practical value by contributing to creating motivation in the work of building new rural areas.

To date, Binh Duong has 41 communes meeting new rural standards, 29 out of 41 communes meeting advanced new rural standards, 3 out of 6 district-level units meeting new rural standards/completing the task of building new rural areas. The whole province has 103 OCOP achieving 3-4 stars; among them, there are 10 4-star products and 93 3-star products with 49 subjects. The average income per capita in rural areas by the end of 2022 was more than VND 76 million a year.

Total capital for implementing the new rural program in the past 3 years was VND 6,400 billion. In particular, Binh Duong has no outstanding capital construction debt in new rural construction to be affirmed that new rural areas of Binh Duong province have changed the appearance of rural areas to meet the requirements of socio-economic development and increase people's income.

To build smart new rural areas

Promoting the achieved results, Binh Duong sets a goal that by 2025, 100% of communes will meet advanced new rural standards, of which 10 communes meet model new rural standards (accounting for 24% of communes meeting advanced new rural standards); and, 100% of districts meet new rural standards. Binh Duong province will then have completed the task of building new rural areas.

In particular, Binh Duong has been implementing a plan to build smart new rural areas by 2025 with focus on changing the face of rural areas on all three criteria of government, economy, and society through information technology solutions. In particular, the province concentrates on perfecting the database system on agriculture, rural areas, and farmers. The system plays the role of managing growing area codes and tracing the origin of products to increase the competitiveness of agricultural products, especially OCOP. Localities have built many online and virtual reality platforms to promote trade and encourage farmers to bring agricultural products to e-commerce platforms, electronic, online payment application. The province also coordinates with many technology businesses to apply electronic contracts and electronic invoices.

In fact, these solutions have been applied by Binh Duong in the past few years. To date, more than 2,000 organizations and individuals have registered to participate in the e-commerce platform; 17,000 organizations and individuals in the agricultural sector registered accounts to buy and sell on the exchanges. By 2025, the province aims to have 70% of communes apply information technology in agricultural production, farm management, growing areas, and market access. Binh Duong's plan to build smart new rural areas also mentions developing a smart village model to turn rural areas into a place worth living. The goal is to improve the quality of life of rural residents with average income increasing at least 1.8 times compared to 2020.

Pham Van Bong, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that although the province's new rural construction program has thrived, the implementation of this program is still lacking and in dilemma of difficulties and challenges.

“To create conditions to help complete the program's goals, Binh Duong recommends that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development should soon advise the Prime Minister to consider, amend and supplement instructions for implementing targets and criteria on rural communes and districts in the 2021-2025, at the same time, review and research to promulgate unified regulations nationwide on the system of the National Target Program Coordination Office to build new rural areas at the provincial and district levels to ensure specialized and professional activities and advise on effective implementation of the program in provinces and cities," Pham Van Bong said.

Reported by Thoai Phuong – Translated by Vi Bao