A rural road in Đồng Hiệp, an exemplary new-style rural commune in Cần Thơ City’s Cờ Đỏ District, is planted with flowers and kept clean. – VNA/VNS Photo Thu Hiền

CẦN THƠ – Cần Thơ City has got 31 of its 36 communes recognised as advanced new-style rural communes under a national programme.

Under the programme for building new-style rural areas, all 36 must be recognised as new-style rural communes, one level lower in the hierarchy.

To qualify, a commune must meet the programme's 19 criteria related to infrastructure, irrigation, electricity, environment, income, education, healthcare, social security, culture, and others.

To attain advanced status, they need to meet higher levels of the same criteria.

The city also has six exemplary new-style rural communes, a level higher than advanced and requiring to meet even higher standards.

The city has taken various measures including running campaigns and projects and creating models for agricultural production and rural areas to attain these standards.

Its Fatherland Front Committee has for instance implemented a campaign called “All people stay united to build new-style rural areas and civilised urban areas.”

Another national programme, “One Commune-One Product” (OCOP), has enabled the city to improve the quality of many products and improve livelihoods.

The city targets getting the advanced new-style rural status for all its communes and exemplary status for at least 10 by the end of the year.

Nguyễn Văn Sử, director of the city Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said this would help improve the lives of people.

The city will also build modern socio-economic infrastructure to connect rural and urban areas this year, according to Sử.

It aims to increase the rate of rural households getting clean water to 94 per cent by year-end from 91 per cent now.

It targets 2.5-3 per cent growth for the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector and for it to account for 8.8 per cent of the city economy.

To achieve the targets, Nguyễn Ngọc Hè, deputy chairman of the city People’s Committee, has instructed the department to give priority to seeking investment in infrastructure, developing linkages between stakeholders in agriculture and applying technology in agriculture.

The department should restructure agriculture towards developing value chains for certain produce, and connect farming with processing and preservation and consumers, he said.

The city is likely to spend VNĐ2.8 trillion (US$114 million) to implement the new-style rural areas programme in 2024-25, according to its People’s Committee. – VNS