Nguyễn Minh Tiến. — Photo hanoimoi.vn

Nguyễn Minh Tiến, Chief of Secretariat of the National Co-ordination Office of the National Target Programme on New Rural Development talks to Hà Nội Mới (New Hà Nội) newspaper on the campaign to build new rural areas.

What achievements have been gained in the campaign to build new rural areas?

We have some 3,369 communes recognised as new rural areas, 37.6 per cent of total communes nationwide. It is expected that by late 2018, the percentage will exceed 40 per cent.

Việt Nam has set a target that by 2020, the number of communes awarded the title will be 50 per cent. In some provinces the rate of communes winning the title of new rural areas is high, for example, Đồng Nai Province (97 per cent), HCM City (98 per cent), Nam Định Province (92 per cent) and Hà Nội (76 per cent) and others.

Together with the campaign to build new rural areas, Việt Nam also has 52 districts which have been recognised as new district rural areas.

Some localities have had a high percentage of communes become new rural areas, including Hà Nội. What lessons can be drawn from this?

This achievement should be attributed to our reflexive policies and mechanisms in the course of building new rural areas. In this movement, the Central Steering Committee has defined three main tasks such as: supporting production development and raising the households’ income, improving environmental quality and building a new lifestyle and maintaining good law and order. Authorities in some localities have also come up with their own initiatives. For example, the northern Province of Quảng Ninh has launched a campaign ‘each commune should have at least one special product’ while Hả Tĩnh Province has called on each residential area to build itself into a model unit.

After gaining the title ‘new rural area’, many localities have tried to turn themselves into ‘new rural models’. What’s the objective of building new rural models?

The campaign to build new rural area has its starting point but not ending point. That’s why when many communes have achieved their title of ‘new rural area’, we should see it as a milestone in the course of building a better life for all Vietnamese citizens.

By now we just have about 37.6 per cent of communes gaining the title ‘new rural area’. Of course, these communes will continue to improve the livelihoods of their citizens. By now 10 provinces have already come up with their new criteria for building new commune model. For example, in the central province of Hà Tĩnh, some 228 new residential areas models have been established and some 2,300 gardens have won the title ‘role model’.

What are the main differences between the new ‘rural model’ with the previous campaign?

A key objective of the campaign to build a new ‘rural model’ is to go in depth of the quality to make new rural areas more sustainable and more efficient. The previous campaign of building new rural areas was divided into five groups with 19 criteria and 49 targets for a commune, not yet for a group of households or each household.

However, the Prime Minister’s Decision No 69 on building a new rural commune in 2018-2020 has come up with three groups of criteria, such as production, income and poor household; education, healthcare, culture; and environment, law and order and public administrative.

Compared with the previous campaign of building new rural area with the new criteria according to the PM’s Decision 691, the latter is more comprehensive.

What are the new requirements in the campaign to build a new rural commune from 2018-2020?

In the three years between 2018- 2020, we will focus on improving the people’s quality of life, both materially and spiritually. Average income of people living in the new rural commune will be better than in the past and so will their spiritual life, social aw and order and others.

However, Article 2 of the PM’s Decision 691 recommends that each locality should develop its own roadmap which is suitable to its conditions.

For Hà Nội, which model would you suggest the city authorities follow?

In my opinion, Hà Nội should advise communal authorities and people to utilise their own advantages like production, services, tourism, environment and others on the basis of their district/city’s master plan of development. For example, communes in outlying districts of Đan Phượng or Hoài Đức should focus on the development of the local industry, handicraft and services which are their strengths.

Hà Nội should establish new rural areas with clean environment and beautiful sceneries – these are two important criteria which connect urban with rural areas.

What’s more important is that Hà Nội should live up to its role as the capital of Việt Nam. — VNS