Vietnam has made outstanding progress in improving its people’s lifequality, however, some rural areas have yet to benefit from nationaleconomic growth, reported the Central Institute of Economic Management(CIEM). According to the CIEM’s 2012 survey of ruralhouseholds in 12 provinces, family income and spending were on thedecrease while the rate of poor households in 2010-2012 did not drop,meaning that more households fell back into poverty. The monthly incomeof a household living entirely on agriculture averaged only 1,458,000VND (nearly 70 USD). The survey pointed out that thereremains a big gap in economic growth and provision of social welfareamong cities and provinces nationwide, with households in mountainousareas, particularly in the northwestern region, are poorer and less ableto access safe water and quality housing. Northwesternmountainous provinces such as Lao Cai, Dien Bien and Lai Chau lag farbehind other localities in terms of income, service access and marketconnectivity. While the shifting of economic structure isimpacting on rural areas, farming remains a major means of livelihoodamong a majority of rural families. As a result, up to 47 percent of survey respondents are unsatifisfied or totally unhappy with their lives. The CIEM experts suggested the Government continue to prioritiseinvestment in workforce and infrastructure in mountainous rural areas tohelp farmers increase their products’ value. At the same time, policieson domestic migration should be revised to enable migrants to bettertap job chances. They said the State should work outmeasures to make farmers more risk-resilient by offering themagriculture insurance and develop land market in rural areas. Meanwhile, Prof. Finn Tarp from Denmark’s Copenhaghen Universityrecommended Vietnam to devise policies based on the survey results inorder to bring more benefits from economic growth to rural areas.-VNA