Lesson 1: Starting a business from the village
Innovative start-up activities among union members and youth in rural areas in Nghe An are increasingly vibrant, deeply exploiting the advantages and potentials of the locality. With the support of all levels, sectors, and Youth Union chapters, many young people have been empowered mentally and materially to boldly implement their start-up ideas, thereby developing OCOP products.
CREATE "SOUL" FOR WOOD
Born and raised in a family with a tradition of carpentry, since childhood, Mr. Tran Ngoc Huy (born in 1992) in Tho Son hamlet, Tho Hop commune, Quy Hop district has had a passion for wood carving art, and dreamed of "creating a soul for wood". Graduated from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Industry in 2015, after graduating, Huy continued to equip himself with knowledge about wood handicrafts.
I spent time traveling to many places to learn, practice my skills and learn new things. After the process of learning and exploring, I returned to my hometown Tho Hop commune, opened a wood painting workshop and improved my skills by accepting orders to carve and engrave wood images that people brought to me.
Mr. Tran Ngoc Huy - Tho Son hamlet, Tho Hop commune, Quy Hop district
Time has passed until now, nearly 4 years, when he was confident in his skills, Huy boldly invested in more advanced machinery to produce decorative details on wooden materials, reducing labor, increasing productivity and product quality, and speeding up the processing process to produce goods in large quantities. Total investment capital is 700 million VND; revenue is about 400 million VND/year; profit is about 250 million VND/year, products are sold in the province and other provinces and cities. Huy's wooden handicraft production facility is creating jobs for 4 workers, with an average income of 6 million VND/person/month.
“Tho Hop commune is mostly inhabited by Tho ethnic people, many families have perennial garden trees such as jackfruit and teak, which are ready to be exploited to replace new trees. With the rich and diverse garden wood resources in the locality, we always ensure a stable and quality source of input materials for the production workshop. I take advantage of local raw materials in the commune and district, and my own skills to create wooden paintings”, Huy shared.
Mr. Tran Duc Tho - Secretary of Tho Hop Commune Party Committee said: Although the scale of the facility is not large, it is very meaningful in encouraging the youth movement to develop the local economy. The production facility has helped many households in the district earn significant income from garden trees and salvaged wood. During the production process, the facility creates a large amount of sawdust, which is a large source of raw materials for the Commune Farmers' Association to organize mushroom cultivation, creating a strong relationship between local people and business households. In 2022, Mr. Tran Ngoc Huy's wooden painting products (successful horse, wooden calendar) were certified as typical provincial-level rural industrial products and 3-star OCOP products.
Currently, Quy Hop district has 8 products achieving "3 stars" (including: tea bags of Solanum procumbens, freeze-dried pennywort powder, honey of Tinh Sang Duong Agricultural Cooperative, Yen Hop commune; clean Sinh Nhan oranges of Sinh Nhan Cooperative, Nghia Xuan commune; Luat Hong chicken of the town's Agricultural Service Cooperative; handicraft wooden paintings of Tran Ngoc Huy business household, Tho Hop commune; dried pineapple and dried squash products of Hasafood Nghe An Joint Stock Company) and 1 product upgraded to 4 stars (crispy dried jackfruit products of Hasafood Nghe An Joint Stock Company). TheseOCOP productsIn which Ngoc Huy fine art wooden paintings are expected to be breakthrough products for Quy Hop district in the coming time.
ENHANCE LOCAL AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS
Besides Tran Ngoc Huy exploiting the economic value of wood products, linking to create more jobs and jobs for local workers, startup competitions have helped hundreds of union members and young people in districts and towns choose the economic path from the products of their own villages. Among them, in 2023, there were 2 "bosses" and "owners" of young businesses who grew up from the "playground" of the "Youth Startup Ideas and Projects" Contest. They "surpassed" hundreds of typical young entrepreneurs from 63 provinces and cities across the country to be awarded the Luong Dinh Cua Award in 2023 with 43 typical examples by the Central Youth Union. They are "9X" union members Pham Van Tuan (born in 1991) and Tran Thi Hong Tham (born in 1992).
Born and raised in his hometown of Nam Nghia (Nam Dan), Pham Van Tuan, with the intention of exploiting the value of local agricultural products, even though he studied Information Technology, he still chose to start a business in his hometown. And the product he chose is food processed from the livestock specialty of Nam Nghia commune - pork roll.
In July 2020, after a period of understanding the market and surveying raw materials, Tuan cooperated with some friends to establish Me Nam Nghia Cooperative. Knowing how to take advantage of local products to meet quality requirements, combining the information technology knowledge learned, both mobilizing capital to invest in quality products and promoting effectively, after only a short time, the quantity supplied to the market by the cooperative reached 100 tons/year. At the same time, the "village" products of Me Nam Nghia Cooperative also achieved 4-star OCOP and were sold to many provinces and cities across the country, entering the famous supermarket distribution system... Although he is a "boss" in the business field, Pham Van Tuan still maintains his participation in grassroots Youth Union movements, participates in the Youth Club for local economic development, contributing to "igniting the fire" for union members and young people in his hometown to boldly develop the economy.
Sharing the same idea of starting a business from her hometown, Ms. Tran Thi Hong Tham in Quynh Van commune (Quynh Luu) chose a product that people in the coastal area of Quynh Luu have produced for hundreds of years to start a business, which is salt. However, with her youth, knowledge, research, and support from her family and the authorities, Tham invested in research.improve the quality and value of salt grainsin the direction of deep processing, serving the needs of human health care. Since then, among more than 20 products processed from salt, there have been 3 products recognized as 3-star OCOP products called Nanosalt.
Tham's success in starting a business has opened up a way to deeply exploit the value and enhance the agricultural products of Quynh farmers. Tran Thi Hong Tham's enterprise was certified by the Department of Science and Technology as a science and technology enterprise of Nghe An province. The Nanosalt technology project was highly appreciated by the National Science Council and was awarded the Third Prize by the Inter-Ministerial Organizing Committee - National VIFOTEC Award in 2022 and Tran Thi Hong Tham was awarded a Certificate of Merit for Creative Youth by the Central Youth Union; and awarded the Luong Dinh Cua Award in 2023.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong Thuy - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Youth Union said that, with the effective implementation of the program "One Commune One Product", Nghe An currently has more than 400 products ranked OCOP 3 stars or higher, of which a large number are models and products of young people, especially in rural areas. In addition to coordinating to support union members and youth in borrowing capital and consulting on start-up support policies, the Youth Union at all levels also proactively connects and seeks outputs for OCOP products for young people such as connecting supply and demand, displaying youth booths at exhibitions, start-up competitions, especially models and start-up projects from "village products"...
