Growing organic vegetables Thạch Thất District. — Photo quocphongthudo.vn

HÀ NỘI — The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has hindered the progress of agriculture and new rural development goals of Hà Nội for the last two years. The municipal authority has instructed that all efforts be made to achieve these goals by the end of the year.

According to the Hà Nội Agriculture and Rural Development, there are 12 out of 18 suburban districts and township reaching new rural criteria. They are Đan Phượng, Đông Anh, Thanh Trì, Hoài Đức, Quốc Oai, Gia Lâm, Thạch Thất, Thường Tín, Thanh Oai, Phúc Thọ, Sóc Sơn and Sơn Tây. 

The six remaining districts are expected to reach this target by the end of 2021 or in 2022.

Since meeting the new rural standard, people’s lives have markedly improved. Per capita income has increased VNĐ55 million (US$2,400) per year on average. In the districts of Thạch Thất, Hoài Đức, Đan Phựợng and Chương Mỹ income has risen between VNĐ60-70-million (US$2,600-3,000).

Thanks to the implementation of the new rural development programme, infrastructure in rural areas has also improved. Access to health care and disease prevention has been a priority. 

At present, all commune clinics have doctors. The proportion of people participating in health insurance have reached 90.1 per cent.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, local governments have been implementing measures of disease prevention and control, as well as giving support to those who have lost their jobs and income.

However, there were many challenges to the programme, according to Chu Phú Mỹ, Director of the Hà Nội Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and co-ordinator of the new rural development programme.

“In recent years, the pandemic and the implementation of social distancing to prevent the disease from spreading out has badly affected all aspects of socio-economic life,” Mỹ said.

“The implementation of construction works, completion of targets and criteria in the new rural development process faced many difficulties. It was because the local governments had to mainly focus on the pandemic prevention and control activities,” Mỹ said.

“After social distancing lifted, many localities in Hà Nội accelerated the implementation of the programme to reach the set goals,” he said.

“However, along with the objective causes of the pandemic, resources for new rural development were also a difficult problem for many localities,” he added.

Many localities, especially poor districts, have asked the Hà Nội authorities for funding to implement the programme.

Nguyễn Đình Hoa, Chairman of Chương Mỹ District’s People’s Committee, said that he wanted the city to support communes in developing countryside areas, to motivate localities to meet the new rural development goals.

Nguyễn Mạnh Quyền, Vice Chairman of the Hà Nội People’s Committee, said that although the city has allocated capital to localities according to the medium-term plan, it is not yet enough.

The city has assigned the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to co-ordinate with relevant departments, branches and localities to review criteria. This will help the city offer specific assistance packages for pushing up the programme implementation, Quyền said.

However, the localities also need to make efforts to overcome these difficulties to achieve the goals, he said.

Nguyễn Thị Tuyến, Vice Secretary of Hà Nội’s Party Committee, asked four districts of Chương Mỹ, Phú Xuyên, Ứng Hòa and Mê Linh to fulfil the programme by the end this year.

The other districts must fulfil incomplete criteria, especially clean water and environment criteria, Tuyến said.

The departments of Investment and Planning, and Finance need to consider funding assistance packages to ensure all districts fulfil new rural development target by next year, she added. — VNS