Many of the nation's craft villages are in a vicious bind as pollution,limited access to loan capital, and a lack of planning are holdingdevelopment back.
This was revealed in an on-line conference held by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) last week.
The conference was reviewing the implementation of the Government's Decree 66 on developing rural jobs introduced in 2006.
Statistics given to the National Assembly Standing Committee reveal thecountry now has nearly 4,600 craft (or trade) villages served by morethan 11 million workers.
The annual growth rate of thevillages has increased by 6 to 15 percent a year and their averageincome is from 450,000 VND to 4 million VND (21-190 USD) a month, 1.5 to4 times higher than farm work.
Although this isencouraging, agricultural officials said the lack of planning by craftvillages in most localities hasresulted in a shortage of productionspace.
Vu Quoc Tuan, chairman of the Vietnam TradeVillages Association, said there is little development in the villages."It's time to introduce breakthrough measures in building a policy andimplementing it, particularly in village planning," he said.
The deputy director of MARD's Department of Processing and Trade forAgro-Forestry-Fisheries Products and Salt Production, An Van Khanh, saidthe lack of planning is the biggest obstacle to more effectivepromotion of rural careers.
He added that difficulties in getting loans created barriers to long-term planning.
According to the State Bank, overdue debts to develop rural industriesreached 53.2 trillion VND (2.5 billion USD) in March, from 20.5 trillionVND (977 million USD) at the end of 2006.
But arepresentative of the southern province of An Giang 's Industry andTrade Department said craft villages are discriminated against in loanaccess, saying that it is much easier for big enterprises. DeputyAgriculture Minister Ho Xuan Hung admitted that many localities arefacing a shortage of capital.
In addition, vocationaltraining for village managers, enterprises and crafts men is yet to meetdemand, the application of advanced science and technology toproduction is sluggish and environmental pollution is becoming serious.
According to a survey by the Institute of Environmental Scienceand Technology at Hanoi University of Science and Technology, 100percent of samples of wastewater from trade villages is polluted.
It claimed that most villages have not satisfied the requirements of environmental protection under the law.
Pham Van Khanh, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of NaturalResources and Environment said that serious craft village pollution is afact, but pleaded for more time to find solutions.
Deputy Minister Ho Xuan Hung urged localities to start mapping out their planning schemes according to their own advantages./.
This was revealed in an on-line conference held by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) last week.
The conference was reviewing the implementation of the Government's Decree 66 on developing rural jobs introduced in 2006.
Statistics given to the National Assembly Standing Committee reveal thecountry now has nearly 4,600 craft (or trade) villages served by morethan 11 million workers.
The annual growth rate of thevillages has increased by 6 to 15 percent a year and their averageincome is from 450,000 VND to 4 million VND (21-190 USD) a month, 1.5 to4 times higher than farm work.
Although this isencouraging, agricultural officials said the lack of planning by craftvillages in most localities hasresulted in a shortage of productionspace.
Vu Quoc Tuan, chairman of the Vietnam TradeVillages Association, said there is little development in the villages."It's time to introduce breakthrough measures in building a policy andimplementing it, particularly in village planning," he said.
The deputy director of MARD's Department of Processing and Trade forAgro-Forestry-Fisheries Products and Salt Production, An Van Khanh, saidthe lack of planning is the biggest obstacle to more effectivepromotion of rural careers.
He added that difficulties in getting loans created barriers to long-term planning.
According to the State Bank, overdue debts to develop rural industriesreached 53.2 trillion VND (2.5 billion USD) in March, from 20.5 trillionVND (977 million USD) at the end of 2006.
But arepresentative of the southern province of An Giang 's Industry andTrade Department said craft villages are discriminated against in loanaccess, saying that it is much easier for big enterprises. DeputyAgriculture Minister Ho Xuan Hung admitted that many localities arefacing a shortage of capital.
In addition, vocationaltraining for village managers, enterprises and crafts men is yet to meetdemand, the application of advanced science and technology toproduction is sluggish and environmental pollution is becoming serious.
According to a survey by the Institute of Environmental Scienceand Technology at Hanoi University of Science and Technology, 100percent of samples of wastewater from trade villages is polluted.
It claimed that most villages have not satisfied the requirements of environmental protection under the law.
Pham Van Khanh, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of NaturalResources and Environment said that serious craft village pollution is afact, but pleaded for more time to find solutions.
Deputy Minister Ho Xuan Hung urged localities to start mapping out their planning schemes according to their own advantages./.
