Vu Tu Thanh Vu Tu Dat - International Labour Organizationed_emp/@emp_ent/@ifp_seed/... · Vu Tu...

49
SURVEY Demand for Television Programmes Among Small Businesses in Vietnam by Nguyen Thi Thu Huong Vu Tu Thanh Vu Tu Dat for the ILO in collaboration with Asia-urbs project in Hai Duong 2003

Transcript of Vu Tu Thanh Vu Tu Dat - International Labour Organizationed_emp/@emp_ent/@ifp_seed/... · Vu Tu...

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SURVEY

Demand for Television Programmes Among Small Businesses

in Vietnam

by

Nguyen Thi Thu Huong

Vu Tu Thanh

Vu Tu Dat

for the ILO in collaboration with Asia-urbs project in Hai Duong

2003

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Table of Contents

I. Introduction

II. Methodology

III. Results and interpretation

III.1 TV as a means to obtain business information

III.2 Ratings of existing TV programmes

III.3 What do businesspeople want from TV?

III.4 Conclusions and recommendations

Annex 1 - Questionnaire

Annex 2 - Results of questions about background

Annex 3 - Results of questions about TV

Annex 4 - The supply side: TV programmes for businesses in Viet Nam

Annex 5 - TV programme list

Annex 6 - Tapescripts

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I. Introduction

The ILO has worked with broadcasters in many countries, supporting them to develop new programmes aimed at small businesses. These programmes now reach perhaps half a million people, bringing news, information and advice in formats and languages which are readily accessible, even in rural and remote areas. Where the environment permits, these programmes have also become forums, through which people in small businesses can interact with local and national government, addressing issues of common concern and thus promoting economic growth and quality employment.

In Viet Nam, the government and the Party give high priority to the development of household enterprises and SMEs; however, there is not yet a clear picture of what kinds of TV programmes these target groups would most like to see, what their viewing habits are, and what programme formats they prefer. A survey into these questions is therefore of great necessity.

The findings of this survey would show broadcasters and potential sponsors in the private sector whether substantial demand exists for a programme aimed at small businesses (household and SMEs), and if so, how that programme should look, in order to maximise viewer-ship / listener-ship.

II. Methodology

The survey was conducted in 4 geographical locations, Hanoi, Thanh Hoa, Lao Cai and Hai Duong. These four locations represent a full range of the socio-economic development scale with Hanoi being one extreme and Lao Cai the other. Hai Duong is the closest to Hanoi, followed by Thanh Hoa.

The target group was small businesses; a sample of 227 respondents were selected on a randomized basis. Survey workers obtained a list of small businesses from the Department of Planning and Investment in each province/city and randomized the choices. Almost all respondents are directors, managers or owners of businesses (for more information about the respondents, see Annex 2.) All these businesses are privately run.

The survey is based on results of interviews with respondents. The interviews were conducted in person, over the telephone and via fax. In Hanoi, all interviews were conducted in person. In Lao Cai and Thanh Hoa, about 50% of the interviews were over the telephone, 6% via fax and the rest in person. In Hai Duong, most interviews were conducted in person, only 16% via telephone.

Interviewers asked the respondents to answer or fill out a questionnaire (see Annex 1).

III. Results and Interpretations

1. Television as a means to obtain business information

The survey found that almost everybody watches television. There is only one case (in Thanh Hoa) out of 227 in which the respondent says he never watches TV. This is

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understandable as TV is now popular in Vietnam and families of businesspeople typically own at least one TV set each.

The number of businesspeople keeping an eye on business information on TV is fairly high in more developed locations such as Hanoi (71.88%) and Hai Duong (79.18%), while it is lower in poorer provinces such as Thanh Hoa (45.71%) and Lao Cai (32.43%). (See Annex 3, Question 1).

The low percentages in Thanh Hoa and Lao Cai could be explained by a couple of reasons. First, access to the media in these locations is much less than in more urban areas. People have a much smaller choice of media in keeping themselves informed than their city counterparts. This leads businesspeople to consider TV mainly as a means of entertainment rather than one of obtaining information useful for their business.

