One Village One Product (OVOP) was the theme that attracted over 500 delegates from 16 nations and numerous organisations interested in rural craft villages to a workshop in Hanoi on December 14.

The OVOP movement has been expanding in Japan , China , Thailand and several African countries as it brings in a high economic value for rural workers involved in production, processing and marketing. The Vietnamese Government has seen it a model to realise its policy on building new rural lifestyles.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), Cao Duc Phat, emphasised that Vietnamese efforts to develop craft villages are aimed at fulfilling the country’s UN millennium goals to reduce poverty.

He said the policy would help to generate employment, increase the incomes of rural workers, tap into natural resources and contribute to conserving the country’s cultural traditions to sustain rural development.

MARD reported that Vietnam is home to 2,790 crafts villages that specialise in various fields, ranging from lacquer work to porcelain, embroidery, wickerwork, weaving, paper production, paintings, wooden furniture and stone sculptures. Craft villages have provided over 11 million jobs for rural workers with incomes ranging from one to three million VND per month.

Statistics show that the poverty rates in crafts villages have now dropped to 3.7 percent against the national average of 10.4 percent.

The revenues from fine art exports have increased from 273 million USD in 2000 to 900 million USD in 2009.

The organisers, including MARD, the Oita OVOP Association and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), said that the visitors will be shown around Bat Trang porcelain village and Phu Vinh wickerwork village in Hanoi ’s suburbs./.