Speaking with Dan Viet, Mr. Nguyen Duy Hung, Deputy Head of the Central Economic Committee, said that the Party's Resolutions on agriculture, farmers, and rural areas have opened up space for many localities to make efforts to become livable villages.

From Resolution 26-NQ/TW dated August 5, 2008, the 7th Conference of the 10th Central Executive Committee on agriculture, farmers, and rural areas to Resolution 19-NQ/TW on agriculture, farmers, and rural areas to 2030, with a vision to 2045 of the 13th Central Executive Committee of the Party, all emphasized the importance of respecting the material and spiritual life of rural residents, building new rural areas with modern socio-economic infrastructure in the direction of "ecological agriculture, modern rural areas, civilized farmers". How do you evaluate the impacts of the Resolutions on agriculture, farmers, and rural areas in Vietnam?

-It can be seen that from Resolution 26-NQ/TW dated August 5, 2008, the 7th Conference, the 10th Central Executive Committee on agriculture, farmers, and rural areas to Resolution 19-NQ/TW on agriculture, farmers, and rural areas to 2030, with a vision to 2045 of the 13th Central Executive Committee of the Party, the most important goal is still to improve the material and spiritual life of farmers and rural residents, considering people as the subject, the center of the process of agricultural development, rural economy and new rural construction; agriculture is the national advantage, the pillar of the economy.

However, in each stage of the country's development, based on the actual situation, our Party has strategic orientations for the development of agriculture, farmers and rural areas. That is the foundation and basis to open up space for agriculture and rural areas to develop, becoming livable villages.

We can see that Resolution 26-NQ/TW aims to continuously improve the material and spiritual life of rural residents, harmonize regions, create faster changes in areas with many difficulties; farmers are trained to have production levels equal to those of advanced countries in the region and have enough political capacity, playing the role of masters of the new countryside. Building a comprehensively developed agriculture in a modern, sustainable direction, large-scale commodity production, with high productivity, quality, efficiency and competitiveness, firmly ensuring national food security both in the short and long term. Building a new countryside with modern socio-economic infrastructure; reasonable economic structure and forms of production organization, linking agriculture with rapid development of industry, services and urban areas according to planning.

Then, after 15 years of implementing Resolution 26-NQ/TW, in the context of the new situation with many changes with new opportunities and challenges, the Party Central Committee issued Resolution 19-NQ/TW with the viewpoint of: Ensuring harmonious development between rural and urban areas, between regions, areas and localities; closely linking industrial and service development with agriculture, between sustainable rural development and the urbanization process in the direction of "ecological agriculture, modern countryside, civilized farmers".

The viewpoints of Resolution 26 and later Resolution 19 are the compass, outlining the path for agricultural, farmer and rural development in the period up to 2030, and at the same time providing a vision of the times, towards 2045.

How do you evaluate the changes in agriculture, farmers and rural areas after the implementation of the Party's Resolutions on agriculture, farmers and rural areas in recent times?

- I think that from Resolution 26 to Resolution 19, Vietnamese agriculture, farmers, and rural areas have made great strides in both quality and quantity. Many rural areas are truly "livable countrysides" as the development gap with urban areas is narrowing with increasingly modern and synchronous infrastructure, and the environment is green, clean, and beautiful.

Agriculture continues to develop in both scale and production level with a fairly high growth rate, shifting strongly towards commodity production, improving productivity, quality, efficiency, forming highly competitive commodity production areas, contributing to firmly ensuring national food security and affirming agriculture as a national advantage, a pillar of the economy, especially in difficult economic times such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Vietnam has become a top country in the world in exporting agricultural products, especially rice, coffee, seafood, wooden products, etc.

The rural economy has shifted in a positive direction with strong development of industry and rural services; socio-economic infrastructure has been strengthened, the rural landscape has undergone many changes, and the material and spiritual life of rural people has been significantly improved.

Recently, localities have also assessed the results after more than 1 year of implementing Resolution 19. Reports show that after the Resolution was issued, local Party committees have focused on leading, directing the organization of propaganda, dissemination and synchronous and drastic implementation, and have achieved important results. The agricultural sector continues to develop in both scale and production level, maintaining a relatively high growth rate, affirming its important position, firmly ensuring food security and exports continue to increase with many products ranking among the world's top. Agricultural production and business develop in the direction of transforming the structure of crops and livestock, applying science and technology, improving quality and added value, promoting regional, local advantages, adapting to climate change with many circular and organic agricultural models, effectively reducing emissions.

In my opinion, one of the most impressive highlights is the changes in farmers' production thinking. Farmers have paid more attention to linking and applying digital transformation in agricultural production, processing and trade; focusing on building and protecting agricultural product brands; diversifying business forms. Now it is not rare to see images of farmers livestreaming to sell products on the internet or controlling production via just a smartphone. That is the image of "civilized farmers" in the heart of a "modern countryside" that is still rich in traditional cultural identity as mentioned in Resolution 19.

In order to have more and more "livable villages" and form a generation of "civilized farmers", in your opinion, what solutions should the sectors and localities prioritize?

- In my opinion, the comprehensive solution must be to synchronously resolve the development process in the direction of ecological agriculture, modern countryside, civilized farmers, in which the decisive factor for the success of implementing the resolution is the group of solutions: Enhancing the role, position, mastery capacity, comprehensively improving the material and spiritual life of farmers and rural residents.

How to make farmers and rural residents truly the subject, the center of the process of agricultural development, rural economy, new rural construction associated with urbanization. This is a group of tasks and solutions that are placed in a priority position.

To improve the mastery capacity of farmers and rural residents, it is necessary to strengthen education and training, improve educational level, ability to apply science and technology, production and business management, awareness and understanding of the law; build culture, civilized lifestyle, ability to master technology in production, processing, trade and get rich from agricultural development and rural economy.

Besides, to have more livable villages, it is necessary to preserve and promote rural cultural identity, because the urbanization process can bring a new look to the countryside, but what is beautiful, the cultural soul of the nation, the origin must continue to be preserved and promoted. And I think, that is what the Party's Resolutions want to aim for so that the countryside is truly a "place to return to".

Thank you very much for this interview!