Hanoi (VNA) - The settlement of issues regarding agriculture, farmers andrural areas is an important political task of the entire Party and people until2020 and the years beyond, said a Party official.

NguyenVan Binh, head of the Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission, wasspeaking at a national teleconference reviewing the ten-year implementation of Resolution 26-NQ/TW on agriculture,farmers and rural areas adopted at the seventh plenum of the 10th Party CentralCommittee, which is also the first of its kind issued by the Party.

PrimeMinister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Deputy PM Trinh Dinh Dung and a large number ofrepresentatives from ministries, agencies, sectors, foreign embassies andinternational organizations also attended the event.

Binhstressed that President Ho Chi Minh and the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) hadalways paid due attention to the development of agriculture, farmers and rural areas,considering this important foundations and forces for national socio-economicdevelopment and maintenance of political stability, security and nationaldefence.

Overthe past decade, Vietnamhas made great achievements in this field, which are recognised and applaudedby the international community, he said, highlighting the improved role andposition of farmers.

However,there still remain limitations regarding the organisation, quality, efficiencyand sustainability of agricultural production, rural economy and new-styled ruralarea building, according to the official.

Dueto the bottlenecks, some targets set by the resolution may not be fulfilled by2020 if no breakthrough solutions and timely, drastic instructions are taken, hesaid.

Giventhis, Binh urged delegates to propose models and solutions to spur thedevelopment of agriculture, farmers and rural areas in the time ahead, enhancethe Party’s leadership, improve the efficiency of State management, promote therole of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and other socio-political organisationsand encourage the public’s participation in this regard.

Atthe conference, deputy head of the Party Central Committee’s EconomicCommission Cao Duc Phat presented a report on the ten-year implementation of theresolution.

Earlier,Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and representatives of ministries and agenciescut the ribbon to open a national exhibition on agriculture, farmers and ruralareas.

Withmore than 100 booths, the exhibition introduces achievements Vietnam hasgained over the past ten years in this sphere, along with quality farm produce,technologies and services in agriculture and agricultural startups.

As of late 2017, 34.4 percent of communes met thecriteria on new-style rural areas, which is expected to reach over 40 percentin late 2018 and 50 percent in 2019. 

According to the draft summing report thatattests to the correctness of Resolution 26, the agricultural sector accountsfor nearly 70 percent of the national population and 40 percent of the nation’sworkforce. 

Several goals for 2020 set in the resolution arelikely to be fulfilled, including raising the income of rural residents by morethan 2.5 times compared to present (per capita income in rural areas in 2017was 32 million VND, up 3.49 times from 2008). 

The agricultural sector will employ around 30percent of the workforce by 2020 (the rate was 38.6 percent in June this year),while half of the communes nationwide will achieve all criteria for new stylerural areas.-VNA