VietNamNet Bridge – They are called “traditional craft villages”, but many of them don’t produce unique craft items. They are merely villages with a trade, which runs in backward and ragged ways.

 

The National Assembly’s Supervisory Committee has made a field trip to some craft villages in central Vietnam.

 

Visiting the Hoa Vinh pottery village, a member of the working group said that Hoa Vinh’s products cannot compete with famous pottery brands in Vietnam, like Bat Trang and Minh Long, as well as with Chinese products.

 

With over 30 families making potteries, Hoa Vinh pottery village is using small, rudimentary kilns to produce normal potter items. Meanwhile, locals are facing environmental pollutions caused by their kilns.

 

In other craft villages, craftsmen are trying to maintain their traditional trades though their products are not favored in the market.

 

Craft villages in the central region (Binh Dinh, Khanh Hoa, Phu Yen provinces) are smaller and more backward than those in northern Vietnam. Some provinces have issued policies to encourage investment in craft villages, but these policies don’t work effectively. Standards for traditional craft villages are not legalized yet.

 

In Phu Yen province alone, there are 18 craft villages with nearly 7,000 craftsmen but none of them have waste treatment systems.

 

Deputy Chief of the General Department of Environment, Le Ke Son said that if Vietnam tries to preserve craft villages without comprehensive investment and sci-tech assistance, it is like preserving the backwardness.

 

Son analyzed that Vietnam should consider to continue preserving and developing craft villages which produce backward and rudimentary products, or only those which make unique traditional products. For the second, the government should assist them to change production modes to restrict environmental impacts.

 

Head of the National Assembly’s working group – National Assembly Vice Chair, Nguyen Duc Kien said that it is needed to put an end to the operation of brick kilns in residential areas and systematically restructure craft villages. The first tasks include the issuance of village regulations for craft villages and certificates of craft villages. In Khanh Hoa province, 100 percent of craft villages have not recognized.

 

Nghiem Vu Khai, Vice Chair of the National Assembly’s Committee for Science, Technology and Environment, a member of the working group, proposed to build a separate complex of craft villages in Binh Dinh province.

 

Phu Yen Province’s Vice Chair, Le Van Truc said that the province will invest in selected craft villages and abolish uncharacteristic villages.

 

Le Nhung