Building New Rural Areas in Vietnam

Abstract

The study focused on the orientations of building sustainable new rural areas associated with urbanization. This was very necessary, in order to develop a concentrated, commodity agriculture and to form residential areas and infrastructure, which were suitable to the process of industrialization and modernization of agriculture and rural areas. The agricultural sector was restructured, and the living conditions of rural people were improved close to those in urban areas. The project of the National Target Program on building new rural areas in Vietnam was analyzed. The program has achieved many expected results. In which, the construction of new rural areas has achieved great achievements. The basic socioeconomic infrastructure in the rural areas was strengthened in a synchronous direction. The sustainable development of the rural economy was in the direction of increasing added values and raised people’s incomes and gradually narrowed the gap between rural and urban areas. The work of landscape construction, implementation of environmental sanitation had a remarkable change.

1. Introduction

1.1 Some concepts of new rural area construction

1.1.1 The concept of new rural area

A new rural area is a modern civilized rural area but still retains the traditional beauty. New rural area is the result of a new strategic-oriented rural development process, meeting new economic, social, environmental, and institutional development requirements in rural area under specific conditions of each rural area [1]. The new rural area is expressed through the following basic contents:

• The people’s material, cultural, and spiritual life of people in rural area is constantly improved, which gradually reduces the gap between rural and urban areas.

• A rural area has spacious and civilized villages with modern and synchronous infrastructure, developed according to the planning to ensure favorable conditions for production and daily life of rural residents, combined between agriculture and industry, services and cities.

• A rural area has reasonable economic structure, comprehensive development. The economic fields are developed toward efficient and sustainable production of goods. Farmers are trained, absorbed advanced technical engineering.

• A stable rural area is clean, beautiful, and the ecological environment is protected. The political security and social order remain.

1.1.2 New rural area construction with the goal of sustainable development

The criteria reflecting the sustainable development goals in Vietnam rural area cover all economic, social, and environmental aspects [2] as below:

• Economical sustainable development is fast, safe, and qualitative development. One sustainable economy needs to meet the following requirements: (i) having high GDP growth and GDP per capita; (ii) GDP structure is a criterion of evaluating economic sustainable development; (iii) economic growth must be growth with high efficiency and the growth with safe environment.

• Social sustainable development is assessed by criteria such as: HDI (Human Development Index), income equality coefficient, indicators on education, health, social welfare, cultural enjoyment. In addition, social sustainability is the guarantee of a harmonious social life; there is equality between social classes, gender equality; the gap between richness and poorness is not too high and tends to be small; the difference of life between regions is not large.

• Sustainable development on the environment includes: (i) effectively using resources, especially nonrenewable resources; (ii) development does not exceed the load-bearing threshold of the ecosystem; (iii) protecting biodiversity and ozone layer; (iv) controlling and reducing greenhouse gas emissions; (v) protecting sensitive ecosystems; (vi) minimizing discharge, overcoming pollution (water, gas, soil, food), improving and restoring the environment of polluted areas.

1.1.3 Sustainable new rural construction associated with urbanization

The overall objective of the whole program is to build a new rural areas to improve the material and spiritual life of the people; Socioeconomic infrastructure is appropriate; economic structure and forms of production organization are reasonable, agricultural development and industry and service are linked; rural development combines with urban areas; a rural society is democratic, equal, and stable; ecological environment is protected; the political security and social order remain.

Sustainable new rural construction associated with urbanization is an integrated process in which the construction is associated with sustainable development goals and the urbanization process [3].

1.2 The experiences in rural development and new rural construction in the world

1.2.1 China

China government demanded that it was necessary to gradually change “the disparity between industry and agriculture, between urban and rural areas, between regions,” “unifying urban socio-economic development planning, building modern agriculture, developing rural economy, increasing income for farmers” [4].

Up to now, China has achieved many great achievements such as: agriculture fields and rural areas have developed strongly. China’s agriculture has formed many high-value agricultural products such as: food, livestock, natural rubber, and fruits. Many agricultural products are cultivated on a large area with high output and high economic efficiency. The number of large enterprises operating in the agricultural sector as well as the number of cooperatives and associations constantly increased. As a result, the rural agricultural economy has developed rapidly, the average income of farmers has increased significantly. The infrastructure of rural areas has been significantly improved. Building a cultural life in rural areas has achieved many important achievements.

