Bac Giang (VNA)👍 – The northern province of Bac Giang is set to speed up and improve the quality of the new-style rural area building programme in 2022, according to Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Le O Pich.

He said Bac Giang is working to have nine more communes recognised as new-style rural areas this year so as to raise the count to 147 out of the 184 communes province-wide, equivalent to 79.9 percent. It also looks to increase the number of communes meeting advanced criteria by 19 to 43 in total, and have one recognised as a model new-style rural commune. In 2022, the province is striving to have at least 25 - 30 products rated three stars and higher under the “One Commune, One Product” (OCOP) programme, raise the annual per capita income in rural areas to 45 million VND (nearly 2,000 USD), and increase the percentage of rural residents with hygienic water to 78.5 percent. To that end, Bac Giang will focus efforts on improving rural infrastructure, issue breakthrough policies and prioritise resources for completing infrastructure in the communes with special disadvantages, and develop village-level facilities to directly better local living and production conditions. Appropriate resources will also be arranged to help villages, communes, and suburban districts meet new-style countryside standards, Pich noted. In addition, due attention will be paid to livelihood development, income improvement, and sustainable poverty elimination, which are the core targets of the new-style rural area building programme, by promoting crop and livestock restructuring as well as land accumulation to form concentrated farming zones. Policies and plans supporting agricultural production will also be carried out effectively. The official went on to say that Bac Giang will step up developing its key, typical, and potential products under the OCOP programme, improving the operational efficiency of agricultural cooperatives, boosting digital transformation in agriculture, and assisting farmers in selling their produce on e-commerce platforms, thereby helping raise local income and create momentum for sustainable new-style countryside building. This year, the province will also work to enhance the quality of vocational training for workers in rural areas while encouraging enterprises to take part in training provision. Besides, investment will be poured into environmental protection facilities and the construction of waste treatment plant accelerated, according to Pich. Bac Giang has reaped fruitful outcomes in building new-style rural areas last year as it achieved and surpassed most of the targets, ranking among the best performers in this regard in the northern mountainous region. More than 438 billion VND (nearly 19.3 million USD) from different sources was mobilised for the work. Three more district-level localities in the province completed new-style countryside building in 2021, raising the number of those districts to six. Meanwhile, 138 of the 184 communes had been recognised as new-style rural areas by the year’s end, equivalent to 75 percent - higher than the national average of 63.4 percent. Twenty-three communes had met advanced criteria. The annual per capita income in rural areas has reached some 44 million VND while the household poverty rate dropped to 2.35 percent in 2021 from 3.5 percent in the previous year as calculated basing on the poverty line for 2016 - 2020, statistics show. The national target programme on building new-style rural areas was initiated by the Vietnamese Government in 2010 with a view to promote the development of rural areas across the country. Infrastructure development, production capacity improvement, environmental protection, and promotion of cultural values are among the programme’s criteria. Advanced and model new-style countryside status have higher requirements According to the Government’s report, 64.6 percent of the communes and 29 percent of the district-level localities in 51 provinces and cities met new-style rural area standards as of July 2021. Twelve provinces and cities had all of their communes achieving the status, with four provinces completing the task./.