Second, the capability of processing information of businesspeople in less developed provinces tends to be lower than that of their city counterparts. Most respondents in Thanh Hoa and Lao Cai say they obtain business information mainly from personal contacts, because these sources are reliable. Most of them say the prime reason for them to watch TV is entertainment, not business. Apparently, they are not as good as their city counterparts in telling what is good business information on TV.

Third, the idea of getting business information from TV is still very new among businesspeople in these provinces who typically think of TV as a means of entertainment and government propaganda (both at central and local level).

Fourth, very often TV programmes offer contents that are “alien” to local businessmen in these provinces. Many people say the programmes do not address matters of their concern. (More on this in later sections).

The high percentages of people getting business information from TV in Hanoi and Hai Duong can be traced to a higher capability to process information and the greater relevance of TV programmes to their business. Hanoi’s figure is smaller than Hai Duong’s probably because the former’s businesspeople have a greater choice in obtaining information, such as the internet. This means while it will take years for the internet to reach less developed provinces, the television is already there waiting to be tapped as a chief and affordable means of disseminating business information with Hai Duong being a good example.

However, there are still a good 28% of Hanoi businesspeople and 10% of Hai Duong businesspeople who say they get nothing useful for their business from TV. The figures for Thanh Hoa and Lao Cai are 34% and 65% respectively. (Annex 3, Question 1) The main reasons are first, the broadcast time of the programmes are not convenient for them, with 67% in Hai Duong and 53% in Hanoi saying so, and second, they believe there is no useful information on TV for their business, with 47% in Hanoi and 22% in Hai Duong saying so (Annex 3, Question 2).1

1 Due to some misunderstanding on the part of Thanh Hoa and Lao Cai businesspeople of questions 2 and 3, we do not have good sample sizes from which to draw conclusions. (Annex03, Question 2) However, we believe the results of these two provinces would be closer to those of Hai Duong, where the main reason for

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2. Ratings of existing TV programmes

People are increasingly tuning in to TV programmes as they find more and more useful information from these. Nearly 60% of businesspeople in Hai Duong say TV offers more and more useful business information while 67% in Lao Cai and 57% in Thanh Hoa say so. Hanoi businesspeople are more critical of TV with 45% saying there has been no major improvement in the quality of TV programmes recently and only 43% admitting progress has been made. (Annex 3, Question 4) Again, this is because Hanoi businesspeople have better access to information thanks to the internet. However, the figures in Hai Duong, Thanh Hoa and Lao Cai show a clear trend: people here are paying more attention to TV with regards to their business.

But a still high percentage of people who say they haven’t seen remarkable progress in TV programmes (over 40%) suggests there is a lot of room for improvement, and thus opportunities for intervention.

The most popular programme among the business community is the 35-minute news programme broadcast daily at 7.00 pm on VTV1, with 100% in Thanh Hoa and Lao Cai picking it as their most favourite. The figures in Hai Duong and Hanoi are 68% and 54% respectively. (Annex 3, Question 5)

Next is the 30-minute Business Forum, broadcast at 7.30 am on Sunday and rebroadcast 9.30 am on Tuesday on VTV1, with 65% in Hai Duong saying so. The figures for Hanoi, Thanh Hoa and Lao Cai are 32%, 36% and 25% respectively. (Annex 3, Question 5) These figures show that this programme is more relevant to Hai Duong than to other locations, which suggests a lack of proper attention on the part of TV producers to Thanh Hoa and Lao Cai businesspeople. The programme is designed to address the up-to-date concerns of the business community, acting as a messenger between the business community and authorities. Typically the programme gets one or several government officials from one or several relevant agencies to address queries from businesspeople. (See an example of this programme in Annex 4 – TV programmes for businesses, II. 1. VTV1, Business Forum).

Business Forum gets positive feedback from the business community with 61% in Hai Duong rating it as good while the figures for Hanoi and Thanh Hoa are 55% and 57% respectively.2 However its critics say it focuses too much on big state-owned companies and is not relevant to SMEs. Many say the broadcast time is inconvenient. (See more comments on this programme in Annex 3, Recommendations to TV programmes in Checklist).

