Thua Thien – Hue focuses attention on One Commune-One Product hinh anh 1Paper flower making in Thanh Tien village in Phu My commune of Thua Thien - Hue. The village is well-known for its 300-year craft of making paper flowers. (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – The central province of Thua Thien – Hue has defined priorities for its One Commune – One Product (OCOP) programme during 2018-2020, which are mostly local specialties and services.

There are six groups of products being targeted, which are food, beverages, herbal medicines, fabric and garment making, souvenir-decoration-interior, and rural tourism and sale services, in line with the national OCOP programme.

Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Van Phuong said the OCOP programme responds to both the needs of developing tourism and building new style rural areas in combination with restructuring the agricultural sector. 

The provincial agricultural department is assigned to coordinate with local administrations to make a list of key and advantageous products of each locality along with assessment of the technological level, capital and labour related to each product, towards building the OCOP project to be carried out in the province during 2018-2020. 

In 2015-2017, Thua Thien – Hue spent more than 42 billion VND (over 1.82 million USD) on a similar programme called One Village – One Craft – One Product. It will continue to implement this scheme in 2018 and beyond.

The OCOP programme is expected to create more jobs for the rural workforce, who are usually idle outside of the two main cultivation crops of Winter-Spring and Summer-Autumn.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) launched the One Commune, One Product (OCOP) programme worth nearly 45 trillion VND (about 2 billion USD) in May this year.

According to the Central Coordination Office on New Rural Development, OCOP is an economic development programme in rural areas focusing on increasing internal power and values, contributing to the implementation of the National Target Programme on New Rural Development for 2016-2020.

The programme aims to produce and offer quality products and services that are competitive at home and abroad, with priority given to cooperatives and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It is also expected to raise local income and meet national criteria on new-style rural areas for 2016-2020.-VNA
VNA