Nearly 100 out of the 1,270 craft villages in Hanoi have posted revenues of between 10-50 billion VND per year--some even reaching the hundreds of billions.

Craft villages in Hanoi mainly operate in such industries as ceramics, garments, footwear, sculpture, embroidery, rattan-bamboo weaving, copper casting, jewellery, food processing and metallurgy.

In 2009, Hanoi ’s craft villages reached a combined production value of around 7 trillion VND, accounting for 10 percent of the city’s total industrial-handicraft production value.

The villages boasting the most impressive revenues included the Bat Trang Ceramics Village, with 283 billion VND; the La Phu Village – specialising in weaving and candy making, with 587 billion VND; and the Van Diem Carpentry Village, with 105 billion VND.

The villages now attract nearly 1 million labourers, making up over 42 percent of the total working in the city’s industrial-handicraft sector.

Hanoi has built programmes and projects to develop rural industries with a focus on restoring and developing traditional crafts and craft villages as well as seeking and expanding consumption markets in and outside the country.

The city has also issued a regulation on recognition of the “ Hanoi Traditional Craft Village ” and “Hanoi Artisan” titles in order to preserve and develop craft villages./.