In Hanoi's outlying district of Thuong Tin (Photo: VNA)

The funding breakdown reveals a broad coalition of contributors, with State budget accounting for 10.5%, integrated funding 7.2%, credit the lion's share of 72.9%, and businesses, communities and individuals 9.4%.

Ngo Truong Son, Chief of the Office of the Central Coordination Office for New Rural Development under the MARD, announced that as of October 20, 6,320 out of 8,162 communes, an impressive 77.4%, had been approved for meeting new-style rural development standards by the provincial-level People's Committee chairpersons.

Furthermore, 296 district-level units across 58 provinces and centrally-run cities received recognition from the Prime Minister for their new-style rural building achievements, representing nearly 46% of the country's total.

As many as 22 provinces and centrally-run cities achieved the milestone of having all communes meet these standards. Among them, 15 had all communes and districts recognised as a rural area. The provinces of Nam Dinh, Dong Nai, Ha Nam, Hung Yen, and Hai Duong have been officially commended by the Prime Minister for their successful completion of new rural development tasks.

By the end of this year, it is anticipated that about 79-79.5% of communes nationwide will be certified for the status, or 99% of the target set for 2025.

To sustain this momentum, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan urged localities to further stimulate economic growth by capitalising on their unique advantages. The goal is to create strong agricultural products that can be developed into One Commune, One Product (OCOP) items and foster community-based tourism.

The office must boost its collaboration with localities to provide comprehensive guidance and support to remove difficulties facing the accomplishment of each criterion in building news-style rural areas, he added./.