Taking advantage of favorable sunny weather, the family of Trinh Xuan Kien in Tho Ha village of Van Ha commune gets up early in the morning to make rice paper.

Thanks to making rice paper, many households in Tho Ha village have a stable source of income.

Kien said he has been making rice paper for more than 20 years. Every day, his family makes about 1,000 rice paper sheets and earns profit of about 400,000 VND (over 17 USD) after deducting the production cost.

The product is sold out every day, so by 9am, many customers want to buy it but he has run out of stock.

Along with his family, more than 32% of the total number of households in Tho Ha village with about 800 workers are keeping the traditional craft of making rice paper and rice crackers.

Local products are famous nationwide. During Tet holiday, the craft village sometimes runs out of stock and cannot meet the needs of customers.

Similarly, Yen Vien craft village in Van Ha commune currently produces rice paper and brews wine with 236 out of 1,139 households working in the profession, reaching a rate of 20.72%. several Van wine products have been recognized as 4-star OCOP products with smooth consumption.

For recent years, through the integration of programs, Viet Yen township has invested in infrastructure, creating conditions for production and business development and more jobs, contributing to the socio-economic development of the locality.

People's lives are increasingly improving. In particular, facing the current situation of narrow roads to craft villages, local authority invested in building a road to connect Tien Son commune with Tho Ha village, thereby creating conditions for goods trading and easing traffic.

Dang Thi Thang, a small trader at Quan Thanh market (Bac Giang city) said: "Thanks to the new road, I dare to drive to Tho Ha to import goods. Previously, I must pass by the narrow section from Yen Vien to Tho Ha which was often congested and I can't get out”.

To have an orientation for developing traditional craft villages, recently, the functional unit of Viet Yen township has coordinated with the Division of Rural Development (Department of Agriculture and Rural Development) to inspect and review the operation of craft villages.

The reality showed that most of current labors are middle-aged and elderly who manually work or work with machinery and their products are mainly sold at domestic market.

Two out of seven craft villages, namely Tho Ha and Yen Vien still have many households and workers following the profession and operating effectively while the rest five villages are gradually fading away with few workers keeping the craft, such as: Nguyet Duc craft village with 25 out of 185 households still working in inland waterway transport; Bay craft village with 102/688 households making rattan and bamboo products; Cham craft village with 25 out of 129 households following bamboo and rattan weaving among others.

The Article 5 of Government’s Decree No. 52/2018/ND-CP dated April 12, 2018 stipulates the criteria for recognizing craft villages and traditional craft villages, including the criterion of at least 20% of the total number of households in the area participating in one of the activities or rural occupations.

A product of Van Village Wine in Yen Vien Hamlet, Van Ha Commune.

Compared with this regulation, the 5 above mentioned craft villages do not meet the criteria. It is forecasted that in the coming time, due to the strong development of industry, trade and services in the area, it will be very difficult to increase the number of households practicing the craft to meet the above criterion.

Based on such situation and legal regulations, the People's Committee of Viet Yen township proposed the Provincial People's Committee and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Bac Giang province to consider revoking the recognition certificates of craft villages and traditional craft villages.

The township will continue paying due attention to supporting and promoting the development of craft villages with stable production and business.

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