First new-style rural districts honoured

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung speaking at the ceremony. (Credit: VGP)

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on January 24 presented ‘new-style rural district’ certificates to Dong Nai province’s Xuan Loc districts and Long Khanh town – the country’s first localities to receive the honour after four years of implementing the national target programme on building new-style rural areas. 

The two localities surpassed the new-style rural requirement of having 75% of their communes meeting 19 new-style rural criteria, with 100% in Long Khanh and 85.7% in Xuan Loc (12 of 14 communes qualified).

Xuan Loc has established specialised cultivation zones for mango, corn and fruit specialties and applied hi-tech farming and breeding models, increasing production values to VND115.5 million per hectare of cultivation. The locality’s annual income per capita has reached VND37.6 million, three times higher than the 2008 figure, while the rate of poor household was reduced to 1% from 7%.

Long Khanh has recorded an average production value of VND170 million per hectare of farming – the highest level across Dong Nai province – and a yearly income of VND38.6 million per farmer, 2.13 times the 2009 level. The poverty rate is currently just under 1%.

In addition to possessing the country’s first two new-style rural districts, Dong Nai has made many significant achievements in its new-style rural area building campaign. As many as 52 of the province’s 138 communes have met the new-style rural standards, accounting for 32.8% of the country’s average figure. Dong Nai is striving to get 100% of communes satisfying the requirements by 2020.

Addressing the event, PM Dung praised Dong Nai’s outstanding achievements in socio-economic development on the whole, and in building new-style rural areas in particular, which he said have contributed to the country’s accomplishments over the past few years.

He urged local authorities to fully grasp the important meaning of new-style rural area building and consider it their constant political task, and build appropriate implementation programmes for each specific locality.

Dong Nai and other provinces nationwide should creatively apply preferential policies for building new-style rural areas; proactively mobilise resources from local people, enterprises and society for the campaign; and integrate investment programmes in both infrastructure and production development, the PM said.

He said he hoped that with these ‘new-style rural district’ certificates, Dong Nai will continue taking a lead in implementing this campaign.

NDO