Hanoi (VNA) – Those who visit Dong Ky Carpentry Village in northern Bac Ninh province for the first time may feel surprised to see multi-storey buildings sitting side-by-side hundreds of company billboards and showrooms.
The carpentry work in Dong Ky village has not only strengthened the connection local people have with their homeland, it has also brought them higher incomes than those in other northern rural areas.
The rate of farmer households in the village has decreased to nearly 10 percent from 80 percent in 1999 as the locals shift from agriculture to fine wood production and carpentry.
Dong Ky is just one example in the growing trend for craft villages in local areas in Vietnam .
Secretary of the Dong Quang communal Party Committee Nguyen Van Quang said there are now about 200 directors of private companies in Dong Ky.
These companies have not only brought in a monthly salary of 1.7 million VND (106 USD) for over 7,000 local labourers, but it has also provided jobs for close to 3,000 others from neighbouring localities, he said.
“ Dong Ky village now has no poor household,” Quang said.
There are now 1.3 million full-time craftsmen and 3-5 million seasonal workers in craft villages across Vietnam annually. The growth of the industry shows how craft villages are increasingly popular way to give farmers the chance to stay on their land but access other livelihoods
According to the Vietnam Association of Craft Villages (Vicrafts), workers at craft villages now enjoy an income of between 600,000 VND and 1.5 million VND (40-94 USD) per month, much higher than earnings from growing rice.
Many localities have seized on developing traditional craft villages and opened new villages as a measure to create alternative income for farmers.
Since 2003, Ho Chi Minh City has developed four craft villages making girdle cake, salt, knitwear and crocodile-skin products, fetching 78 billion VND (4.8 million USD) per year and employing over 10,000 rural labourers.
Bac Ninh province has developed a paper making village into an industrial zone in Phong Khe commune, attracting almost all local residents and more than 1,000 others from neighbouring localities.
Central Nghe An province has also spent 10 billion VND (625,000 USD) on craft training at its 110 villages.
According to Vicrafts , Vietnam now has over 2,000 craft villages whose products have been exported to 50 countries and territories worldwide, earning hundreds of millions of USD.
They said the rate of poor households in the villages is about 4 percent, much lower than the country’s average 14.8 percent.
A 2006-2010 rural craft development project approved by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development focuses on developing consumable and labour-intensive crafts, aiming at attracting an additional 300,000 rural labourers each year.-Enditem
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