Useful experiment:

• Attracting businesses to invest in agriculture and rural areas

• Forming linkages along the value chain and implementing commitments between farmers and enterprises.

• Encouraging many large economic groups to invest in agriculture

1.2.2 Japan

The agricultural economy is prioritized for development by the Japanese Government. Therefore, at each stage, Japan applied a different plan and “agricultural extension policy” such as: “Socio-economic development plan,” “Building rural area as an attracting and comfortable living space,” “one village one product” in order to carry out the construction of new rural areas, create a foundation for agricultural economic development with the solidarity of people [5].

Japan developed agricultural economy from the first small-scale villages from 900 to 1000 farming households, then replicated the model to 4548 villages. Japan government has applied a financial support policy to build new rural areas in addition to local revenue and the loans from agricultural credit funds.

The Japanese government has launched the movement as “One Village One Product (OVOP).” OVOP is a movement with three main principles: (i) localization and then globalization; (ii) autonomy, independence, and creation; (iii) human resource development. The government is in charge to do the basic construction items of the rural areas, improve the environment, bring water, electricity, road construction, information (telephone) to the people. The primary education was completely free, rural and urban areas supported each other for sustainable development.

Useful experiment:

• Three main principles: (i) localization and then globalization; (ii) autonomy, independence, and creation; (iii) human resource development.

• Applying to craft villages, regions with specialty products and implementing the branding, traceability production, and product consumption.

• Preserving and developing traditional craft villages under the motto “One village, one product,” developing crafts according to local strengths was one of the core contents to realize the goal of “transforming structure, economic development and increasing income of people”

1.2.3 South Korea

The SU (Saemaul Undong) movement was established with three criteria: (i) diligence (hard work); (ii) self-reliance to overcome difficulties; (iii) cooperation (community synergies). As a result, many projects have been implemented and completed with the aim of developing infrastructure in rural areas. South Korea has applied high technology in agricultural production in order to increase productivity and value of agricultural products. The number of economical autonomous villages in South Korea reached 98%. Thus, the effectiveness of the SU movement made an important contribution to the sustainable development of the South Korean rural economy [6, 7].

Useful experiment:

• The leader’s determination

• The role of training and building capacity of managers.

• Promoting the role of the people at the village.

• Creating motivation instead of pressure that associated with the spirit of “industrious, self-reliant, reunited.”

1.2.4 Taiwan

The important role of farmers’ organizations was one of the factors that made up the success of agricultural development. Taiwan has four farmers’ organizations such as: the Agricultural Association, the Fruit Cooperative, the Irrigation Association, and the aquaculture Association. Basically, they were economic organizations that cooperate each other to provide nonagricultural services, including supplying materials and consuming agricultural products. The main function of these organizations was to help farmers in trading activities. All four organizations were registered to operate under the state management of the government [8].

The government focused on supporting many aspects of the Agricultural Association. First of all, 50% of the farm’s capital was provided by the government. Besides, the government implemented many direct investments in rural areas such as building infrastructure, transferring new varieties and technology through development programs. Basing on the activities of the Agricultural Association, Taiwanese farmers have mastered the entire supply chain of input materials and output products of agricultural production.

Useful experiment:

• The model of farmer association, forming farmers’ organizations, not only organized production but also represented the voice of farmers in policy criticism and policy implementation.

1.2.5 Other ASEAN countries

Policy directions for rural development in ASEAN countries focused on many aspects such as: from the program of promoting the rural economy to the program of infrastructure development; from improving the life quality of rural residents to developing high-quality human resources and protecting natural resources and the environment in rural areas. Mainly, the Rural Development Program of ASEAN countries focused on three main points: (i) strengthening the legal authority for rural people; (ii) training and developing human resources in rural areas; and (iii) agricultural and rural development associated with environmental protection and sustainable development [9, 10].

In generally, the useful experiment, which was applied in building new rural area in Vietnam, could be considered as: i) encouraging many large economic groups to invest in agriculture to form the linkages between farmers and enterprises. ii) preserving and developing the traditional rural villages’ values including both cultural life and production. iii) Implementing the human resource development, in which, the role of the rural people was promoted and the capacity of managers in building new rural area should be considered. iv) Implementing the process of building new rural area step by step in accordance with the Government’s strategy.

