To preserve and develop traditional lacquer craft villages

Tuong Binh Hiep is one of the oldest traditional lacquer craft villages in Thu Dau Mot City. However, the number of households attached to this craft is decreasing. All administrative levels and sectors are implementing many solutions to maintain and develop this craft village.

Nguyen Hoang Thao (middle), Permanent Deputy Secretary of Provincial Party Committee, scrutinizes Tuong Binh Hiep traditional lacquer craft village.

Household number engaged in craft villages drops sharply

Tuong Binh Hiep lacquer craft village combines cultural quintessence of the North with soil, raw materials, hard-working and creative labor force in the South to create distinctive products, which are handed down and developed into unique handicraft products, trusted and favored by domestic and foreign consumers. Due to these important cultural values, this carft village was recognized by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as a national intangible cultural heritage.

According to statistics, in 2001 the craft village had nearly 2,000 engaged households with nearly 4,000 laborers. Currently there are only a few dozen business establishments of lacquer products, mainly creating jobs for leisure workers, local elderly.

The difficulty of Tuong Binh Hiep lacquer craft village is that the young generation no longer has passion for this profession. Therefore, in order to preserve and develop the village, it is necessary to train the next generation who love this craft. Truong Quan Tinh, a business owner of Dinh Hoa lacquer, said that the authorities needed to create favorable conditions to encourage students to enroll in lacquer painting vocational training at provincial Fine Arts College; set up display areas for lacquer products at workplaces of state agencies to attract customers...

According to Le Ba Linh, Vice President of Binh Duong Association of Lacquer and Sculpture, owner of Tu Bon Lacquerware Enterprise, businesses are currently facing many difficulties in terms of environment, advertising, and product consumption. In order to maintain and develop Tuong Binh Hiep lacquer craft village, we need to implement well the proposed solutions; have specific incentive policies for businesses to develop production, attract customers.

Early implementation of the scheme

In order to prevent lacquer villages from disappearing, in recent years, the province has supported Tuong Binh Hiep lacquer craft village in collective branding, tourism development associated with lacquer, financial support for production facilities to ensure environmental hygiene. Besides, in order to honor and create opportunities for craft villages to grow further, People's Committee of Thu Dau Mot City built up a project on conservation and development of Tuong Binh Hiep lacquer craft village in combination with tourism in the city and surrounding areas.

Accordingly, the project focuses on the construction of projects, detailed solutions on infrastructure investment in combination with diverse activities of the tourism industry. The scheme to support creating cohesion and linkage between production facilities, to carry out actual investigation and survey of the status of lacquer production in Tuong Binh Hiep; at the same time, to give financial support, invest in new machinery to protect the environment. Also under the project, the stakeholders also give  vocational training to have a stable source of labor for craft villages to produce, maintain and create a firm foothold in the market, thereby contributing to improving people lives, developing craft villages.

According to leaders of Thu Dau Mot City People's Committee, after the project is approved, the city will announce the project; carrying out investment procedures to build a craft village welcoming gate; proceeding necessary investment steps to build craft village land areas, such as adjusting subdivision planning, making 1/500 detailed planning, land inventory, devising land use plans, setting landmarks, and making compensations... Besides, the city will cooperate with departments and branches in the province to invest in human resource training, trade promotion, application of science and technology, connecting different types of local tourism.

At a recent survey of Tuong Binh Hiep lacquer craft villages, Nguyen Hoang Thao, Deputy Secretary of Provincial Party Standing Committee, said that this was a long-standing traditional craft village of Thu Dau Mot City and was recognized by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as national intangible cultural heritage. Therefore, the implementation of the project in the earliest time is necessary to preserve and develop this traditional village.

After the project is approved, People's Committee of Thu Dau Mot City will quickly implement specific contents of the project with focus on extensive and continuous communication on this project. At the same time, the city collaborates with departments and industries to create favorable conditions for business establishments to promptly update market information, promote products, find customers, learn about State policies...

Reported by Thoai Phuong - Translated by Ngoc Huynh