Thạnh Phú Commune in Cần Thơ City’s Cờ Đỏ District meets all the criteria to be designated a new-style rural area. Cần Thơ is the first locality in the Mekong Delta to fulfil all the criteria set under the national programme for building new – style rural areas. – VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Liêm

CẦN THƠ – The Prime Minister has recognised its districts of Thới Lai and Cờ Đỏ as new-style rural areas, Cần Thơ City announced on Wednesday.

With this, the centrally administered run city becomes the first locality in the Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta and the third in the country to fulfil all the criteria set under the national programme for building new-style rural areas begun by the Government in 2010.

Its 19 criteria cover infrastructure, production, living standards, income, culture, environmental protection, and several other factors.

The city has developed all its four outlying districts of Phong Điền, Vĩnh Thạnh, Cờ Đỏ, and Thới Lai into new-style rural areas one year earlier than scheduled.   

Phong Điền was the first to achieve the recognition in 2015 followed by Vĩnh Thạnh in 2018.

Speaking at the announcement ceremony on Wednesday, Trần Quốc Trung, secretary of the city Party Committee, praised the efforts of Thới Lai and Cờ Đỏ districts in achieving the new – style rural area criteria.

The two districts had low starting points with high poverty rates and low living standards, small scale of production, lack of production linkage and low economic competitiveness.  

Nguyễn Trường Thọ, chairman of the Cờ Đỏ District People’s Committee, said nearly 70 per cent of the population lives off agriculture.

In recent years the district has zoned farming areas, helped farmers adopt advanced techniques and created large-scale fields to grow high-quality rice for exports, he said.

It also helped farmers tie up with companies that buy their crops, he said.

The district has 32,500ha of large-scale rice fields whose produce 12 companies buy completely.

It also has 4,500ha under vegetables, 5,000ha of aquaculture farms and 3,856ha of fruit orchards.

Its agricultural production is now worth VNĐ174 million ($7,500) per hectare per year.

Its average income per capita is VNĐ53.5 million (US$2,300) a year, up VNĐ30 million from 2011.

In Thới Lai, district authorities have mobilised more than VNĐ2.7 trillion ($116 million) from various sources for building new – style rural areas.

They have spent more than VNĐ721 billion ($31 million) on building rural roads and bridges, including 131 concrete bridges.

The district has developed various effective farming models for red-flesh dragon fruit, watermelon model and rice seeds.  

The income from commercially producing rice seeds is VNĐ35 million ($1,500) per hectare per crop, VNĐ10 million more than from growing rice.

The district’s poverty rate has reduced to 2.6 per cent now, a fourth of the rate in 2011.

Cần Thơ overall has a poverty rate of 0.25 per cent. – VNS