2. The strategy of building rural areas in Vietnam

2.1 The process of forming the national target program on building rural areas in Vietnam

The process of forming the National Target Program on building new rural areas in Vietnam through the periods was shown in Figure 1 [11, 12].

Figure 1.

The formation of the National Target Program on building new rural areas in Vietnam.

In which, in 1988, the Vietnamese government implemented the renovation policy, which created significant developments for Vietnam’s agriculture in the renovation period. Orientations for building a new rural areas have been set out in terms of rural planning, infrastructure development, production organization, building a prosperous rural life, solidarity, democratization and publicization, and promoting the mastery of the working people.

In the period of 2001–2009, there were two pilot programs of building new rural areas such as: the program on building a model of rural development in the direction of industrialization, modernization, cooperation, and democratization in the period of 2001–2005 and the pilot program on building new rural areas at village levels in the period of 2006–2009. The practical experience from the pilot programs showed that in order to achieve the goals of building a new rural area, it was necessary to develop in a harmonious manner in different fields, not just to focus on building infrastructure.

In the period of 2009–2011, the Vietnamese government directed the implementation of the pilot program on building a new rural area in the period of accelerating industrialization and modernization in the period of 2009–2011. In particular, the new rural area criterion was promulgated that has created a comprehensive rural development approach and become a prominent feature of rural development in Vietnam.

The lessons learned from the pilot programs were the basis for officially implementing the National Target Program on building new rural areas for the period of 2010–2020. Thus, after more than 20 years of innovation, basing on lessons learned and practical needs as well as the suitability of the general context, the National Target Program on building new rural areas was born to implement the building new rural areas through all rural areas of the Vietnam and to contribute the foundations for sustainable rural development.

2.2 The objectives, principles, and scope of the National Target Program on building new rural areas for the period of 2010: 2020

The National Target Program on building new rural areas took the commune level as the implementing unit with the goal that the whole country would have 50% of communes meeting the new rural area standard by 2020. Besides, there were other objectives such as: encouraging each province and city to have at least one district meeting the new rural area standard; basically completing essential works to meet the requirements of production development and life of rural residents as: traffic, electricity, water, daily life, schools, commune health stations; improving the life quality of rural residents, creating many production models associated with stable jobs for people, increasing income at least 1.8 times than that of 2015 [11, 12].

The basic principle of building a new rural area was to promote the role of the local population community, the government played the role of orientation and promulgation of criteria, standards, policies, support mechanisms, staff training, and implementation guidance. The community of people in villages and communes democratically discussed and implemented the specific activities. In addition, building a new rural area must be carried out on the basis of inheriting and integrating national target programs, targeted support programs, and other programs and projects being implemented in the rural area that associated with the local socioeconomic development plan. The ownership role of the people and the community was promoted and the process of planning, organizing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating must be implemented democratically [11, 12].

It could be said that the National Target Program on building new rural areas was a comprehensive rural development program that paid attention to most of the different fields in rural areas. The scope of implementation was all communes across the country and the beneficiaries were residential communities in rural areas; The subjects of implementation were the communities in rural areas, the government, enterprises, and socioeconomic organizations.

2.3 Criteria and contents of new rural area construction

The new rural area criteria set of the program has promulgated 11 group of contents, each group of content included specific goals and contents such as: [13].

• Content 1: New rural area construction planning;

• Content 2: Development of socioeconomic infrastructure;

• Content 3: Developing production in association with the agricultural sector, restructuring rural economy, raising income for people;

• Content 4: Poverty reduction and social security;

• Content 5: Development of education in rural areas;

• Content 6: Developing basic health care, improving the quality of health care for rural people;

• Content 7: Improving the quality of cultural life of rural people;

• Content 8: Implementing rural environmental sanitation, pollution solution, and environmental improvement in craft villages;

• Content 9: Improving the quality and promoting the role of authorities and social organizations in building a new rural area;

• Content 10: Maintaining national defense, security, and rural social order;

• Content 11: Improving the capacity of building new rural area and carrying out the communication on building new rural area

3. Results and discussions

3.1 Summarization of the results of construction of new rural area

In the period of 2011–2020, the achievement of new rural area standard increased sharply in the second phase, many important targets of new rural area construction completed in 2019. By July 2021, 195/664 districts (29.6%) belonging to 52 provinces and cities were recognized as meeting new rural area standard. The number of communes meeting the new rural area standard was 5331/8267 communes (64.8%) [11, 12]. The result of new rural area construction by 2020 is given in Table 1.

