A view of Deqing county, Huzhou, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/WeChat account: huzhoufabu]

Huzhou's Deqing county was recently shortlisted as a national model county for rural vitalization by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

This recognition is primarily due to its notable accomplishments in the fields of agriculture, rural tourism, rural governance and urban-rural integrated development.

The local government has set a number of rural development goals to achieve in the years to come. Two of the goals are increasing the output value of Deqing's rural tourism sector to more than 4.5 billion yuan ($692.3 million) and lifting the ratio of the local agricultural product processing output value to agricultural output value to 3.4:1 by 2024.

Authorities also aim to boost agricultural labor productivity to 97,000 yuan per person and raise the yield rate of agricultural land to 9,000 yuan per mu (0.06 hectares).

Efforts to improve rural infrastructure and public service facilities will also be intensified as part of its broad push to have all villages become A level scenic spots.

Deqing will also promote household garbage classification across the county and have all villages utilize poultry feces and be equipped with tidy toilets.

Authorities will ramp up efforts to improve level of democracy and rule of law in rural governance and help increase the income of rural residents. Two of the targets set are raising the per capita disposable income of rural residents to 54,000 yuan and narrowing the urban-rural income ratio to 1.6:1 or less by 2024.