Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc speaks at the national conference held on Saturday to review 10 years implementing the rural development project. —VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — A national teleconference took place on Saturday to review outcomes of the 10-year implementation of the Party Central Committee Secretariat’s Conclusion 61 and the Prime Minister’s Decision 673 on rural development.

Conclusion 61, issued on December 3, 2009, focuses on a project on improving the role and responsibility of the Viet Nam Farmers’ Union (VFU) in the development of agriculture, new-style rural area building and the building of Vietnamese farmer class. Decision 673 was issued on May 10, 2011, covering the VFU’s implementation of and collaboration to run a number of rural socio-economic and cultural development programmes and projects for 2011 – 2020.

Delivering a report at the event, VFU Chairman Thào Xuân Sùng said the two documents had been important resources for the VFU to organise activities for agricultural growth, rural economic restructuring, human resources improvement, new-style rural area building, poverty reduction, and better living standards.  

The nation now has 27,000 farmers’ households whose annual incomes exceed VNĐ1 billion (US$43,207), with the rural poverty rate under 3 per cent this year.

Under Decision 673, the VFU has conducted a project on overhauling the fund for supporting farmers, which received more than VNĐ2.64 trillion from the Government and municipal and provincial authorities. The fund has so far assisted 568,737 households in building production and business models.

Vocational training and consultation for farmers, as well as communication campaigns to encourage farmers to engage in new-style rural area building, were also key activities over the last decade, Sùng added.

To date, Việt Nam has 5,177 communes, or 58.2 per cent of its total, granted new-style rural area status.

Concluding the function, Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc said despite natural disasters and diseases, under the Party’s leadership and the Government’s management, the VFU had worked with ministries, sectors and local authorities to build rural infrastructure, boost economic development, protect the environment and ensure security and farmers’ living standards.

He said Việt Nam’s agricultural exports topped $41 billion this year, becoming one of the top nations in ASEAN in terms of farm produce.

"Việt Nam is moving toward safe agriculture and Vietnamese farmers boast improved knowledge and skills.

"There is a need to have a new generation of farmers who can access advanced science and technology and digital economics," he said.

He urged the VFU to continue promoting the key role in agricultural development and new-style rural area building in contribution to building a modern and sustainable rural area and agricultural sector as well as to helping farmers engage in and benefit more from the nation’s industrialisation and modernisation. —VNS