Province/ City	Total number of communes of the province	Number of districts meeting new rural area standard	Number of communes meeting new rural area standard	Percentage of communes meeting the new rural area standard (%)	Average of criteria per commune
+ Total	8,902	173	5,555	62.4	16.4
+ Northern Midlands and Mountains	2,280	18	828	36.3	13.5
+ Red river delta	1,882	69	1,805	95.9	18.9
+ North Central	1,585	18	1,019	64.3	16.8
+ South Central Coast	825	12	476	57.7	16.4
+ Highlands	599	3	270	45.1	15.2
+ South East	445	22	354	79.5	18.0
+ Mekong Delta	1,286	31	782	60.8	16.9

Table 1.

The result of new rural area construction by 2020.

In general, the construction of new rural areas has achieved great achievements over the past 10 years. That significantly changed the face of the rural areas, especially in rural infrastructure. In the construction of new rural areas, the promotion of urbanization in rural areas has not been clearly shown.

3.2 The result of the basic socioeconomic infrastructure in the rural areas

The basic socioeconomic infrastructure in the rural areas was strengthened in a synchronous direction, which significantly changed the face of the rural areas and connected with the urban areas step by step. The basic socioeconomic infrastructure gradually met the living and production needs of the rural population and gradually caught up with the needs of socioeconomic development in rural areas. That was shown below [11, 12]:

• The rural transport infrastructure: by 2020, over 206,743 km of roads has been built and upgraded, which increased the rate of hardened rural roads to 68.7%; Over 97% of communes had plasticized and hardened roads; The quality of roads has been improved and quite synchronous, which has contributed to the formation of large production areas and created favorable conditions to attract investors to the rural areas including large enterprises. Up to now, there have been 6460 communes (78.2%) meeting the criteria of rural transport (increasing 41.8% compared with 2015 and exceeding 23.2% compared with the 5-year target for the period of 2016–2020);

• The irrigation system has been gradually completed. The thousands of small and large irrigation projects have been built, repaired, and upgraded. More than 80% of the productive area was actively irrigated, which contributed to the transformation of crop structure and improved production value and promoted the restructuring of the agricultural sector. Up to now, the area that applied the advanced and water-saving irrigation was 288,620 hectares (for upland crops, reaching 17.5%), 1,320,118 hectares (for rice, reaching 18%). Thus, the crop productivity and irrigated areas were increased and adapted to water-scarce areas and effectively that formed the large-scale production areas with high economic value. Some regions have developed advanced water-saving irrigation system such as the Southeast (40%), the Central Highlands (27%), the Mekong River Delta (18%). There were 7934 communes (96%) reaching the irrigation criteria (increasing 34.6% compared with 2015 and exceeding 19% compared with the 5-year target for the period of 2016–2020);

• The rural electricity system, up to now, 100% of communes and 99.25% of rural households have had electricity, in which, 7729 communes (93.5%) have met the electricity criteria (increasing 11.1% compared with 2015). The quality of electricity in rural areas was increasingly improved and stable and basically met people’s daily-life needs and developing production. The quality of electricity has created favorable conditions for the application of hi-tech agricultural production, including in highland districts. In particular, remote, extremely difficult, and border areas and island communes were also focused on investing in electricity supply.

• The education system at all levels in rural areas has received special attention of government. There were 31,016 schools at all levels in rural areas in the whole country. Many localities have prioritized resources to invest in building new synchronous schools including: supplementing classrooms and function rooms, enhancing teaching equipment, libraries, physical or skill training areas, and toilets, improving the green-clean-beautiful landscape. In which, many localities have promoted the socialization of education and invested in school systems in the direction of modernity, meeting the new requirements of education. There were 6375 communes that met the school criteria (77.2%, and increasing 35.1% compared with 2015).

• The system of rural health facilities in recent years has continued to be invested, upgraded, and improved and highly appreciated by international organizations. 100% of communes had health stations, of which, about 76% of commune health stations met the National Health Standards (an increase of 8.9% compared with 2015); about 87.5% of commune health stations had doctors working; 95.0% of villages, hamlets had medical staff working.

