Vietnam Rice Festival: Honoring Vietnamese pearls

On October 24, the Organizing Committee of the 2nd Vietnam Rice Festival 2011 officially announced the program of activities of the Festival taking place in Soc Trang from November 8 to 11.

According to Mr. Quach Viet Tung, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Soc Trang province, the 2nd Vietnam Rice Festival 2011 in Soc Trang is a political, economic, cultural, social and tourism event to promote the rice brand of Soc Trang in particular and Vietnam in general; honoring the images of Vietnamese people, scientists, managers and businesses in production labor contributing to creating commercial rice products to serve domestic consumption and export needs.

With the main theme “Honoring Vietnamese pearls - Green environment for golden fields,” the Festival is a complex of activities including festival stages, exhibitions, scientific seminars...

The Freshwater Lake Cultural Area, Soc Trang City is the central location for most of the Festival's activities. This is where the opening and closing ceremonies, response festivals, competitions, performances, fairs, exhibitions, etc. will take place.

To ensure that the Festival is held in accordance with its principles, purposes and content, the Festival programs will take fairs, exhibitions and seminars as the main program areas. In addition, there will be competitions, performances, award ceremonies and supporting programs to help the Festival become richer, more lively and diverse.

The Fair-Exhibition is the most important part of the festival, expected to have from 850 to 1,000 participating booths divided into 10 main areas including the special exhibition area "Recreating agricultural production tool models from the pioneering period to modern times" and "Model of the development of Vietnamese rice plants through the ages" displaying tools, agricultural tools, means, and methods directly or indirectly related to rice production nationwide.

The exhibition “Our village’s rice grains reach out to the world” introduces and exhibits rice varieties that meet export standards of localities, exhibits enterprises with outstanding achievements in rice export; units, countries and territories that have rice trading relations with Vietnam in the past and in the future.

The central exhibition area includes local units and businesses nationwide; embassies or consulates general and foreign units and businesses.

Next to the special exhibition area and the central exhibition area are exhibition areas of agricultural production enterprises; exhibition clusters of units and tourism enterprises nationwide. Next are general commercial areas, industrial goods, consumer goods and Made in Vietnam products; Vietnamese cuisine area, Southern cuisine, Soc Trang cuisine.

This year's Vietnam Rice Festival has three main seminars including the seminar "Vietnam - The path to developing high-quality rice," the international seminar "Positioning the Vietnamese rice brand - Vietnamese rice: Who sells? Who buys?" and the seminar "Bai Xau (Ba Xuyen) - Soc Trang: from the first international seaport looking to the future of development."

The seminars will focus on analyzing Vietnam's position and strength when competing in the international market, new needs, and new standards set when joining the WTO.

Along with the seminars, the 2nd Rice Festival also held four competitions including the Writing Competition on “Bai Xau - International Commercial Port of the Past and Present,” the Artistic Photography Competition with the theme “Vietnamese Rice and Global Climate Change,” the “Delicious Vietnamese Brand Rice” Competition, and the “Beauty of the Garden” Competition.

Satellite activities and festivals will take place continuously throughout the four days of the festival, such as the float parade before the opening ceremony, the lantern festival combined with the Lion-Unicorn-Dragon performance; along with the performances are competitions and performances on “Beauty of the Garden,” “Delicious Vietnamese Rice,” “Vietnamese Cuisine,” and the Artistic Photography Contest.

The 2nd Vietnam Rice Festival 2011 in Soc Trang takes place on the occasion of the Khmer people's Ngo boat racing festival, so the province will combine the Ngo boat racing festival and the flat rice pounding festival into one festival program to create a new, rich and attractive feature for domestic and international friends when attending the 2nd Rice Festival in Soc Trang.

In addition, to carry out the theme "Honoring Vietnamese pearls", the festival will honor "Creative Farmers" and award the golden cup "Prestigious Export Enterprise of Vietnamese Rice Industry" to enterprises in the rice industry and award certificates, recognitions, titles... to competitions taking place at the Festival./.

(According to Vietnam+)