Ha Noi seeks to add value to handicraft products

Illustration photo

The OVOP initiative aimed to create a cultural event serving local people at weekend, while seeking to advertise and add value to the products made by traditional craft villages.

According to Director of the Investment, Trade and Tourism Promotion Center Nguyen Gia Phuong, Ha Noi currently has 1,350 craft villages, accounting for nearly 80% of the country’s total figure. 

Some notable names, including the Van Phuc silk village, the Bat Trang pottery village, the Phu Vinh bamboo and rattan weaving village, the Chuyen My mosaic village and the Ha Thai lacquer village, have become well known both at home and abroad.

Handicraft and fine art products are considered among Viet Nam’s ten sectors with the largest export potential and value. 

However, craft villages are still facing difficulties concerning infrastructure and services; lacking a professional team of product designing and development and centers for designing, creating and showcasing products; and having limited access to capital and material sources. Particularly, handicraft products are poor in terms of design, quality and competitiveness, and low in prices and added value.

Despite the State’s attention to boosting trade promotion, few long-term and effective support programs and measures for manufactures and traders of handicraft goods have been implemented to manufacture products of high quality and commercial value and create an impetus for sustainable development of craft villages, Phuong said.

It was the first time Ha Noi organized an exhibition following the OVOP model. The event sought to expand trade promotion activities and attract more tourists to the capital, thereby bringing the position of Ha Noi’s craft villages to a new height.

With 36 pavilions symbolizing Ha Noi’s 36 streets, the exhibition brought together famous handicraft and fine art products from craft villages across the city, which joined a light show from lamp products of different materials around the Ly Thai To flower park and the Hoan Kiem Lake walking space to make strong impressions on local citizens and visitors.

Participating in the exhibition, Vu Thi Le Ha from the Ha Thai lacquer village noted that OVOP was a meaningful event to all craft villages across Ha Noi. Through the exhibition, Ha Thai’s lacquer products in particular and handicraft products from other villages as a whole would come closer to local citizens as well as tourists from both at home and abroad.

Nguyen Bich Nu from the Dinh Cong silverware-making village hailed the event as a business opportunity that would help preserve the longstanding tradition of craft villages. She suggested the municipal authorities implement more support policies for craft villages through the forms of organizing exhibitions, fairs and trade promotion activities, thereby contributing to preserving and promoting traditions and accelerating the development of craft villages.

By Vien Nhu