The local TV business programme in Hai Duong called Business Forum (25 minutes long, broadcast bimonthly at 8.00 pm Thursday and rebroadcast at 6.30 am the following Friday morning on Hai Duong TV) enjoys a high level of popularity among businesspeople here with 68% of them watching it on a regular basis. However, the majority of viewers (70%) say a lot remains to be done to make it better while only a not watching is inconvenient broadcast times, as ratings by people in these two provinces of TV programmes are fairly positive and higher than in the cities. (Annex 3, Question 4) 2 The sample for Lao Cai is too small. (See Annex03, VII. Checklist)

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mere 26% consider it good. (Annex 3, Checklist) The programme reports on the activities of local businesses, both state and private, the starting up of new businesses, addresses concerns of the business community about government policies on business (taxes, labour regulations, etc.), introduces training courses and workshops in the province, and offers some success stories of local businesses. (See an example of this programme in Annex 4, TV programmes for businesses, II. 6. Hai Duong TV)

Hanoi’s local TV business programme (Economic/Business HTV) is much less popular with the business community here with only 14% watching them regularly. This is probably because the national VTV covers a great deal about Hanoi already. But the trend in Hai Duong shows that businesspeople are very interested in local news and information.

As Annex 3, Checklist indicates, the low percentage of people who never watch TV business programmes and the fact that very few of them rate these programmes bad show that the business community is generally very interested in these programmes.3 This, coupled with the fact that the majority of viewers fall into the sometimes category in viewing frequency and OK category in rating, shows that two things stand in the way between businesspeople and the television: first, the broadcast times are not convenient for businesspeople, especially given their limited time budget; and second, there is still a lot of room for improvement in these programmes. (Both of these are further confirmed in the later section.)

For a brief discription of and comments on existing TV programmes for businesses, refer to Annex 4-TV programmes for businesses.

3. What do businesspeople want from TV?

When asked how they thought TV programmes might help their business, most people said they could learn from business models, success stories as well as failure experience of their counterparts through these programmes. People also want TV programmes to show information about new technologies, techniques and product designs. Many want to get market information, both domestic and international, such as demand, types of commodities, business clients, sources of materials and laws in foreign markets. General economic information such as that about national and world economic outlook is also expected. Lastly, people want to be updated about government policies concerning business such as investment laws, customs regulations, taxes and tariffs. (Annex03, Question 3)

People want VTV1 to increase airtime of its Business Forum programme, in terms of both the length of the programme and the number of (re)broadcasts. They want the programme to focus more on small businesses, offering more opportunities for businesspeople to air their difficulties. They want the Trade programme, also on VTV1, to be more to-the-point and more accurate. (Annex 3, Checklist).

3 The high percentages of people who never watch business programmes on TV in Thanh Hoa and Lao Cai are because many of them do not know these programmes exist, as they told interviewers.

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The most convenient broadcast time(s) of TV programmes for businesspeople are from 8.00 pm on, as the table in Annex 3, Question 6 shows. The majority of businesses want the programme to last 20 – 30 minutes. This is understandable as businesspeople work long hours, get home late, and do not have a lot of time to watch lengthy TV programmes.

The four most preferred programme formats are news feature, interview, talkshow/debate and specific issue-focused programmes. (Annex03, Question 6)

4. Conclusion and Recommendations

The survey results show clearly that substantial demand exists among small businesses for a programme specifically targeting them. Existing programmes, though improving, are not sufficient for this kind of audience. The Vietnamese media are still in the transition to professionalism, therefore the quantity and quality of business information are still low in their coverage. This is true both of TV and newspapers as this survey has found. (The most-read newspaper has little, if nothing, to do with business, while business newspapers are among the least read, see Annex 2, III. Favorite Newspapers). However, as the economy develops, with the private sector, especially small businesses, enjoying the fastest growth rates, the small business audience for TV programmes will increase rapidly.

Based on the survey results, recommendations could be made about a TV programme that best suits this new and growing audience as follows:

- Broadcast time: 8.00 pm.

- Frequency: once a week at first, then twice a week or more.

- Length: 20 – 30 minutes.

