The land that crystallizes cultural values

Hoa Binh province is home to many ethnic groups, including the Muong ethnic group - accounting for 63.3%; Kinh ethnic group - 27.73%; Thai ethnic group - 3.9%; Dao ethnic group - 1.7%; Tay ethnic group - 2.7%; Mong ethnic group - 0.52%. There are also Chinese and other ethnic groups living throughout the province.

After thousands of years of development, ethnic groups in Hoa Binh province have built a unique and diverse culture. This is the ancient land where Vietnamese prehistoric ancestors lived, which is proven through many legendary epics such as Mo Muong, Em Yet, Tan Vien Son Thanh...

Hoa Binh is also the land of gongs, of unique festivals of the Northwestern region, of ethnic folk arts as well as sweet folk songs.

Hoa Binh province has 786 intangible cultural heritages; 105 historical and cultural relics including 41 national relics, 64 provincial relics, and nearly 300 unranked relics. Hoa Binh Provincial Museum currently preserves 18,003 artifacts.

These are great potentials that play an important role in developing the province's cultural career. Therefore, in recent years, preserving and promoting cultural values and cultural heritage has always been highly valued and invested by the local authorities.

One of the main tasks and solutions stated in the Resolution of the 17th Hoa Binh Provincial Party Congress, the 2020 - 2025 term is: Mobilizing resources to preserve, embellish and promote the unique cultural identity of ethnic minorities in the province associated with tourism development; submitting to UNESCO the Mo Muong intangible cultural heritage profile for being recognized as intangible culture in need of urgent protection.

In order to bring the Party's resolution to life, effectively preserve and promote the value of cultural heritage, bringing the value of cultural heritage into social life, the Standing Committee of the Hoa Binh Provincial Party Committee issued Resolution No. 04-NQ/TU on preserving and promoting the value of cultural heritage of ethnic groups in Hoa Binh province in the period 2021 - 2025, with a vision to 2030 in October 2021.

The resolution sets 6 groups of solutions, including strengthening the Party's leadership and the State's management over the task of preserving and promoting the value of ethnic cultural heritage; enhancing the application of science and technology; raising awareness, disseminating and teaching of cultural heritage; promoting linkages in the production of cultural industrial goods; mobilizing resources for the preservation and promotion of cultural heritage values of ethnic groups...

The work of preserving and promoting the cultural values of ethnic groups in Hoa Binh has achieved significant outcomes. Notably, it has restored and developed unique cultural values such as the festivals of Tien pagoda, Khai Ha Muong Bi, Bo temple, Xen Muong..., bringing the number of festivals at all levels that are restored and maintained to 59.

The province annually organizes nearly 50 classes teaching folk arts and hundreds of classes teaching the ethnic languages of Muong, Dao, Tay, Thai, and Mong. It has built a number of traditional cultural villages and dozens of community cultural tourism villages at the provincial level.

As the place where the first and most archaeological relics of the Hoa Binh Culture were discovered in Vietnam, in late 2022, Hoa Binh province coordinated with relevant agencies to organize a series of events to celebrate the 90th anniversary of world recognition and naming of Hoa Binh Culture (1932 - 2022). Through specific activities, the local government has aroused people's pride in the nation's intangible cultural values and a sense of preservation and promotion.

To preserve the unique cultural values of Hoa Binh, the local government has proposed the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to recognize 4 intangible cultural heritages of Hoa Binh - Mo Muong Hoa Binh, Hoa Binh Muong Gong art, Khai Ha festival of Muong ethnic group, Doi calendar - as national intangible cultural heritages. Currently, the national dossier for Mo Muong cultural heritage is being completed to submit to UNESCO for being recognized as intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent protection.

Well preserving and promoting unique cultural values, Hoa Binh province has been moving closer to the goal of turning tourism into a key economic sector so that Hoa Binh will become an attractive destination with typical tourism products, a major tourist center of the Northern midland and mountainous region.

Preserving cultural values needs to be associated with promoting them in real life. Preserving traditional cultural beauty must be combined with eliminating bad customs, absorbing the quintessence of human culture, building a healthy and advanced cultural environment, but still rich in identity.

Recently there have been positive signs about conservation work among the people such as the development of the traditional festival system; the development of Muong Gongs; the value of Mo Muong and the role of shaman have been respected and honored by the people. Many classes teaching Dao, Tay, Thai, Mong languages and performing Muong gongs and Muong dances have been organized... This shows that people's consciousness has changed positively. People are proud of their intangible cultural values, so they are conscious of preserving and promoting them.

