A well-built primary school of a rural commune in the northern province of Hung Yen. Developing basic infrastructure is among top priorities of building new rural areas. (Photo: VNS)The national programme on building new rural areas must be enhanced this year in order to meet the target as scheduled, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh has said.

The goal calls for 20 per cent of communes throughout the country to meet the standards of "new rural areas" by 2015.

The long-term programme targeted sustainable development of the economy, culture and society of rural areas and must be implemented in stages with patience and careful consideration, he said.

Ninh also pointed out that problems related to planning and capital mobilisation had hindered the implementation process and needed to be tackled in order to increase efficiency.

"Focus must be placed on providing training to enhance the capacity of local authorities as well as on raising residents' awareness of the importance of building new rural areas," he said.

According to a report by the programme's Central Steering Committee, 11 communes would meet the standards of new rural areas this year with 100 per cent of their officials scheduled to receive training. Training would also be provided to half of the officials of other communes.

Meanwhile, development of plans for each commune would be sped up, 90 per cent of which would be completed and approved this year.

Priority should be given to developing the infrastructure in selected communes while boosting their agricultural production through the application of high farming techniques and advanced technology and new models of co-operative production, the committee said.

By the end of 2011, more than 54 per cent of the communes had approved their overall plans and about 8 per cent had finished their detailed planning. A total VND3.31 trillion (US$157.6 million) was spent on developing the infrastructure for new rural areas.

Some provinces, including Phu Tho, Thai Binh, Ha Tinh, An Giang, completed their overall new rural area plans.

The programme was launched in 2010.

Source: VNN