Speaking before the National Assembly, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan emphasized that although the new rural program may achieve this target, it may not achieve that target, but the most important thing is to make rural areas "livable".

Discussing the National Target Program on New Rural Development for the 2021-2025 period in the 1st Session of the 15th National Assembly, there were 156 opinions expressed in group discussions and 16 opinions expressed in the hall (due to time constraints). Minister Le Minh Hoan said that these were great pressures on the Ministry and him personally.

"As the National Assembly delegate said, the ultimate goal of our new rural program - it can be said that this target is achieved, that target is not achieved - but the important thing is how to make the countryside a place where we deserve to live, a place we should seek and a place we return to", Minister Le Minh Hoan shared.

The image of thousands, millions of people returning to their hometowns when Covid-19 raged in the cities has partly shown the role of rural areas in the coming time. However, there are still many points that need to be achieved to achieve "new rural areas".

"The story of sustainability is related to people's income, related to people's livelihoods. I think one of the traps in the recent past is from the name of the program 'building new rural areas'", said Mr. Le Minh Hoan.

According to the Commander of the Agriculture and Rural Development sector, localities or local authorities, especially at the grassroots level, show that the word "construction" means infrastructure, bridges, roads, headquarters, etc. because construction is related to works. Minister Hoan said that this stems from a lack of attention to the conditions to improve people's income and quality of life through livelihoods.

If 5 years ago, 1 hectare of rice was planted, and 5 years later, 1 hectare of rice was planted as traditionally, it would be impossible to increase income by 1.5 times. If we support people to borrow money to reduce poverty in order to produce a certain product without connecting people to the market, it would be impossible to increase income by 1.5 times, Minister Hoan said.

Due to that fact, Minister Le Minh Hoan emphasized that the new values of the new program presented to the National Assembly are to continue developing infrastructure to facilitate farmers' access to urban amenities while focusing more on soft values and new values.

"The National Assembly Chairman concluded in the recent meeting that it is necessary to link and restructure the agricultural sector with the new rural development program. Restructuring agriculture is the driving force; building new rural areas is the foundation and farmers are the main subjects," said Mr. Hoan.

Mr. Hoan also said that the Prime Minister has just directed the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to develop a strategy for sustainable rural agricultural development. In which, we need to shift from agricultural production thinking to agricultural economic thinking, taking rural economy as the foundation to create a driving force for rural development as the delegates have also stated.

"I think the mindset we start with is sustainable thinking, the mindset of improving the quality of life, increasing income and by restructuring the agricultural sector associated with new agricultural models, circular agriculture, smart agriculture, associated with the industry chain from post-harvest technology, classification, preservation, processing and market development, because that is where sustainability lies," said Mr. Hoan.

In addition, it is also necessary to build cultural identity, the soul of the countryside to have new values. Accordingly, the new countryside will bring conveniences like urban areas, but the soul is to form living space and production space as it has existed for thousands of years.

Bringing knowledge to farmers is also emphasized. The image of people selling agricultural products online during Covid-19 is pointed out as an example of how farmers use new knowledge to find solutions to their problems.

Drawing on experience from the previous program, Minister Hoan said that it is the team at the commune level that determines the success of bringing "soft values" to farmers' lives. Commune officials are identified as the people closest to farmers, with more intimate relationships than just work, which can help change people's habits.

"I think that in the near future, we will also have a separate training program for the team of commune leaders to approach the new values of the program," said Minister Le Minh Hoan.