The national target programme on new-style rural area building, launched in 2010, sets 20 criteria aiming to boost the development of rural areas across Việt Nam. — Photo nongnghiep.vn

HÀ NỘI — A total 4,144 communes were recognised as new-style rural areas by the end of February, up 306 from the end of 2018, according to the central steering office of the new-style rural area building programme.

The national target programme on new-style rural area building, launched in 2010, sets 20 criteria aiming to boost the development of rural areas across Việt Nam.

Communes nationwide have met 14.61 of the total 19 criteria on average.

So far, three localities have had 100 per cent of their communes meeting all criteria, namely Nam Định Province (193 communes), Đồng Nai Province (133 communes) and Đà Nẵng City (11 communes).

Meanwhile, 61 district-level localities in 31 provinces and centrally-run cities have been recognised as having completed the programme.

Nguyễn Minh Tiến, chief of the central steering office, said with the current rate of progress, the country is likely to achieve the programme’s target for 2020, which is at least 50 per cent of all communes obtaining new-style rural area status by the end of this year’s second quarter.

However, there is a gap in the programme implementation among different regions, he noted, elaborating that the rate of new-style rural communes reaches 81.37 per cent in the Red River Delta and 69.33 per cent in the southeastern region. Meanwhile, it is only 22.72 per cent in the northern mountainous region, 33.72 per cent in the Central Highlands, 36.91 per cent in the Mekong Delta and 42.79 per cent in the south central coastal region.

While some localities like HCM City and Bình Dương, Hà Nam, and Thái Bình provinces have almost completed building new-style rural areas and are beginning the advanced stage of the programme, others have very low rates of recognised communes such as Sơn La, Điện Biên, Bắc Kạn, Cao Bằng and Kon Tum provinces. — VNS