• The system of rural commercial infrastructure has developed in both quantity and scale. The types and levels of markets were diversified. Many forms of modern retail infrastructure, different types of convenience shops and mini markets have also been formed and developed to meet the consumption needs of rural people. There were 7763 communes that met the criteria for rural commercial infrastructure (accounting for 93.9%, increasing 36% compared with the end of 2015 and 23.9% higher than the 5-year target for the period of 2016–2020).

3.3 The sustainable development of the rural economy

The sustainable development of the rural economy was in the direction of increasing added values and raised people’s incomes and gradually narrowed the gap between rural and urban areas [11, 12].

In the period of 2010–2020, basing on the construction of new rural areas and the process of urbanization, the rural economy had many drastic changes, active transfer structure in the right direction. The industries, construction, trade, and services in rural areas developed rapidly and accounted for an increasing proportion; agricultural, forestry, and aquicultural production has restructured in production type and scale.

Industry and services in the rural areas have had positive changes, the value of rural industrial production has grown well. Services in rural areas developed diversely with the participation of all economic sectors. Industrial production value in rural areas tended to grow significantly and reached 12.2% in the period of 2010–2018. That contributed to job creation, restructuring of rural labor (the proportion of agricultural laborers decreased from 49.5% in 2010 to 32.8% in 2020) and raised incomes of rural households.

Restructuring the agricultural sector has achieved many important achievements in terms of both scale and production level. Agriculture has shifted strongly to international competitive commodity production. The productivity and product quality increased and firmly ensured national food security, and exports have increased rapidly. The agricultural sector has a sustainable growth, the average GDP growth rate of the industry is 2.85%/year in the period 2011–2019, the agricultural production value will reach VND 99.5 million/ha in 2020 (an increase of 82% compared with 2010). Vietnam’s agricultural, forestry, and aquicultural exports in 2020 reached over $41.25 billion, ranking in the top 15 in the world and second in ASEAN. Agriculture continued to be Vietnam’s strength. Many specific agricultural regions were formed according to functions as: peri-urban agriculture, large-scale commodity agriculture, agriculture adapting to climate change, and agriculture with application of high technology.

The forestry industry has had a remarkable development in the past period with a stable growth rate. The national forest coverage rate in 2020 reached 42%, which formed the second largest forestry product processing industry in Asia and the fifth largest in the world. Over the past 10 years, aquiculture had the highest growth with an average growth of 5.2% per year in production value. In 2020, the total output was 8.4 million tons, the production value obtained on 1 hectare of aquaculture land reached 10,462 USD (2.3 times higher than 2010). The level of processing technology and hygiene safety of aquacultural product were invested to meet the requirements of the market in the world.

Types of production organizations are renewed in a more appropriate and effective manner; household economy continues to be supported and organized in the direction of increasing production scale, gradually adapting to the market mechanism. Strongly develop agricultural product value chains, form more and more product consumption linkage chains between producers, cooperatives, and enterprises; some large corporations have joined the linkage chain in agriculture such as Dabaco, Ba Huan, Saigon Coop, Masan Group…). Local authorities are increasingly interested in agricultural development, well performing the role of “State” in linking “4 houses” to organize production and consumption of agricultural products.

By the end of June 2021, 57/63 provinces have issued the policies to encourage linkages in production and consumption of local agricultural products, in which, 44/63 provinces and cities approved projects and plans on linkage under the guidance of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. As a result, up to now, more than 27,000 value chain-linked production models have been built; 1644 safe agricultural product chains were developed with 3267 places of sale of controlled products according to the chain and 2038 places of sale of controlled products according to the value chain. By 2020, there were about 49,600 enterprises investing in agriculture (of which, more than 11,800 enterprises invested directly), accounting for about 8% of the total number of enterprises operating in the country.

The speed of cooperative development has increased sharply year by year. By the end of 2020, there were 17,642 agricultural cooperatives (beyond the target to 2020 assigned by the government). The cooperatives gradually promoted their effective support role for farmers by actively linking with enterprises under the form of that the enterprises provided inputs, production techniques, and product consumption that created stable output for agricultural products.

3.4 The income and living standards of rural people

The income and living standards of rural people were continuously improved and enhanced and the gap between rural and urban areas was narrowed [11, 12].

