OCOP drives rural economic development

The One Commune One Product (OCOP) program, implemented synchronously in the province, has become an important solution for the rural economy to break through in the direction of endogenous development and increase the value of agricultural products; thereby, improving production value, increasing people's income, and creating a solid foundation contributing to the successful implementation of the program of building new countryside.

Green-skinned pomelo of Dong Thuan Phat Agricultural Cooperative at Thuong Tan commune of Bac Tan Uyen district is certified 3-star OCOP product

Promoting potentials and advantages

Program for 2021-2025 with the goal of developing OCOP in order to promote the potential and advantages of rural areas, improve people's income, and contribute to the restructuring of the agricultural sector in association with development of handicrafts, trades, services and rural tourism. The focus is on a number of key contents as organizing the implementation of a flexible and appropriate OCOP cycle in the direction of developing the OCOP value chain associated with the local raw material area, promoting training activities, focusing on skills in production organization, management, quality management, food safety, skills in product design, intellectual property, traceability, improving the quality of product management, and promoting trade promotion activities for OCOP.

The program on rural tourism development in new rural construction in 2021-2025 is identified as one of the key solutions and tasks to develop the rural economy in association with new rural construction. The objective of the program is to promote rural tourism development in association with promoting the potential and advantages of agriculture, craft villages, culture and ecological environment of localities in order to improve the quality of material and spiritual life of rural people, contributing to rural economic restructuring towards multi-value integration, inclusiveness and sustainable development.

To implement the rural tourism development program, it is necessary to focus on the following contents of propaganda, perfecting mechanisms, policies and guiding documents for program implementation, training to foster professional tourism management, forming tours, rural tourist routes associated with conservation and promotion of cultural values and environmental protection, organizing events to introduce and connect supply and demand.

Sustainable development of rural economy

The specific goal of Binh Duong for 2021-2025 is to maintain the annual OCOP program in six consecutive steps sequentially as propaganda and guidance on OCOP, reception of product idea registration, production and business plans and projects, implementation of production and business plans and projects, product reviews and ratings, and promotion in 100% of communes in the province having products participating in the OCOP program. At least 150 subjects registered to participate in the program. At least 80 products with 3 stars or more are certified for OCOP at the provincial level; at least, 3 products with 5 stars are certified for national OCOP. The quality of human resources is improved for 100% of state management staff in the OCOP system (province, district, commune) and leaders of enterprises/cooperatives participating in OCOP.

According to Vang Phuoc Hau - Deputy Director of the Rural Development Sub-Department, after 3 years of implementation, the OCOP program has reached many people and businesses. Propaganda, trade promotion activities along with the success of previous actors have created a strong motivation for new participants. At present, people have basically understood the purpose and meaning of the OCOP program and focused on producing and improving product quality and value. Thanks to the OCOP program, many localities have seen their potentials and strengths and have appropriate solutions in production organization.

For Binh Duong and on the basis of the agricultural development orientation in the new period, OCOP has created a breakthrough in the field of "three aspects of agriculture". The reality has shown that although the production area and the share of agriculture in the economic structure tend to decrease, the absolute number in this field has increased, especially the implementation of the program on agricultural construction. Binh Duong is one of the typical localities in the country in such fields as farmers' lives are increasingly improved, enhanced, and many "farmer billionaires" appear. More importantly, OCOP has created an impetus for all economic sectors to invest strongly in the agricultural sector with the formation of hi-tech agricultural production zones to "inspire" farmers to form cooperatives for agricultural production, applying science and technology to build brands.

Reported by Thoai Phuong – Translated by Vi Bao