Motivation from craft village development

(Baonghean) - Solving employment and income for people is one of the constant concerns of Nghi Loc district. With the orientation of economic development as the focus and Party building as the key, in the 2010 - 2015 term, Nghi Loc Party Committee has been successful in leading the construction and development of small-scale handicraft villages based on the potential and advantages of the locality. Thereby promoting socio-economic development, improving people's lives.

Bustling craft villages

One of the strong marks of the 2010 - 2015 term of Nghi Loc district is the strong development of traditional handicraft villages in both quantity and quality, while introducing new occupations suitable to local conditions.

Building a ship with a capacity of over 1,000 CV at Mr. Nguyen Gia Quang's workshop (Nghi Thiet, Nghi Loc). Photo: Tl

Together with Nghi Thiet commune officials, we visited Trung Kien shipbuilding village. Visiting the village, Mr. Vo The Xam - Deputy Head of the Cooperative said: Nghi Thiet shipbuilding village has been established and developed for over 700 years. After a difficult period due to the change of mechanism, with the attention and support of all levels, the craft village has been restored and developed strongly. Trung Kien Shipbuilding Cooperative was established in 2004 from a number of workshops, up to now there are 33 workshops with nearly 40 members, each workshop builds an average of 5-7 ships, each year the Cooperative builds about 100 ships and boats of all kinds. Unlike other places, Trung Kien shipbuilding village has a team of highly skilled workers and many generations of secret experience, so the products are of high quality and trusted by customers... Mr. Nguyen Gia Quang, the owner of the shipbuilding facility, said: "Although most of the shipbuilding stages have been mechanized, the role of workers cannot be replaced. To process wood for large ships, although machines support, the experience and techniques of the workers determine the product."

The newly established Party Cell of the People's Credit Fund of Nghi Xuan Commune (Nghi Loc) has promoted its leadership role in production and business activities. Photo: TL

With its history and development, in 2014, Trung Kien shipbuilding village was honored to be the only representative of Nghe An craft village to be awarded the title of one of the 10 typical handicraft villages of the country by the President. Honoring the shipbuilders in Trung Kien, Mr. Nguyen Trong Nho in Dinh hamlet was awarded the title of Shipbuilding Artisan...

In addition to the famous boat building craft village, Nghi Thiet commune also has a civil carpentry profession. Of the more than 500 carpenters in Trung Kien village (including 3 hamlets with the profession), there are 150 workers doing civil carpentry. This is a place for "training" to create a source of workers for the shipbuilding profession, which requires higher techniques and brings an average income of 5 - 6 million/person/month. Comrade Le Dang Nguyen - Standing Deputy Secretary of Nghi Thiet Commune Party Committee said: "Thanks to the development of the handicraft village, the commune's economy has had a positive structural shift, the economic growth rate in the past term reached 13%/year. To promote the development of the craft village in the coming time, the commune has completed the "Project for Developing Craft Villages to 2020", which will focus on removing obstacles in planning and infrastructure for more sustainable development".

Export rattan and bamboo weaving village in Nghi Thai. Photo: TL

A highlight of Nghi Loc district is that there are many traditional occupations that do not require much capital but are highly effective, creating jobs and income for local people. These are the vermicelli and cake handicraft villages in Hau Hoa and Trung Thanh (Nghi Hoa), the Com cake handicraft village in Dong Thuan (Nghi Trung), or the Do paper handicraft village in Nghi Phong, and bamboo and rattan weaving in Nghi Thai....

From a purely agricultural village, thanks to the vermicelli and cake making profession, Hau Hoa village (Nghi Hoa) has changed its appearance. Out of a total of 106 households, 70 households make vermicelli and cake; people have jobs and stable incomes, so their lives are increasingly improved; security and order are maintained. Receiving us, Mr. Nguyen Van Toan - Owner of the vermicelli and cake production facility in Hau Hoa village (Nghi Hoa) shared: "Previously, production by manual methods was very hard and not very effective; the whole village produced only a few quintals of rice per month. After visiting and learning from experiences in some places, I invested 150 million VND to install 2 vermicelli and rice cake production lines. On average, each month the facility uses 9 tons of rice to produce 30 tons of vermicelli and cake per month". With his experience in the profession, Mr. Toan also provides rice flour processing services to make vermicelli and cakes for people in the village. The facility regularly employs 7 to 10 workers, with wages ranging from 180,000 to 200,000 VND/day. Thanks to the noodle business, from a poor household, Mr. Toan has risen to become a well-off household, earning about 20 million VND/month. Secretary of the Nghi Hoa Commune Party Committee - Dang Van Tam said: "To develop the TTCN craft village, the Commune Party Committee has a thematic resolution, the Commune People's Committee issued a project to lead the people to implement it. From persistent implementation, with the dynamism of the people, in 2014, Hau Hoa and Trung Thanh hamlets were awarded the title of Craft Village".

