Together "revive" the ancient village

Identify barriers

Phuoc Tich ancient village is one of 4 ancient villages in Vietnam recognized as a national relic and is considered to have an ancient beauty with the advantages of a complex of 27 ancient houses and 10 ancient communal houses with a system of meticulously carved wooden architecture, a system of relics, communal houses, pagodas, temples, green tree-lined roads connecting each other... Along with that, the local government here also coordinates with businesses, the Management Board of Phuoc Tich Ancient Village Architectural and Artistic Relics to deploy many experiential tours to eat, stay, and work with local people. Countryside market activities, experiencing traditional craft villages... are also regularly organized, bringing a new vitality to this ancient village.

However, according to Mr. Doan Quyet Thang, Director of the Management Board of Phuoc Tich Ancient Village Architectural and Artistic Relics, to develop tourism in Phuoc Tich ancient village sustainably, bringing innovation to this land is not easy. One of the biggest difficulties is that the distance from Hue to Phuoc Tich is quite far, so it is necessary to connect tours with travel businesses. Communication activities to promote tourism for the ancient village are also difficult, the restoration of relics is still limited, not to mention the local people themselves have not been trained, so the development of community tourism here is not systematic.

Those are also the barriers of the businesses themselves that are accompanying the ancient village.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hue, Hue Viet Organic Company, a business that has been associated with Phuoc Tich for more than 4 years from reviving the craft village, creating jobs to promoting activities for the ancient village, shared that in addition to difficulties in customer sources, the service infrastructure has not met the requirements, and there is a lack of resources to support project implementation in the area. During the time accompanying the craft village in Phuoc Tich, the business faced many other difficulties. In particular, the locality does not have a centralized land fund to call for investment, so the area that businesses can rent from people is very small and fragmented, the raw material area is difficult to concentrate, making it difficult to develop production scale. Not to mention the impacts from objective conditions such as weather, quality of labor force, etc. also have a significant impact on the business's operations.

However, Ms. Hue highly appreciated the solidarity of the people and the government and considered this a great motivation for businesses to put a lot of effort into activities to restore and develop craft villages in particular and develop ancient villages in general.

More support will be rolled out

Based on the survey and research on the situation of supporting small and medium enterprises to create livelihoods for local people in Phuoc Tich ancient village and Pho Trach buffer zone for handicraft production, traditional and environmentally friendly industries, and community tourism development. Recently, the Department of Enterprise Development, in coordination with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), selected Pho Trach buffer zone and Phuoc Tich ancient village as a pilot "research, proposal and consultation, implementation of action programs to support sustainable business enterprises, including enterprises creating social impacts".

This activity is part of the technical assistance project for the program to promote the development of women-led enterprises in Southeast Asia and the Pacific (TA 9660 REG project). This is not only a good sign for promoting development in the ancient village, but also a motivation to support female entrepreneurs who are making efforts to contribute to the "revival" of the ancient village.

During the process of researching, consulting and implementing the program, Ms. Le Thi Hong Mai, Head of Business Registration Department, Department of Planning and Investment proposed 5 groups of solutions. In which, focusing on solutions on communication and promotion from building promotional reports, organizing competitions to promote Phuoc Tich ancient village as well as Bang mattresses... This group of solutions is being implemented quite effectively, through supporting the implementation of the competition to promote Phuoc Tich ancient village, attracting a large number of students to participate.

The group of solutions for investing in upgrading infrastructure and landscape beautification will focus on beautifying paths, ornamental plants, water wharves, boat docks, mobilizing people to participate in beautification work, investing in service infrastructure, and rest stops. The group of solutions for building and developing tourism products will focus on investing in services including experience services, accommodation services, cuisine, local products; linking with businesses in connecting tours... Along with that, the group of solutions for training and capacity building will also focus on training local tour guides, training in food preparation and decoration techniques as well as tourism and restaurant management skills... for people working in local service activities.

In addition, solutions on investment activities and investment promotion such as supporting businesses in craft villages to build and operate pottery kilns; repairing and restoring relic sites in ancient villages; promoting investment in building concentrated tourist service points for accommodation and service requirements... are also proposed to support to create more highlights for this area.

Along with the activities within the framework of the project to be implemented in the coming time, Phong Dien District People's Committee is also developing an action program to support sustainable business enterprises in Phuoc Tich ancient village and Pho Trach buffer zone until 2025. Accordingly, the District People's Committee will urgently, promptly and effectively implement the policies of the Central, the province and the district; at the same time, seek support from organizations and individuals. Thereby, improving the operational efficiency of enterprises creating social impacts, especially enterprises owned by women; business households, cooperatives, people in the area, etc. to contribute to creating a sustainable development ecosystem, creating livelihoods for local people.

Although only in the stage of proposing support plans, this is considered a positive signal in promoting businesses to create effective social impacts in the journey of "reviving" the ancient village of Phuoc Tich.

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