Farmers harvest rice in Kon Tum Central Province. — Photo www.baokontum.com.vn

 HÀ NỘI — The Government has approved a national programme on digital transformation in building new-style rural areas, towards smart rural development, for the 2021 – 2025 period.

The programme will be implemented in all rural areas across Việt Nam by the end of 2025, including extremely disadvantaged communes in ethnic minority and mountainous and coastal regions.

It aims to accelerate digital transformation to enhance the effectiveness of the national target programme on new-style rural building, contributing to boosting the rural economy, improving rural living standards, and bridging the gap in service quality between rural and urban areas.

A goal by 2025 is to have at least 90 per cent of central, 80 per cent of district-level and 60 per cent of communal public documents handled online and at least 97 per cent of communes meeting the new-style rural criteria on information and telecommunications.

It also plans to promote digital economy in an effort to better develop the rural economy. Accordingly, at least 70 per cent of communes will have cooperatives and 70 per cent of districts will have agricultural business models which connect the production and distribution of key farming products, which apply digital technology.

In addition, at least 40 per cent of communes and districts should be able to provide at least one essential public service in healthcare, education, community surveillance, security, environment and culture, and collect feedback on people’s satisfaction regarding rural development on a virtual platform. Each and every centrally-run city and province should have at least one trial smart rural commune model in the field in which it holds advantages of, for example economy, rural tourism, environment, and culture.

The models will serve as reference for the development of a new set of criteria for new-style rural building for the 2026 – 2030 period. — VNS