HCM City (VNA) – Fortyseven of HCM City’s 56 rural communes have met all 19 criteria set in thenational target pro🗹gramme on building new-style rural areas, according to themunicipal Party Committee.

The 56,situated in five outlying districts, have met an average of 18.7 of thecriteria related to planning, transport, irrigation, electricity, schools,income, education and training, health, environment and food safety. Under theprogramme launched in 2008, the city has spent 73 trillion VND (3.1 billion USD) building infrastructure for socio-economicdevelopment. More than26,000 households in the five districts have donated nearly 300ha of land worth2.2 trillion VND forbuilding roads. The cityhas built or upgraded 741 transport projects involving 1,233km at a cost of 5.2trillion VND in ruralareas since 2008.  It hasalso invested in 455 irrigation works that help prevent saltwater intrusion andstore fresh water for agriculture. Speakingat a seminar in the city last week, Nguyen Phuoc Trung,director of the city's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, saidthe per capita income in rural areas has increased by 301 percent from 2008 to 63million VND now. Theincome gap between the city’s rural and urban areas has been narrowing eachyear, he said. Theaverage rural income was 55.5 percent of urban income in 2008 but is 72.5 percentnow. Nguyen Thien Nhan, Secretary of the city's Party Committee, said the city has been able tomobilise large sums of money in the last decade to implement the programme. Thelabour productivity and output of the city’s agriculture sector and the numberof agriculture cooperatives have increased rapidly, he said. The 56rural communes have 76 cooperatives, 45 more than in 2010, with a total of1,370 members. Thecommunes have identified vegetables, orchids, ornamental plants, ornamentalfish, dairy cows, pigs, shrimp, and fish as key agricultural produce. Most keyproduce are now produced under contracts between cooperatives and companies. Nhan said however, that the labour productivity of agricultureis low compared to the city’s average rate. The city has to improve rural labourproductivity by adopting advanced farming techniques and technology, he said. Huynh Cong Hung, head of the city’s Emulation and RewardBoard, said the city seeks to increase the value of agricultural output to 900million VND –1billion VND perhectare per year in 2020 – 25 and rural income per capita to 110 million VND. It alsoseeks to increase the number of farming households in agricultural cooperativesto at least 20 percent by 2025 from 7.7 percent now, he added./.