IFC helps Bac Ninh reduce environmental pollution

The International Finance Corp (IFC) will work with the Bac Ninh Natural Resources and Environment Department to seek cooperation for reducing environmental pollution at the provincial traditional craft villages, said IFC Vice President Dorothy Berry.

At a working session with authorities of the northern province of Bac Ninh on Tuesday, Dorothy Berry said the Bac Ninh should prioritize the settlement of urgent environmental pollution issue in its traditional craft villages.

Both the host and guest agreed that Bac Ninh’s business and investment environment has been considerably improved thanks to bilateral cooperation programs on the simplification of procedures and enhancement of inter-branch coordination in settling construction investment and land access procedures.

Bac Ninh ranked 10th in the Vietnam province competitiveness index (PCI) in 2009 and is among three leading localities in business environment improvement.

Chairman of the Bac Ninh Provincial People’s Committee Tran Van Tuy proposed the IFC continue cooperating with his province in helping its all eight districts setting up a one-stop business section.

Also on same day, the IFC delegation made a fact-finding tour of the Phong Khe paper craft village in Bac Ninh City where IFC and the province are discussing cooperation possibilities for experimentally reducing environmental pollution.

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More funding to develop Hanoi’s craft villages

Hanoi will provide VND3.6 trillion (US$189 million) to preserve and develop craft villages over 2010-2015 to preserve traditional craft villages, develop tourism and build new ones while ensuring the environment is protected.

The city will prioritise 25 traditional villages that are under threat of falling beyond repair and that need to be restored and preserved.

They include Dong My lacquer village, Dai Ang conical hat village, Nghia Do “sac” paper village, Van Canh “do” paper village and Ngu Xa copper casting village.

The project will help to develop tourism at craft villages, assist family households to maintain their production for tourist purposes, provide finance for vocational training and encourage the production of high quality handicrafts.

The city is also paying more attention to developing new craft villages to help generate jobs and increase local residents incomes.

In order to attract investment to preserve craft villages, Hanoi will grant soft loans to businesses for a duration of 3-5 years, to help them to promote their trade marks and promote craft villages in the city.

Setting up and developing the sale of crafts in domestic and foreign markets with a focus on linking up with supermarkets and trade centres and assisting craft villages to boost exports will be also be conducted.

In order to avoid pollution, the city will encourage craft businesses to move to industrial complexes and help businesses to upgrade their equipment.

At present, Hanoi has almost 1,350 craft villages, making up 59 percent of the country’s total, that provide jobs for over 626,000 people, with an annual average income of VND13.1 million per person.

In 2009, Hanoi’s craft villages earned VND7.65 trillion ($402 million), equal to 8.4 percent of the city’s industrial production value.

According to the Hanoi Centre for Industrial Promotion and Consultancy, despite the assistance to help traditional craft villages in Hanoi , they have encountered many problems.

In order to promote Hanoi’s craft villages, a festival “Thang Long-Hanoi craft villages and streets” will be held in Hanoi between September 16-21.

 

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