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