More efforts to be put into national target programmes on new rural, poverty reduction

Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Phạm Bình Minh yesterday praised the results of the National Target Programme for New Rural Development and the National Target Programme for Sustainable Poverty Reduction in the 2021-25 period.

He made the statement 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 programmes so that avoid duplicating tasks, effectively using resources but not omitting in-need groups.

Speaking about the new rural programme in the 2021-25 period, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Lê Minh Hoan said that by 2025, the whole country was targeted to have 80 per cent of communes meeting new rural standards (currently 69.4 per cent); 50 per cent of district-level units meet new rural standards (currently 34.1 per cent); 60 per cent of villages and hamlets in extremely difficult communes are recognised 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 programme is at least VNĐ196.3 trillion (US$8.5 billion).

Regarding the sustainable poverty reduction programme, the Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Đào Ngọc Dung emphasised 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 programme sets annual targets that the rate of poor households will decrease by 1-1.5 per cent, ethnic minority poor households by three per cent, and households in poor districts by four to five per cent. In the whole period, 30 per cent of poor districts and 30 per cent of communes with special difficulties will get out of poverty.

The planned total budget for the programme is at least VNĐ75 trillion ($3.3 billion), of which the state budget plays a leading role, creating motivation for other resources to join the programme, said Dung.

Representatives from Cao Bằng, Yên Bái, Hà Tĩnh, Quảng Trị, Quảng Nam, Gia Lai and An Giang confirmed that the programmes 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 programmes’ 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 programmes that are suitable to the specific conditions of different regions.

Appreciating enthusiastic and responsible contributions from localities, Permanent Deputy PM Minh emphasised the importance of timely guidelines for the national target programmes.

He required that next month, the assigned ministries must urgently issue circulars and component projects.

"Component projects and sub-programmes must be formulated and appraised in strict accordance with regulations on public investment and relevant laws," he said.