Fast and sustainable economic development

Hoa Binh province also has huge economic potential. Located at the gateway to the Northwest region, with specific advantages in geography and climate, Hoa Binh has good conditions to develop a safe and effective agricultural sector, especially some agricultural products such as Cao Phong orange, Tan Lac red grapefruit, Da River fish and shrimp...

Hoa Binh also has a lot of potential to develop various types of tourism such as eco-tourism, resort tourism, cultural - spiritual tourism, especially after the Hoa Binh Lake tourist area was planned to be a national tourist area. Hoa Binh province is striving to develop typical tourism products, to become a major tourism center of the Northern midland and mountainous region.

Many traditional festivals in the province have contributed to promoting national cultural identity and to serving the spiritual life of the people, attracting both domestic and international tourists. Hoa Binh has been gradually promoting an impressive and attractive image of its people and cultural identity to domestic and international friends.

In 2023, the province focuses on promoting socio-economic recovery and development; effectively implementing strategic breakthroughs, economic restructuring associated with growth model innovation, improving productivity, quality, efficiency and competitiveness of the provincial economy, promoting rapid and sustainable economic growth;

Developing industry and services, tourism, improving the quality of agricultural development associated with building new rural areas; improving business investment, the province's competitiveness, and at the same time supporting the development of businesses; attracting and mobilizing resources to invest in technical infrastructure; drastically implementing key projects;

Promoting digital transformation, applying scientific and technological advances, creating new driving force for the province's socio-economic development; promoting economic development hand in hand with cultural development and implementation of social security policies, social welfare and improvement of people's lives, achieving the goal of sustainable poverty reduction;

Enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of resource management and environmental protection, effectively responding to climate change, and proactively preventing natural disasters; Promoting administrative reform, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the state management apparatus; Expanding and improving the effectiveness of foreign affairs and international integration; Maintaining political security, social order and safety, and ensuring national defense and security; Strengthening effective information and communication work and creating social consensus.

In the last 4 months of 2023, the local authorities will focus on completing the planning of Hoa Binh province until 2030, with a vision to 2050 to submit to the government for approval.

Other tasks include: Proactively grasping the situation of production and business activities of enterprises in industrial zones and industrial clusters in the province, especially enterprises operating in the field of import and export, key enterprises in the field of garment, electronics production, construction materials production; Encouraging and creating favourable conditions for businesses and production facilities to apply scientific and technological advances in production;

Strengthening trade promotion and market management to promote domestic trade and export; Maintaining and improving the effectiveness of trade connection activities for businesses; Mobilizing businesses to actively participate in the campaign "Vietnamese people prioritize the use of made-in-Vietnam products";

Closely monitoring developments in supply and demand of goods and services, and the production and business situation of essential goods to ensure sufficient supply of essential goods to meet demand; Strengthening detection, prevention, and handling of cases of production and trading of counterfeit goods, poor quality goods, and other commercial fraud;

Focus on implementing solutions to improve the business investment environment and enhance competitiveness; effectively implementing the DDCI Index to evaluate the capacity of district-level authorities and local departments and branches;

Strengthening state management of construction investment projects using public capital; Accelerating the implementation and disbursement of public investment capital, ensuring disbursement of over 90% of the assigned public investment capital for 2023;

Directing and resolving problems in site clearance work; Strengthening inspection and urging investors and contractors to speed up implementation of projects, especially key ones, such as the projects to expand Hoa Lac - Hoa Binh expressway, Hoa Binh - Moc Chau expressway (section from Km19-Km53 in Hoa Binh province);

Actively accelerating the progress of other key traffic projects in the province such as: the road linking Hoa Binh - Hanoi and Son La expressway (Hoa Binh - Moc Chau), the road connecting irrigation transport infrastructure of Hoa Binh province with national transport infrastructure, the road connecting Luong Son town - Xuan Mai (Hanoi), the road linking Tran Hung Dao Street to Dan Chu commune and National Highway 6;

Coordinating with the Ministry of Transport to invest in the construction of national highways and other important traffic projects managed by the Ministry of Transport in Hoa Binh province;

Building unique, high-quality tourism products associated with preserving and promoting cultural traditions, identity, and beauty of nature and people of Hoa Binh;

Implementing synchronously and effectively tasks and solutions to develop human resources, especially high-quality human resources to serve key industries and promoting vocational training associated with creating jobs for ethnic minority people in remote areas; Reviewing and restructuring colleges in the area; Researching and preparing necessary conditions to establish higher education institutions to meet the requirements of high-quality human resource training.

Quynh Nga