Nghe An is a province located in the center of the North Central region, the largest area in the country, with nearly 16,500 km2, of which, more than 83% is mountainous (11/21 districts, cities, towns). Nghe An is also a locality with a land border with Laos of more than 468 km. This area is mainly inhabited by ethnic minorities, with nearly 1.2 million people, accounting for 41% of the province's population. Despite facing many difficulties, the ethnic minority and mountainous areas of Nghe An have recently seen many improvements, with the poverty rate decreasing by an average of 3.4 - 4.9%/year. Contributing to that achievement is the important role of the youth union members. The examples of successful self-establishment and career establishment are increasingly being replicated in the area, especially in 27 border communes.
In the border commune of Phuc Son (Anh Son), more than 20 economic development models of local youth are bringing high economic efficiency. Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong Lien - Secretary of Anh Son District Youth Union led us to the farm of more than 16 hectares stretching across 2 large hills in Bai Lim village of Mr. Nguyen Dinh Hanh (born in 1988). Mr. Hanh is considered a rare "locomotive" young person of Phuc Son commune with 14 years of seniority as Secretary of the Youth Union, 4 years as Secretary of Bai Lim village Party cell and from 2021 to present, Mr. Hanh is the Head of the Front Work Committee of the village, and also Vice Chairman of the Youth Union of Anh Son district.
Nguyen Dinh Hanh's entrepreneurial journey began in 2015 when he started to renovate more than 2.5 hectares of his family's barren hill garden to develop the area for growing tea and local specialty oranges. After more than 2 months of digging and weeding, the hill was shaped and paved. At this time, he received the seedlings, hired more people to plant them, and brought water from Khe Dau to help the trees take root. The villagers all admired the diligence of the young couple. They often saw the couple going up the hill from dawn and returning at night to take care of each tea bush and orange tree. In addition to tea and orange trees, Hanh's family also cultivates 8 hectares of acacia and raises more than 20 goats. In 2023, Hanh was the first young man in Anh Son district to boldly plant South American bananas. Because the new banana variety has many outstanding advantages and is resistant to pests and diseases, the first harvests brought in more than 100 million VND in revenue, raising the farm's total income to more than 400 million VND per year.
From his success, Mr. Hanh established the village's "Human Resource Development Club" with 12 members. Under the guidance and support of Mr. Hanh, the members have developed nearly 60 hectares of tea and dozens of hectares of acacia, making an important contribution to building a sustainable enrichment direction for the locality.
Leaving the border commune of Phuc Son, we continued up the mountain to the mountainous district of Que Phong - one of the 64 poorest districts in the country. In recent times, the locality has actively promoted propaganda and mobilized people to build economic models, especially cooperative models and cooperative groups. Notably, there is the Hua Na Agricultural Service Cooperative model (Tuc Pang village, Dong Van commune) with the method of commercial fish farming on streams and the Hua Na hydroelectric reservoir. This is the second largest hydroelectric reservoir in Nghe An.
The cooperative is directed by Mr. Lang Van Mao (born in 1987) - a Thai ethnic. Mr. Lang Van Mao is one of the typical individuals of the locality in building a model of raising fish in the reservoir with many valuable native fish species. Seeing many people only know how to cultivate and catch fish in streams and hydroelectric reservoirs without scientific farming methods, he proposed that the local Party Committee and government support him to establish a cooperative in 2019. People who register to become members of the cooperative will be supported with training in livestock farming techniques, guidance to benefit from policies from the State, especially finding outlets for fish.
Therefore, from the initial 20 members, the cooperative has now grown to 32 members, with a total of more than 450 fish cages. Many cooperative members have more than 30 fish cages, all of whom are young people aged 25-35. More happily, in 2021, the cooperative's climbing perch, grass carp, catfish, bream, tilapia, loach, and eel products were certified to meet VietGAP standards, bringing stable income to the people.
According to statistics, in Nghe An province at the end of 2023, there were 832 cooperatives. An important part of these are cooperatives owned by union members and youth and operating effectively. Bringing great contributions to the development of the province.
The movement of innovation, creativity and start-up among young people has long been seen in urban and delta areas. However, in Nghe An, in mountainous areas with difficult starting points, young people have successfully built many innovative and creative start-up models. Young people have boldly applied scientific and technical advances with modern machinery to create new products that have spread strongly in the market.