- Format: The programme should consist of two parts. The first part, lasting 7 – 10 minutes, should provide an update of purely business-related news, both domestic and international, with a clear focus on small businesses. (For more details, refer to part 3. What do business people want from TV?, paragraph 1 and Annex03, Recommendations to TV programmes in checklist.) The second part should deal with a specific business topic of interest to small businesses. This topic should be among the most frequently asked. This part can take the form of interviews with relevant people (government officials, businesspeople) or selected/edited video clips of debates/talkshows, depending on individual topics. Relevant data (carefully selected) should be provided to offer viewers a context of the topic being aired. Finally, the programme must offer some kind of interaction with viewers via mail-in, phone-in, fax-in, or email-in mechanisms. Answers to questions and comments from viewers and a fuller coverage of the topic being aired should be made available in a webpage, with both text and video materials. Reference to this webpage should be made several times at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the programme aired on TV. The TV company should also offer a service to mail video clips of the programme and related materials to whatever customers interested in them at a reasonable cost. The programme can take the name of (Small) Business Magazine.

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Local TV stations should focus more on the local aspect of their coverage, which is their strength vis-à-vis the national television. They should maximize this strength to attract local business people. They may modify the above-mentioned programme in the following ways:

- Shorten the length to 15 - 20 minutes.

- Reduce frequency to once every other week.

- Cover locally “hot” business topics whose geographical relevance may go beyond the province to neighboring provinces/cities.

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Annex 1: Questionnaire

We are trying to find out how TV programmes help you in your business just now, and what kind of programme could help you more, in the future.

I. Background Information Name of enterprise: Location of business (classify by grid, add address if possible/relevant): Type of business: Approximate number of employees (separate by men/women): Role of person in the business (owner, manager, worker etc.): Man/woman: Approximate age: Favourite newspaper(s):

II. Survey Questions 1. Do you watch TV to get information for your business?

If no, move to question 2. If yes, move to question 4. 2. Because:

A. There is no useful information B. The time of the programme is not convenient for you C. You don’t like TV in general

3. How do you think TV programmes can help your business? (Be specific.) 4. Do you find more or less information useful for your business from TV recently?

A. More information B. Less information C. About the same amount of information

5. What programmes (please indicate channel as well) provide the most useful information for your business? (In order of your favorite). A. .................. B. .................. C. .................. D. ..................

E. .................. F. .................. G. .................. H. ..................

6. If you could have the TV companies make a programme specifically for you, how would you like it to be?

A. What form(s) should it take? B. How long should it take? C. What time should it be broadcast? (Hour, day)

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Checklist:

Name of TV programme

Do

you

wat

ch th

is

prog

ram

me

regu

larl

y?

(yes

/no)

How

wou

ld y

ou ra

te it

in

term

s of

val

ue to

yo

ur b

usin

ess?

(3

=goo

d, 2

=OK

, 1=

bad)

Why?

How could it be improved?

Countryside Today (VTV1)

Business Forum (VTV1)

Village Tales (VTV1)

Trade (VTV1)

Friends of Farmers (VTV2)

Agriculture Magazine (VTV2)

Economy (HTV)

The Outskirts (HTV)

Agriculture and Countryside (Lao Cai TV)

Aquaculture and Fishery Encouragement (Thanh Hoa TV)

Agriculture Encouragement (Thanh Hoa TV)

Thank you for your time!

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- 11 - Annex 2 - Results of questions about background

I. Business Type Hanoi (N = 107) Thanh Hoa (N = 35)

Business type % Freq. Handicraft 36.45 39 Computer and Information Technology 22.43 24 Investment Services 9.34 10 Machinery (Industrial and Agricultural) 8.41 9 Construction Services and Supplies 4.67 5 Agricultural Production Supplies 3.74 4 Tourism 3.74 4 Advertising 1.90 2 Home Appliances 1.90 2 Food Processing 1.90 2 Toys .93 1 Cosmetics .93 1 Printing .93 1 Office Supplies .93 1 Plastic .93 1 Jewellery .93 1

Business type % Freq. Construction 28.57 10 Construction materials 17.14 6 Ashlars facing stone for export trading 8.57 3 Electronics and ? (dien tu, dien lanh) 5.71 2 Agricultural product and food processing 2.86 1 Mortgaging services 2.86 1 Plastic products 2.86 1 Electronics producing and assembling 2.86 1 Alcohol, beer, tobacco 2.86 1 Aquatic products import and export 2.86 1 Tourism 2.86 1 Motorbike repairing 2.86 1 Motorbike trading 2.86 1 Sedge trading 2.86 1 Wood and glass products trading 2.86 1 Forest product and bamboo chopstick for export 2.86 1 Machinery repairing and trading 2.86 1 Carbonate and calcium exploiting and processing 2.86 1

