The capital city of Hanoi has set to increase the number of its trade villages to 1,500 from now to 2015 in a bid to create jobs for at least half of its rural workers.

This is part of the city’s programme to raise incomes for residents in rural areas, according to the steering committee of the programme.

The development of trade villages will be attached to environmental protection as well as technological renovation to increase the quality of the villages’ products, the committee stated.

The current 1,350 trade villages create much potential for tourism development in the city.

The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism is developing tours to six selected villages in effort to promote this type of tourism in the capital.

Destinations include Van Phuc silk, Bat Trang pottery, Phu Vinh rattan and bamboo, Son Dong fine art sculpture, Du Du sculpture, Quat Dong embroidery and Ngo Ha mother-of-pearl inlay villages.

The city is planning to develop this type of tourism in 14 other traditional trade villages.

The capital city recorded an average Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of 8.91 percent between 2011 and 2013, a 1.5-fold increase against the country’s rate.

In 2013, it contributed 10.1 percent of the country’s GDP, 7.5 percent of export turnover, 17.2 percent of State budget and 21.64 percent of total social investment.

The city surpassed its budget collection target by 0.3 percent, gathering over 160 trillion VND (7.62 billion USD), up 10 percent compared to the previous year.-VNA