The National Target Program for New Rural Development and the National Target Program for Sustainable Poverty Reduction in the 2021-25 period have achieved several notable results, said Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh on April 22 while chairing the online national conference on the issue.
He assessed that basic socio-economic infrastructure has been improved. Rural people’s living standards also improved.
Poverty reduction and social security continue to be ensured, enabling people to better access basic social services. Many social policies have come into life, playing their role of practical support for the disadvantaged.
Permanent Deputy PM Minh asked representatives at the conference to discuss and propose resolutions to continue conducting the programs so that avoid duplicating tasks, effectively using resources but not omitting in-need groups.
Speaking about the new rural program in the 2021-25 period, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan said that by 2025, the whole country was targeted to have 80 percent of communes meeting new rural standards (currently 69.4 percent); 50 percent of district-level units meet new rural standards (currently 34.1 percent); 60 percent of villages and hamlets in extremely difficult communes are recognized as meeting new rural standards. As many as 17-19 provinces and cities in the whole country complete the task of building new rural areas, up from five.
The planned budget allocated for the program is at least VND 196.3 trillion (USD 8.5 billion).
Regarding the sustainable poverty reduction program, the Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung emphasized that the overall goal was to achieve sustainable poverty reduction, limit re-poverty and support poor households to access basic social services and improve their life quality.
The program sets annual targets that the rate of poor households will decrease by 1-1.5 percent, ethnic minority poor households by three percent, and households in poor districts by four to five percent. In the whole period, 30 percent of poor districts and 30 percent of communes with special difficulties will get out of poverty.
The planned total budget for the program is at least VND 75 trillion (USD 3.3 billion), of which the state budget plays a leading role, creating motivation for other resources to join the program, said Dung.
Representatives from Cao Bang, Yen Bai, Ha Tinh, Quang Tri, Quang Nam, Gia Lai and An Giang confirmed that the programs had an important meaning in the provinces’ socio-economic development.
It improved people's living standards, fundamentally changing the face of rural areas, especially in disadvantaged areas.
They believed that to reach the programs’ targets, they needed not only determination and effort but also creative ways of doing things.
They proposed the State soon have guidelines and specific criteria in the national target programs that are suitable to the specific conditions of different regions.
Appreciating enthusiastic and responsible contributions from localities, Permanent Deputy PM Minh emphasized the importance of timely guidelines for the national target programs.
He required that next month, the assigned ministries must urgently issue circulars and component projects.
"Component projects and sub-programs must be formulated and appraised in strict accordance with regulations on public investment and relevant laws," he said.- (VLLF)