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- 12 - Annex 2 - Results of questions about background

Lao Cai (N = 37) Hai Duong (N = 48)

Business type % Freq. Construction 43.24 16 Land transport 10.81 4 Hotel 8.10 3 Sand and stone exploitation 8.10 3 Food processing 5.40 2 Machinery final completion 2.70 1 Construction material production 2.70 1 Storage services 2.70 1 Jewelry 2.70 1 Forest products 2.70 1 Compound operations 2.70 1 Tourism 2.70 1 Interior decoration 2.70 1 Electronics 2.70 1 Aquatic products export 2.70 1

Business type % Freq. Office computer and machine 12.50 6 Informatics 8.33 4 Construction materials 8.33 4 Wood processing 6.25 3 Handicraft 6.25 3 Green Bean cake production 4.17 2 Porcelain 4.17 2 Agricultural product 4.17 2 Stationeries 4.17 2 Wood wares 4.17 2 Knitwear and garment 4.17 2 Electronics 4.17 2 Interior supplies 4.17 2 Embroidery product for exports 4.17 2 Car and motorbike tire and tube 2.08 1 Goods agent 2.08 1 Insurance 2.08 1 Pharmacy 2.08 1 Computer software and training 2.08 1 Sun glasses and medical glasses 2.08 1 Diesel engine spare parts 2.08 1 Bakery 2.08 1 Wood carving 2.08 1 Print 2.08 1

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- 13

- A

nnex

2 -

Res

ults

of q

uest

ions

abo

ut b

ackg

roun

d II

. Res

pond

ents

All

(N =

227

) H

anoi

(N

= 1

07)

Tha

nh H

oa

(N =

35)

L

ao C

ai

(N =

37)

H

ai D

uong

(N

= 4

8)

Fem

ale,

% o

f tot

al

27.3

1 26

.17

37.1

4 27

.03

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0 D

irec

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Man

ager

/Ow

ner,

%

98.7

0 97

.00

100.

00

100.

00

100.

00

Age

, % o

f tot

al

All

(N =

206

) H

anoi

(N

= 9

5)

Tha

nh H

oa

(N =

35)

L

ao C

ai

(N =

30)

H

ai D

uong

(N

= 4

6)

Und

er 3

0 20

.39

27.3

7 2.

86

6.67

28

.26

30 -

40

35.9

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- 14 - Annex 2 - Results of questions about background

III. Business Size (Not all respondents give information about their workforce, number of female employees, and capital.) Work Force, employees Hanoi (N = 76), % Thanh Hoa (N = 17), % Lao Cai (N = 20), % Hai Duong (N = 47), % Up to 10 50.00 29.41 40.00 44.68 11 up to 20 27.63 23.53 20.00 17.02 21 up to 50 13.15 29.41 35.00 31.91 Over 50 9.22 17.65 5.00 6.39 Hanoi (N = 45) Thanh Hoa (N = 17) Lao Cai (N = 20) Hai Duong (N = 31) Female, % of total 49.3 31.2 22.9 75.8% Total, employees 1,263 425 458 957 Registered Capital Hanoi (N = ?), % Thanh Hoa (N = 35), % Lao Cai (N = 37), % Hai Duong (N = ?), % Up to $1,250 n/a 0 5.40 n/a $1,250 – $9,375 n/a 8.57 13.51 n/a $9,375 – $31,250 n/a 85.71 35.14 n/a Over $31,250 n/a 5.72 45.95 n/a III. Favorite Newspapers (The question is “What are your favourite newspapers?” Multiple answers are possible)

% of total, by province Newspaper % of Total, All (N = 227) Hanoi

(N = 107) Thanh Hoa (N = 35)

Lao Cai (N = 37)

Hai Duong (N = 48)

An Ninh The Gioi (World Security) 22.91 25.23 17.14 21.62 22.92 Phu Nu (Women) 11.89 12.15 11.43 10.81 12.50 Lao Dong (Labour) 9.69 15.89 8.57 .00 4.17 Thoi Bao Kinh Te (Economic Time) 9.25 12.21 .00 .00 18.75 Doanh Nghiep (Enterprise) 2.20 2.80 5.71 .00 .00 Non-readers 16.30 11.21 42.86 24.32 2.08

Note: Newspapers that have 1 or 0 reader in each province/city are not listed.

