Workers in Ha Tay trade villages are now worried about their future as Vietnam has joined the WTO and they must prepare for global economic integration.

According to a newly released report by JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency), Ha Tay, a northern province, now has 1,116 trade villages, of which, 219 villages and 114,770 households have been recognised as meeting provincial standards on production scale and product quality.

The said 219 trade villages employ 269,000 workers, and they brought in VND4,200bil in turnover in 2005. Of these trade villages, nine villages regularly record annual turnover of VND50-300bil.

La Phu village, for example, which specialises in knitwear and confectionary products, can earn VND340bil a year. Meanwhile, La Noi knitting and dyeing village can earn VND164bil a year, and Van Diem fine arts village can earn VND50bil per year.

The trade villages are considered one of the biggest advantages of Ha Tay province: The province is one of the richest in the Red River Delta.

However, workers in Ha Tay trade villages are now worried about their future.

What to sell, what is the payment method, and who will buy products, are the questions the households in trade villages are raising these days.

Since 1996, Ha Tay authorities have allocated money from the local budget to help develop trade villages. In 1999-2000, the province’s authorities spent VND1bil each year to help train workers for villages. In 2001-2005, the province spent VND1.5bil on the task, and the figure has risen to VND2bil in 2006.

In fact, several trade villages in Ha Tay have been trying to export their products. Tien Dong, Van Minh, Ngoc Son, Dong Do and Phuc Hung villages, for example, can earn $1mil a year from their exports. However, the export market proves to be unstable, and export prices are just 1/10 of the actual selling prices.

The biggest headache for households is the lack of capital for doing business. By 2005, the total investment capital of the trade villages had only just exceeded VND1bil.

Another problem the households in trade villages are facing is the lack of workshop premises. Every household needs several hundred million VND for a piece of land, which is many times higher than the volume of capital that households can gather.

The third problem of trade villages is poor infrastructure and pollution.

Households in trade villages and experts have called for serious consideration to be given to helping trade villages prepare for integration.

Source: Tiền Phong