The provincial People’s Committee of Bac Giang has formulated a strategy to enhance digital transformation and the implementation of technology to develop new-style rural areas. In addition to fostering rural economic growth and reducing the disparity between rural and urban regions, the objective of the plan is to establish smart new-style rural areas.
The designation of a new-style rural commune in Bac Giang province is contingent upon meeting a comprehensive set of 19 criteria across various domains. These criteria encompass planning, socio-economic infrastructure, economy and production, socio-culture, and environment. Each region has specific requirements tailored to its unique characteristics.
Other criteria include effectively operating cooperatives and establishing production-selling connection models. The communes must implement origin-tracking regulations for their key products and develop farming areas that adhere to VietGAP standards, ensuring the quality and safety of agricultural practices.
Furthermore, the communes are expected to meet certain healthcare-related criteria, such as achieving adequate healthcare insurance coverage and a high rate of residents with electronic medical records.
By 2025, Bac Giang province has set specific targets for digital transformation. These include processing a minimum of 95% of document-based tasks at the provincial level, 85% at the district level, and 60% at the communal level through online platforms. Furthermore, the province aims to ensure that 97% of all communes meet the requirements for applying information technology (IT) in their management and operational activities as part of the new-style rural building programme.
Also, Bac Giang aims for 70% of cooperatives and districts to have their connection models for the selling of major agricultural products, along with 50% of the models attached to digital technologies. The province strives to have at least 15 communes recognised as smart new-style rural areas while building a centrally-managed e-commerce commune model at Phuc Hoa commune in Tan Yen district, and a locally-managed e-commerce commune model at Hong Giang commune of Luc Ngan district.
To this end, Bac Giang has strengthened communications to improve public awareness of digital transformation and is training local officials in the fundamentals of digital transformation. It will also focus on promoting economic growth in rural areas, while developing an infrastructure system for Internet connections in communes and villages, along with the technical infrastructure for the development of the education, healthcare, tourism, and e-commerce sectors.
For the 2021-2025 timeframe, Bac Giang province has allocated a budget of over VND 1.12 trillion (US$ 47.72 million) for the implementation of the new-style rural area building programme. As of May, this year, Bac Giang had six out of 10 districts recognised as new-style rural areas, and 144 out of 182 communes (79.1%) becoming new-style rural communes. Meanwhile, it had 43 advanced new-style rural communes, one model new-style rural communes, and 243 model new-style rural villages. On average, each commune in the province has completed 17.1 out of 19 criteria of the new-style rural area building programme.
Bac Giang province has achieved notable advancements in the areas of telecommunication services and healthcare connectivity. Currently, all of the communes in the province have access to telecommunication services. This coverage ensures that residents in even the most remote areas can benefit from reliable communication networks.
Furthermore, 100% of provincial-level and district-level healthcare facilities have been connected online with central hospitals. The percentage of local people who have their health managed on the electronic health record software system has reached 95.8%.