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- 15 - Annex 3 – Results of questions about TV

I. Question 1

Do you watch TV to get information for your business? If no, move to question 2. If yes, move to question 4.

% of Total, by province Answer % of Total, All (N = 227)

Hanoi (N = 107)

Hai Duong (N = 48)

Thanh Hoa (N = 35)

Lao Cai (N = 37)

No 30.84 28.03 10.41 34.29 64.86 Yes 62.30 71.88 79.18 45.71 32.43 I seldom watch TV 6.86 .09* 10.41 20.00 2.70*

* There is only 1 case.

II. Question 2

(I don’t watch TV to get information for my business) Because:

D. There is no useful information E. The time of the programme is not convenient for you F. You don’t like TV in general

% of Total, by province Answer % of

Total***, Hanoi + Hai Duong

(N = 37)

Hanoi (N = 19)

Hai Duong (N = 18)

Thanh Hoa*

(N = 3)

Lao Cai* (N = 8)

A. There is no useful information 35.13 47.37 22.22 33.33** 87.50 B. The time of the programme is not convenient for you 59.47 52.63 66.67 33.33** 12.5** C. You don’t like TV in general 5.40 .00 11.11 33.33** .00 * Sample size is too small to yield reliable interpretation. ** There is only 1 case. *** Only Hanoi and Hai Duong are selected because the sample sizes of Thanh Hoa and Lao Cai are too small to yield reliable interpretation.

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- 16 - Annex 3 – Results of questions about TV

III. Question 3

How do you think TV programmes can help your business? (Be specific.)

% of total, by province Answer

Hanoi (N = 31)

Hai Duong (N = 10)

Thanh Hoa* (N = 24)

Lao Cai* (N = 25)

TV programmes should show business models, success stories, failure experience, new technologies, new designs

51.61 60.00 2 (cases) 1 (case)

TV should show market information (domestic and international) such as market demand, design, types of commodities, business clients, sources of materials, laws in foreign markets

45.16 60.00 n/a n/a

TV should show social, economic, trade, and investment information at a macro level, domestic and international

29.03 60.00 n/a n/a

TV should provide updated and accurate information about government policies concerning business, investment, customs regulations (imports & exports), taxes, tariffs, business laws and regulations

22.58 70.00 1 (case) n/a

TV should provide information about tourism 3.23 n/a n/a n/a Not sure 16.13 10.00 5 (cases) 2 (cases)

Note: This question is answered by those who do not watch TV to get information

for their business and those who watch little TV. One respondent may have more than one suggestion. * Error: Too many respondents fail to answer this question.

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- 17 - Annex 3 – Results of questions about TV

IV. Question 4

Do you find more or less information useful for your business from TV recently?

A. More information B. Less information C. About the same amount of information

% of Total, by province Answer % of Total, All (N = 119)

Hanoi (N = 56)

Hai Duong (N = 37 )

Thanh Hoa (N = 14)

Lao Cai (N = 12)

A. More useful information 52.10 42.86 59.46 57.14 66.67 B. Less useful information 6.72 12.5 2.70* .00 .00 C. About the same amount of useful information 41.18 44.64 37.84 42.86 33.33

Note: This question is answered by those who watch TV and pay attention to

useful information for their business, including those who seldom watch TV, though this number is very small. (See Question 1 table above.)

* There is only 1 case. V. Question 5

What programmes (please indicate channel as well) provide the most useful information for your business? (In order of your favourite).