To achieve that mark, inheriting the results of the previous term, Nghi Loc district has focused on developing and improving the quality of handicraft villages. With the support of the province, along with mobilizing the people, the district has invested over 31.5 billion VND to build 15.89 km of asphalt roads in 13 handicraft villages; 2.5 billion VND to upgrade power stations and concrete roads to serve handicraft village production in Nghi Truong and Nghi Thiet; proactively allocated over 500 million VND to support 10 handicraft villages to build product display houses and cultural houses; supported 5 billion VND to build infrastructure in handicraft villages in Nghi Thai and Nghi Xuan communes... In addition, the district also invited experts to provide vocational training; planned and upgraded infrastructure for shipbuilding, supported branding and found outlets for products... With 22 handicraft villages recognized by the Provincial People's Committee, Nghi Loc has completed the growth target of the number of handicraft villages and revenue; Production value increased 2.7 times compared to the beginning of the term; attracting and creating jobs for 2,107 main workers and hundreds of secondary workers; labor income in craft villages reached 21.64 million VND/year; most of the workers in craft villages have been trained and vocational training activities have promoted positive results.

Mr. Nguyen Tien Dung - Vice Chairman of Nghi Loc District People's Committee assessed: "Nghi Loc's success in directing the development of handicraft villages has created jobs for people, which is a suggestion for the direction of the district. Moreover, in the process of working and doing the job, the workers not only inherit and preserve the experience of their ancestors but also develop and innovate to create a brand and higher value. In the coming time, on the basis of reviewing and building a development project for the next phase, the district will evaluate and discuss solutions to remove difficulties for key handicraft villages. In addition, new suitable occupations accepted by the people will continue to be considered by the district to support to create more jobs and income for the people".

Take care of party development work'

In recent years, the work of training and developing new party members has received special attention from the party committees from the district to the grassroots level in Nghi Loc. The party members are supplemented every year, the quality of the party members is increasingly improved, contributing positively to improving the leadership capacity and fighting strength of the party organization, especially at the grassroots level. That is demonstrated through the first resolution of this term of the District Party Committee, Resolution 01 dated11/1/2011on “Strengthening the work of developing party members in rural party cells in the new situation”. Next, the Standing Committee of the District Party Committee issued Project 05 on October 1, 2012 “On building and developing party organizations and unions in non-state enterprises in Nghi Loc district, period 2012 - 2017”.

In recent years, Nghi Xuan is a commune with a high number of laborers working abroad, currently the commune has nearly 100 workers abroad, most of whom are young people. The recruitment of party members of rural party cells has always encountered difficulties because the youth force mainly works abroad, the masses who wish to join the Party are few, the source of candidates is small, and the standards according to regulations are not guaranteed, especially in religious and coastal areas. The number of party members admitted each year tends to decrease. The commune Party Committee has determined that, in parallel with promoting economic development, it is necessary to take care of Party building work. To do that, the Party Committee's Standing Committee regularly goes to the hamlet party cells to grasp the ideological situation, do a good job of mass mobilization, and create solidarity and unity between religion and religion. Regarding the work of creating sources for developing party members, the Party Committee clearly defines targets for each year, directs rural party cells to review, discover and nurture outstanding masses, assign experienced party members to nurture and help outstanding masses to create sources for developing the Party. Talking to us, comrade Nguyen Van Truong - Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Nghi Xuan commune, Nghi Loc district said: "The Party Committee of the commune regularly takes care of building solidarity between Catholics and non-Catholics, developing the Party in rural party cells. In the past 4 years, 60 new party members have been admitted, including 4 Catholic party members."

Implementing Resolution 01 of Nghi Loc District Party Committee, grassroots Party Committees have many ways and solutions suitable to the practical situation. Among them, many Party Committees have done well in developing new Party members such as Nghi Trung, Nghi Hoa, Nghi Thai, Phuc Tho Party Committees... According to the report of Nghi Loc District Party Committee's Organization Board, from 2010 to 2014, Nghi Loc Party Committee opened 27 Party sympathy training classes for 2,029 subjects, admitting 1,424 new Party members, including 15 Catholic Party members, bringing the total number of Party members of the Party Committee in 2014 to 9,813 Party members.

