Vietnam approves Smart Rural Development Programme

Vietnam has approved a Smart Rural Development Programme with the goal of boosting the rural economy and living standards, narrowing the urban-rural service quality gap. By 2025, all rural areas including disadvantaged regions will benefit from digital advancements, aiming for significant online document handling and promoting the digital economy. The focus is to enhance agricultural practices through digital technology, aiming for broad cooperative and business model implementation.

Aiming at enhancing the rural economy, improving rural living standards, and bridging the gap in service quality between rural and urban areas, the government of Vietnam endorsed a national programme for smart rural development with a special focus on building new, modern rural areas through digital transformation. The programme will cover all rural areas across Vietnam by the end of 2025, including extremely disadvantaged communes in ethnic minorities and mountainous and coastal regions. In this vein, the government hopes to have at least 90% of central, 80% of district-level, and 60% of communal public documents handled online. Additionally, the programme will promote the digital economy and connect the production and distribution of key farming products using digital technology, at least 70% of communes will have cooperatives and 70% of districts will have agricultural business models.