In the mountainous district of Nghia Dan, the high-tech application model in medicinal plant production of young man Ngo Quang Canh (born in 1988), Nghia Hoi commune has been highly appreciated by the Party Committee, government and people. Mr. Canh has taken advantage of the local soil conditions to deploy the gathering of households with land funds with the desire to grow medicinal plants into a collective economic organization to support each other in linking production, processing and consumption of medicinal plant products.
In March 2023, he invested in building a headquarters and factory with a modern medicinal extraction and concentration line with an investment cost of more than 2.2 billion VND, meeting HACCP standards. To date, the model has developed 20 hectares of medicinal plants and produced more than 30 products. These products have participated in the consumption chain in supermarkets and large clean food stores in and outside the province. In particular, the two products An Xoa and Xa Den have achieved 3-star OCOP certification in 2023.
By 2024, the model is striving to build these two products to 4 stars and 8 other products to 3-star certification. These achievements will help 102 union members, youth and people associated with the production model to have more and more stable sources of income, changing their mindset in agricultural production towards applying high technology.
In the mountainous districts of the province, many innovative and creative start-up models related to medicinal herb production; developing eco-tourism and community tourism associated with preserving the culture and identity of ethnic minorities; producing sophisticated handicrafts... are being successfully implemented by many young pioneers.
That effort contributed to making Nghe An one of three provinces nationwide voted by VCCI, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Education and Training as “Locality with typical startup ecosystem in 2022”. In 2023, Nghe An was ranked in the top 5 localities with the best innovative and creative startup movement in the country.
To create a solid foundation for union members and young people in the process of starting a business. The Youth Union and Association at all levels in the province have promoted the inclusion of career orientation, support, and training in entrepreneurial skills and business start-up into annual work plans and programs.
Identifying that policy credit capital plays an important role in accompanying young people in studying and starting a business, recently, the Youth Union at all levels in the province has coordinated with the Social Policy Bank, Nghe An branch, to review and select typical economic development youth models with loan needs of union members and young people. Through that, 65 typical economic development youth models and youth start-up models in districts, cities and towns were surveyed and selected to carry out disbursement procedures from the job creation capital source, with a total amount of 7.31 billion VND.
By the end of 2023, the province had 21 district-level Youth Union organizations and 387 commune-level Youth Union organizations receiving capital entrusted by the Social Policy Bank. From here, 1,103 Savings and Loan Groups were established, managing 42,860 members with outstanding debt of VND 2,125 billion.
Adapting to practical conditions, the Youth Union at all levels has advised and proposed to the Party Committees, authorities and the Social Policy Bank to create conditions for the establishment of new Savings and Loan Groups in communes that do not yet have them so that the Youth Union can directly manage and help young households access preferential capital sources as quickly as possible. Thereby, creating resources for young people to develop the economy, reduce poverty sustainably with many diverse occupations that have been replicated in localities in the province.
Regarding capital sources from the Youth Union, the Central Youth Union has disbursed a total of 3.86 billion VND in loans for job creation, and the Nghe An Province Youth Entrepreneurship Support Fund with a capital of 1.8 billion VND. In 2023, from these capital sources, 18 youth economic development models with a total of 1.35 billion VND were disbursed. These meaningful supports are the key to helping many Nghe An youth have the conditions to relieve financial pressure during the difficult early stages of establishing their careers.
Standing Deputy Secretary of Nghe An Provincial Youth Union Nguyen Thi Phuong Thuy said that by the end of 2023, the whole province had 20 district-level Youth Economic Development Clubs, 176 clubs, 17 youth cooperative models, with 57 cooperative groups and nearly 1,800 youth economic development models.
Currently, one of the most important tasks of young people is to establish themselves, establish a career and start a business. The Youth Union identifies that accompanying young people in finding jobs, establishing themselves, establishing a career and starting a business will always be an important and continuous mission and task. For young people, starting a business not only creates jobs for themselves, but also contributes to creating many jobs for society, participating in the economic development of the country in general, Nghe An in particular. Every young person with a job, every young worker with deep expertise, every successful young entrepreneur is also participating in protecting the country in the best way through developing the country's economy, enhancing the strength and position of the nation and people in the current period.