In addition to focusing on developing the Party in rural Party cells, Nghi Loc Party Committee pays attention to building and developing Party organizations in enterprises. In the district, there is the Southeast Economic Zone of the province, with 125 non-state enterprises operating, attracting over 3,000 workers. Of which, 82 enterprises have 10 or more employees; 38 enterprises have 20 or more employees; 59 enterprises have paid social insurance for 1,204 employees. However, among them, only 6 enterprises have Party organizations, 29 enterprises have trade unions, 1 enterprise has a Youth Union and 1 enterprise has a Veterans Association.

Based on the above situation, the Standing Committee of Nghi Loc District Party Committee has developed and issued Project 05/DA-HU dated October 1, 2012 on "Building and developing party organizations and unions in non-state enterprises in the district in the period of 2012 - 2017". The Standing Committee of the District Party Committee established a district-level Steering Committee with the Standing Deputy Secretary as the head of the Committee, the Heads of the Organization and Mass Mobilization Committee, the Vice Chairman of the District People's Committee as vice-chairmen and representatives of relevant agencies, departments and branches as members to advise and direct the building, consolidation and development of party organizations and unions in all types of enterprises; arrange specialized staff to monitor and advise on the work of building the Party and unions in enterprises. After 2 years of implementation, Nghi Loc has so far established 5 Party cells outside the State sector. Of which, 1 party cell is under the District Party Committee, 4 party cells are under the Commune Party Committee, 3 trade union organizations and 1 war veteran association were established.

The Party cell of Nghi Xuan Commune People's Credit Fund has been established for 5 months, and is assessed by the Party Committee of the commune and Nghi Loc district as having a tighter management organization, ensuring the leadership of the Party, protecting the legitimate rights and interests of workers. Comrade Nguyen Van Minh - Secretary of Nghi Xuan People's Credit Fund Party cell shared: "Unlike before, when the Party cell was established, every month the Party cell orients the unit's activities, cadres, Party members and employees in the unit are given enhanced political education, and at the same time set out goals for Party development, contributing to increasing the unit's leadership and management capacity". Nghe An Construction Joint Stock Corporation located in Nghi Thach commune, operating in the fields of construction, transportation and irrigation, recently established a Party cell on January 6, 2015. Comrade Vo Van Giang - Deputy Secretary of the Party Cell, Head of the Company's Administrative Organization Department said: "From the very first day of establishment, the Party Cell held meetings and assigned tasks to Party members responsible for each task. Party members in the company are exemplary and prestigious individuals and are assigned to be in charge of important tasks in the company". Or at Asia Minerals Joint Stock Company located in Nam Cam Industrial Park, thanks to the attention and good operation of the trade union and Party Cell, 97/97 employees are covered by social insurance, and the rights of employees are guaranteed. At Binh Minh Trading - Service Company Limited, the leadership role of the Party Cell is assessed by Nghi Loc District Party Committee as typical in the Non-State Enterprise Sector. Established in 2006, at first there were only 5 Party members, but up to now, the Party Cell has 19 Party members. Party members promote their role, responsibility, and are exemplary in production and business. Every year, the company's business plan is discussed by the Party Committee and approved by the Party General Conference. Many Party members hold important positions, becoming shining examples and exemplary pioneers in carrying out their assigned tasks and responsibilities.

Comrade Nguyen Ba Chau - Head of the Organization Board of Nghi Loc District Party Committee assessed: “The activities of some party organizations in non-state enterprises have had a positive effect on the production and business efficiency of enterprises. Thereby, strengthening political education, while training discipline and sense of responsibility of party members. Party cells in enterprises have done quite well in propagating and mobilizing business owners and employees to implement the Party's guidelines, policies and guidelines and the State's laws”.

During the 2010 - 2015 term, although some economic targets were not achieved, the work of developing craft villages and the work of developing the Party in Nghi Loc district were effective, having positive significance in hunger eradication and poverty reduction. Discussing lessons learned in the leadership and management process, comrade Nguyen Sy Duong - Secretary of Nghi Loc District Party Committee shared: “The most important factor creating the above success is creating consensus within the Party Committee and the whole society. At the same time, improving the leadership capacity of grassroots Party organizations, the management and operation capacity of authorities at all levels. Especially, closely following the reality to build and promulgate programs, directives, resolutions, mechanisms and policies that are appropriate and accurate for leadership and direction of implementation. On that basis, in the next term, Nghi Loc Party Committee will correctly identify the potential and advantages of the locality to promote, at the same time, maximally exploit the internal strength of the people; focus on drastic implementation to achieve the highest level of goals and targets of the entire term...”.

Thanh Le - Nguyen Hai