Average income per person per year in rural areas increased faster than the growth rate of urban people’s income. The income increased from 676 USD/person in 2010 to about 1807 USD/person in 2020. Basically, the target by 2020 was achieved. The income gap between rural and urban areas tended to decrease from 1.99 times in 2010 to 1.61 times in 2020. People in rural areas are less and less dependent on agriculture. The structure of income from agricultural, forestry, and aquicutural activities decreased from 33.5% in 2010 to 18.5% in 2020. The rate of poor households in rural areas decreased by 1% per year on average. By the end of 2020, the rate reached 7.1%.

Along with the increase in income, the spiritual life in rural areas has also been significantly improved. The people had easier access to basic social services, especially rural people in remote and isolated areas and ethnic minority areas. The countryside was the place where they maintained and developed the vibrant culture, artist, physical training, and sports. The civilized lifestyle was implemented and the unsound customs and superstition were eliminated. The maintenance of security and order was ensured. The evils of drugs, theft, gambling, addiction were controlled and managed. Many activities of planting trees, lighting up rural roads and protecting the environment have been actively organized by the community in order to create many fresh, bright, green, clean, and beautiful rural areas.

3.5 Environmental protection

The work of landscape construction, implementation of environmental sanitation had a remarkable change, representing the achievements of building a new rural areas [11, 12] . Many models of landscape improvement in villages and hamlets have been creatively applied according to actual conditions; Thousands of kilometers of flower routes have been formed, and many districts have had the percentage of rural roads planted with trees and flowers that reached over 50%.

By the end of 2020, 51% of rural households used standard clean water; There were 6222 communes (75.3%) meeting the criteria on Environment and Food Safety (increasing by 32.9% compared with 2015, completing 5.3% more than the 5-year target for the period of 2016–2020).

The protection of the rural environment, especially in industrial production, services and craft villages has always been concerned, and environmental pollution has been gradually overcome. Up to now, 59/63 provinces and cities have approved the solid waste management planning in the areas; 42/63 provinces and cities have plans for concentrated waste treatment in rural areas, of which, a number of localities have implemented that throughout the province; 16/63 provinces and cities have approved the investment policy of rural solid waste treatment plants.

Solid waste collection has been promoted, and most villages and communes have formed a domestic waste collection team. The proportion of daily-life solid waste collected has increased significantly year by year, from 44.1% in 2011 to 66.0% in 2020. The scale and methods of solid waste treatment have also changed significantly. Common treatment methods included landfilling, incineration, fertilizer, and fuel pellet production. Although the current method of landfilling still accounted for a relatively high rate (about 70%), the trend of incineration became more common in many localities. There were about 425 domestic solid waste incinerators, of which, there were more than 100 incinerators with a capacity of over 300 kg/h, meeting the requirements of the National Technical Regulation.

The environment in craft villages has been significantly improved. There have been 33 provinces and cities that have issued the policies on environmental protection of craft villages. Many craft village waste treatment models have been implemented. Many craft villages applied advanced technology and production processes to limit waste emissions into the environment. The percentage of craft villages with centralized wastewater collection accounted for 27.6% of the total number of craft villages with industrial wastewater. The percentage of craft villages with concentrated wastewater treatment meeting environmental standards accounted for 16.1%; the percentage of craft villages with industrial solid waste collection places accounted for 20.9% of the total number of craft villages with industrial solid waste.

3.6 The cultural life of the people and social security and defense

A healthy and colorful cultural environment was created in the cultural and spiritual life of rural people. Cultural activities, arts, and sports in residential areas were promoted. The preservation and promotion of cultural values ​​have made a practical contribution to the construction of cultural life of the new rural areas.

Social security was guaranteed. The combat and timely prevention of crimes and social evils were effectively implemented in accordance with the Government’s strategy. The security and defense continued to be maintained. Thus, the people felt secure and they worked, created, and dedicated themselves to the task of new rural area construction and development.

4. Conclusions

Based on the objectives, principles, and scope of the National Target Program on building new rural areas for the period of 2010–2020, Vietnam has implemented sustainable new rural construction associated with urbanization. The results showed that Vietnam rural areas have changed both in terms of the basic socioeconomic infrastructure, the income, and living standards of rural people. Vietnam rural areas have had economic restructuring. In which, the occupation was shifted from agriculture to nonagricultural occupation, and the population, labor, and employment were shifted from rural to urban areas. Thus, millions of new jobs were created. Besides, the rural infrastructure system was invested and met the needs of production, travel, education, health care, goods circulation, service development. People’s income and living standards were improved and enhanced. The security and defense continued to be maintained.