More funding to develop Hanoi’s craft villages

Hanoi will provide 3.6 trillion VND (189 million USD) to preserve and develop craft villages over 2010-2015 to preserve traditional craft villages, develop tourism and build new ones while ensuring the environment is protected.
The city will prioritise 25 traditional villages that are under threat of falling beyond repair and that need to be restored and preserved. They include Dong My lacquer village, Dai Ang conical hat village, Nghia Do “sac” paper village, Van Canh “do” paper village and Ngu Xa copper casting village.
The project will help to develop tourism at craft villages, assist family households to maintain their production for tourist purposes, provide finance for vocational training and encourage the production of high quality handicrafts.
The city is also paying more attention to developing new craft villages to help generate jobs and increase local residents’ incomes.
In order to attract investment to preserve craft villages, Hanoi will grant soft loans to businesses for duration of 3-5 years, to help them to promote their trade marks and promote craft villages in the city.
Setting up and developing the sale of crafts in domestic and foreign markets with a focus on linking up with supermarkets and trade centers and assisting craft villages to boost exports will be also be conducted.
In order to avoid pollution, the city will encourage craft businesses to move to industrial complexes and help businesses to upgrade their equipment.
At present, Hanoi has almost 1,350 craft villages, making up 59 percent of the country’s total, that provide jobs for over 626,000 people, with an annual average income of 13.1 million VND per person.
In 2009, Hanoi’s craft villages earned 7.65 trillion VND (402 million USD), equal to 8.4 percent of the city’s industrial production value.
According to the Hanoi Centre for Industrial Promotion and Consultancy, despite the assistance to help traditional craft villages in Hanoi, they have encountered many problems.
In order to promote Hanoi’s craft villages, a festival “Thang Long-Hanoi craft villages and streets” will be held in Hanoi between September 16-21.