The programme is expected to be completed by 2030. This means 20 percent of all communes in Vietnam will match the MARD’s criteria for new rural areas by 2015, and this figure will rise to 50 percent by 2020.

Currently, the People’s Committees in provinces and centrally-run cities are working with the MARD to conduct surveys on the real state of affairs in rural areas and draw up zoning plans for socio-economic development in every rural residential area.