PM urges faster rural development

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has ordered localities to speed up the national target programme on building new rural areas in an effort to complete basic planning for communes this year.

Although the programme had significantly improved infrastructure, created new farming production models and led to higher incomes, implementation has been slow.

Dung said some State officials and members of the public were not sufficiently aware of the programme\'s importance and the role of the community in building new rural areas.

To enhance the programme\'s efficiency, he asked localities to improve the activities of the steering committees that oversee the programme.

The major mission for this year is to complete planning for new rural areas at the commune level.

He said that, in the meantime, communities needed to improve production, eliminate dilapidated houses, and organise job training courses for farmers and training officials on building new rural areas.

Other priorities include the improvement of healthcare and the cultural life of rural people.

Launched last year, the programme aimed to have 20 per cent of the country\'s communes meet new rural requirements by 2015, and 50 per cent by 2020.

Dung said that building a new rural model was an urgent mission and a strategic policy for the sustainable development of Vietnam.

About 70 per cent of the population earns a living from agriculture, accounting for 20 per cent of the annual gross domestic product and 30 per cent of export turnover.