Finding common ground quickly in the traditional tile-making village of Cua Nghia Hoan.

(Baonghean) - Conflicts are arising between the Cua Brick and Tile Production and Service Cooperative and the Nghia Hoan High-Tech Brick and Tile Cooperative, which need to be resolved in order to build a sustainable and ever-growing Cua tile brand.

The Cua bricks and tiles from Nghia Hoan commune, Tan Ky district, were once well-received by consumers decades ago due to their quality. However, because Cua tiles are still produced using outdated raw material production technology and manual kilns, they have struggled to compete in the market in recent years.

The traditional brick and tile kilns at the Cừa Brick and Tile Village Production and Service Cooperative need technological modernization.

In 2013, 53 out of 125 member households of the Cua Tile-Making Village Production and Service Cooperative took the lead by contributing capital to invest in technological innovation. Each member household contributed over 400 million VND, installing a new production line for tile blanks, worth 21 billion VND.

The production line for precast bricks using advanced technology was invested in by 53 member households of the Nghia Hoan High-Tech Brick and Tile Cooperative.

The construction of this production line was carried out according to Proposal No. 02/TT-HTX of the Cừa Tile Village Production and Service Cooperative, which was approved by the Tan Ky District People's Committee on March 13, 2013. However, after internal conflicts and disunity arose at the General Meeting of the old cooperative (Cừa Tile Village Production and Service Cooperative), these 53 member households established a new cooperative (Nghia Hoan High-Tech Tile Cooperative) in May 2015, with Mr. Nguyen Van Hanh as the Chairman of the Board of Directors.

The conflict reached its peak when the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 3829/QD.UBND-XD on August 28, 2015, allowing the Cua Brick and Tile Craft Village Production, Business and Service Cooperative to survey and select a location and develop a detailed plan for the construction of a high-tech tunnel kiln brick factory in the Nghia Hoan small industrial cluster, Tan Ky district. The surveyed area was 3.0643 hectares, on the land where the cooperative was producing traditional handcrafted fired tiles.

The Nghia Hoan small industrial cluster plan was approved by the Provincial People's Committee in 2009.

The Nghia Hoan Small Industrial Cluster's detailed planning was approved by the Provincial People's Committee in Decision No. 1997/QD-UBND-CN dated May 11, 2009, and Decision No. 6068/QD-UBND.CNXD dated November 17, 2009, of the Provincial People's Committee on approving the adjustment of the detailed construction planning of the Nghia Hoan Small Industrial Cluster, with a total area of ​​nearly 5 hectares.

According to Decision No. 3829 of the Provincial People's Committee dated August 28, 2015, the Cua Brick and Tile Village Production, Business and Service Cooperative is permitted to survey the remaining 3 hectares of land to develop a construction plan for submission to the competent authority for approval and implementation. Given this situation, the Management Board of the Nghia Hoan High-Tech Brick and Tile Cooperative has petitioned the District People's Committee for a solution.

However, the land division has not yet been agreed upon between the two cooperatives: The Nghia Hoan High-Tech Brick and Tile Cooperative proposes a longitudinal division, while the Cua Brick and Tile Village Production, Business and Service Cooperative requests a transverse division of the industrial cluster.

The Nghia Hoan small industrial cluster is divided in half by two cooperatives whose boundaries have not yet been agreed upon.

To address some of the complexities at the two aforementioned cooperatives, on December 2, 2015, the Tan Ky District People's Committee submitted Report No. 276/BC-UBND on the situation of eliminating manual brick and tile kilns; the conversion of brick and tile production technology; and some complexities in the conversion process in the district to the Provincial People's Committee and relevant departments. The report stated: In 2013, the Cua Brick and Tile Village Production and Service Cooperative invested in installing a brick and tile production line on industrial park land, contributed by 53 members of the Cua Brick and Tile Village Production and Service Cooperative. These 53 members have now established a new high-tech Nghia Hoan Brick and Tile Cooperative. However, this cooperative did not submit the necessary documents to the Provincial People's Committee and provincial departments to apply for investment in the industrial cluster according to the law (while the Cua Brick and Tile Village Production and Service Cooperative had already prepared a project according to the correct procedures and it had been approved by the relevant authorities).

During the process of determining the boundaries for the Cừa Brick and Tile Production and Service Cooperative to survey and select a location for the detailed construction plan of the factory, as decided by the Provincial People's Committee, the Nghĩa Hoàn High-Tech Brick and Tile Cooperative obstructed the process and submitted a petition to the competent authorities demanding that the District People's Committee divide the Nghĩa Hoàn small industrial cluster according to the wishes of the Nghĩa Hoàn High-Tech Brick and Tile Cooperative.

To address the petition from the Nghia Hoan High-Tech Brick and Tile Cooperative, the District People's Committee and the Nghia Hoan Commune People's Committee held numerous meetings with the two cooperatives to agree on dividing the industrial cluster for the two cooperatives to invest in and build tunnel kiln brick and tile factories. The plan proposed by the District People's Committee and the Nghia Hoan Commune People's Committee was to request the expansion of the industrial cluster and divide it in half for the two cooperatives to build factories (by dividing it horizontally along the road outside the industrial cluster). This plan was accepted by the Cua Brick and Tile Production and Service Cooperative, but the Nghia Hoan High-Tech Brick and Tile Cooperative did not accept it, arguing that the land area approved by the Provincial People's Committee for the Cua Brick and Tile Production and Service Cooperative was land they already planned to invest in for a tunnel kiln.

Many members and the Management Board of Nghia Hoan High-Tech Brick and Tile Cooperative expressed their opinions.

The District People's Committee's approach is to support and facilitate both cooperatives in successfully implementing the transformation process. The Nghia Hoan Small Industrial Cluster will be harmoniously divided horizontally along the transportation axis outside the cluster, with each cooperative initially receiving half of the cluster's land already prepared.

Xuan Hoang