Craft villages in the new "development space"

(Baothanhhoa.vn) - Thanh Hoa is a locality with hundreds of recognized traditional occupations, craft villages and craft villages. Each craft village has its own economic value, historical and cultural values, contributing greatly to the local economic development as well as effectively solving the problem of rural labor. In the new development space - when merging administrative units and local governments at 2 levels, craft villages are opened up a new space with great opportunities for sustainable development.

Le Gia Food and Trading Services Company Limited belongs to Khuc Phu fish sauce craft village, Hoang Thanh commune, developing craft village tourism .

According to economic experts, merging administrative units and implementing a two-level local government will create a large space for the development of rural industries. With a larger market, craft villages and rural industries, especially handicrafts, traditional industries, and high-tech agriculture, will have more opportunities to develop strongly in terms of scale, labor resources, and consumer markets.

As a long-standing craft village, Tien Loc blacksmithing, now in Trieu Loc commune, has its own cultural features, representing the living and production characteristics of local people. In recent years, along with the integration and development process, the craft village has promoted the application of science and technology in production to increase labor productivity, bring high economic efficiency to people and enhance the brand of the product. According to statistics, in the locality, there are 5 enterprises directly engaged in the craft and nearly 1,600 households participating in the blacksmithing profession, attracting about 6,000 workers.

From July 1, 2025, when the whole country merges administrative units and implements a two-level local government, Tien Loc blacksmith village will be under Trieu Loc commune. With a larger administrative boundary, it will open up new opportunities for the craft village to develop both in breadth and depth. Mr. Nguyen Trong Hien, Tien Loc blacksmith village, expects: "With a larger scale and a larger population, the domestic consumption market for products from the craft village will expand. On the other hand, when trade connections between regions in the province are improved, products of Tien Loc blacksmith village will easily access central regions, participate in more trade promotion events, then the ability to consume products will increase".

Each craft village in Thanh Hoa has its own identity, creating unique and sophisticated products. Many of the products of the craft villages have become representative of a region. It was thought that the coastal villages would strongly develop the fish sauce making profession, however, in the 5 coastal communes of Hoang Hoa district (old), only Hoang Phu (now Hoang Thanh commune) has the traditional profession of making fish sauce with the famous folk brand Khuc Phu. The people of Khuc Phu craft village are always proud of their hometown's special fish sauce products. Up to now, the craft village has been over 100 years old, Khuc Phu fish sauce has also become a specialty used as a gift for relatives and friends all over the country and some products have been successfully exported to markets such as: Korea, Taiwan, South Africa, Japan... Not only exploiting "resources" in the field of craft villages, in the new opportunities, the people of Khuc Phu village have joined together to develop tourism. Mr. Le Anh, Director of Le Gia Food and Trade Services Co., Ltd., Hoang Thanh Commune, said: “Craft villages provide tourism with unique cultural values, gift products with strong identity, and tourism opens the way to bring craft villages closer to domestic and foreign tourists, contributing to product consumption, creating more livelihoods for local people. Therefore, from May 2024, the company has opened another direction in the tourism sector to promote traditional crafts in modern factories, contributing to promoting and spreading the quintessence in production and culture of the people of Thanh coastal region to domestic and international tourists”.

Products of Tien Loc forging village, Trieu Loc commune are favored by the market and highly appreciated for their quality.

In fact, the current communes and wards of Thanh Hoa are merged in the original state of administrative boundaries and people of many localities. Therefore, the cultural and craft village values ​​of the locality are enhanced. For example, Hoang Thanh commune is merged in the original state of the communes: Hoang Ngoc, Hoang Phu, Hoang Dong, Hoang Thanh. The new commune after the merger has up to 17 OCOP products, the connection potential of production entities in the linkage to develop experiential tourism in craft villages is very large.

In reality, the formation of new administrative spaces has opened up great opportunities to contribute to the preservation and development of traditional craft villages. However, craft villages in Thanh Hoa are facing many "barriers", such as: unsynchronized infrastructure; difficult transportation, lack of connectivity in warehouses and logistics... Therefore, it is expected that the local authorities at two levels will improve their management and operation capacity to overcome existing shortcomings. At the same time, focus on building cultural value chains for craft village products; support the improvement of production skills of workers in craft villages, especially digital transformation and innovation... so that each craft village has more opportunities to develop in the new stage.

Article and photos: Le Thanh

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/lang-nghe-trong-khong-gian-phat-trien-moi-260583.htm