Many disappearing craft villages

At 5 am, Truong Thi Kiem and her husband in Yen Vien village, Van Ha commune finishes several steps to make rice papers. After investing more than 60 million VND (over 2,500 USD) to buy an automatic electric machine, the rice paper making process is shorten down to two hours instead of the whole day as previously. Every day, her family produces about 8,000 rice papers.

Family of Dinh Van Tien in Chua village, Tang Tien commune produces bamboo dish cover.

In order to produce this quantity, her family must hire a labor so they only earn about 500,000 VND per day after deducting the cost.

Kiem shared that the family used to produce traditional wine. For nearly 10 years, the traditional wine has been consumed difficultly so she switched to produce rice paper.

However, the income is only enough to cover the couple's life, her children chose to be workers and quit traditional jobs.

According to Nguyen Xuan Doan, Head of Yen Vien village, the village has nearly 1,140 households. It is a traditional wine production village but now there are only about 200 households keeping the craft. However, only half of them operate regularly while the remaining only produce when receiving order. Many households have switched to produce rice paper, rice crackers or quit their jobs.

In 2015, Tang Tien commune had about 1,200 households producing various bamboo and rattan products to serve both domestic and foreign customers. Local income is mainly from bamboo and rattan craft. Currently, 4 craft villages in the commune only have about 400 households.

Currently, a few households in Nguyet Duc craft village in Van Ha commune are providing the river transport service. Most households do not have money to buy large ships and boats so it is difficult to compete.

Developing craft villages in association with tourism development

Viet Yen district has 7 traditional craft villages recognized by the provincial People's Committee since 2010. There are 4 bamboo and rattan craft villages in Tang Tien commune, including Chua, Bay, Cham and Phuc Long villages while 3 remaining villages belong to Van Ha commune, including: Nguyet Duc (river transport); Yen Vien (traditional wine), Tho Ha (rice paper and pottery). Each can earn revenue of 5 to more than 250 billion VND per year.

At this time, only Yen Vien and Tho Ha craft villages still have many households keeping their jobs and developing production. The remaining ones maintain moderate operation.

According to Viet Yen district Economic Division, the main reason is that the most of production facilities in craft villages have small-scale scattering in residential areas with outdated production equipment and technology. So the product quality and competitiveness are not high, leading to unstable output.

The process of urbanization and rural labor shift causes young workers to leave the craft villages and find jobs in industrial parks to earn higher incomes.

Amid current situation, Viet Yen district has had many policies to support the conservation and promotion of traditional craft villages. Particularly, in addition to the industrial promotion fund of the province, the district also supported to construct roads, Van Ha craft village cluster (total area of 2.2 hectares) Tang Tien industrial cluster (total area of more than 36 hectares), waste and waste water collection and treatment as well as build craft village products into OCOP products to increase the competitiveness.

Vice Chairman of the District People's Committee Than Van Thuan informed that the district proposed the Provincial People's Committee to assist the capital structure and reasonable investment for the craft village development program.

The district oriented to support local craft villages to access to advanced machinery and equipment so as to improve the productivity and lower product costs.

The district developed mechanisms and policies to encourage and facilitate the businesses and production establishments to participate in craft village activities. Local authority increased capital to support the construction of craft village infrastructure and attracted investment in order to move the production facilities in the craft villages and rural residential areas with limited production space, causing environmental pollution to rural areas and handicraft area.

In the coming time, the district will focus on building craft village tourism models, ensure socio-economic development factors, environmental protection and sustainable craft village development.

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