The number of poor households in Hanoi has dropped by 1.5 percent onaverage each year since the capital city’s boundary expansion in 2008, aHanoi official has said.

Nguyen Cong Soai, Deputy PermanentSecretary of the Hanoi municipal Party’s Committee, said the developmentgap between inner and outer districts has been narrowed while healthand education services have been improved.

During the reviewedperiod, the panorama of Hanoi’s rural areas has seen significantchanges thanks to the capital city’s investment in production, upgradingthe irrigation system and mechanisation.

Many large-scaleproduction areas have been formed, serving both domestic consumption andexport, Soai said, citing the establishment of many vegetable, fruitand husbandry farms in the outskirts districts of Thanh Oai, Soc Son andBa Vi, among many others.

The city has also made efforts toupgrade the transport system in these areas, bring electricity to allhouseholds and help build and repair houses for over 3,800 poorfamilies.

The official highlighted the consensus of localauthorities and people to build new style rural areas and hailed thework undertaken to raise public awareness of the benefits brought by themodel.

He underlined the importance of initiatives andinnovations in management as well as agricultural production,contributing to building the rural infrastructure in a sustainablemanner.

According to the Hanoi Department of Agriculture andRural Development, the average per capita income in the city’s ruralareas reached more than 21 million VND last year and the number of rurallabourers made up about 48 percent of the social workforce.-VNA