% of Total by province Programme % of Total, All

(N = 119) Hanoi

(N = 56) Hai Duong (N = 37 )

Thanh Hoa (N = 14)

Lao Cai (N = 12)

News (VTV1)/Local 78.15 53.57 67.57 100.00 100.00 Business Forum (VTV1) 42.17 32.14 64.86 35.71 25.00 Economics/Business (HTV)* 19.35*** 19.64 18.92 n/a n/a Trade (VTV1) 18.49 14.29 37.84 .00 .00 Market Prices (VTV1) .84 1.79** .00 .00 .00 Economy and Society (VTV2) 6.46*** .00 16.22 n/a n/a

Note: This question is answered by those who watch TV and pay attention to useful information for their business, including those who seldom watch TV, though this number is very small. (See Question 1 table above.) One respondent may have more than one favourite programme. * HTV is not available in Thanh Hoa and Lao Cai. ** There is only 1 case. *** In this case, N = 93 (only Hanoi and Hai Duong are counted).

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VI. Question 6 If you could have the TV companies make a programme specifically for you, how would you like it to be? D. What form(s) should it take? E. How long should it take? F. What time should it be broadcast? (Hour, day)

Programme Format Broadcast Time Airtime (Length)

Province 6.00 a daily

6.30 a- 7.00a daily

8.00 a daily

Noon daily

2.00p daily

7.30p daily

8.00p daily

8.30p daily

11.00p daily

6.30a – 7.00a

Sunday

5-10 min

15-20 min

20-30 min

40-60 min

# preferring this format**

HN 40 40 41 HD 8 11 8 19 19 TH 12 12 12

News Feature

LC 12 12 12 HN 20 20 20 HD 2* 8 10 10 2* 8 10 TH 5 5 5

Interview

LC 7 7 7 HN 13 13 14 TH 8 8 8 Talkshow/Debate LC 15 15 15 HN 14 14 14 HD 7 7 11 4* 7 4* 11 TH 2 2 2

Specific issue-focused programme (New Topics Each Time)

LC 5 5 5 HN 12 12 12 TH 5 5 5 Movie LC 5 5 5 HN 8 8 8 Documentary HD 5 5 HN 9 9 9 TH 3 8 Any Format LC 5 HN 3 3 3 TH 3 3 Sitcom LC 2 2 2 HN 3 3 3 TH 6 6 6 News in Brief LC 4 4 4 4

Note: Small numbers (1 and 2) are not presented. * means the same category for small numbers (for example, 2* in Broadcast

time and 2* in Airtime means 2 respondents make the same choice about these two categories). ** The number of respondents preferring this particular format, who may differ in Broadcast time and airtime.

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VII. Checklist

Viewing frequency, % of total respondents* Rating, % of total respondents* Regularly Sometimes Never Good OK Bad

Programme

H.N. H.D. T.H. L.C. H.N. H.D. T.H. L.C. H.N. H.D. T.H. L.C. H.N. H.D. T.H. L.C. H.N. H.D. T.H. L.C. H.N. H.D. T.H. L.C.

Regular Viewers, % of Total

Respondents

Business Forum (VTV1) 23.33 54.35 11.43 12.12 58.34 36.96 28.57 42.42 18.33 8.69 60.00 45.46 54.90 60.98 57.14 60.00** 41.18 36.59 42.86 40.00** 3.92 2.43 .00 0 27.01

Trade(VTV1) 28.57 31.71 .00 .00 42.86 43.90 .00 7.14 28.57 24.39 100.00 92.86 26.32 36.00 .00 73.68 56 .00 .00 8 .00 17.65

Economics/Business (HTV) Business Forum (Hai Duong TV)

13.89 67.57 n/a n/a 50.00 2.70 n/a n/a 36.11 29.73 n/a n/a 35.71 26.09 n/a n/a 68.29 69.57 n/a n/a .00 4.34 n/a n/a

* % of total respondents about each programme. For example, of the total of 60 respondents in Hanoi who speak about Business Forum, 14 say they watch the programme regularly, which makes up 23.33%. Of the total of 51 Hanoi businesspeople answering on Business Forum, 28 rate this programme as good, which comprises 54.90%. ** Sample size is too small (only 5 respondents) to yield reliable interpretation.

Programme Viewing frequency, # of respondents Rating, # of respondents

Hanoi Hai Duong Thanh Hoa Lao Cai All Hanoi Hai Duong Thanh Hoa Lao Cai All

Business Forum (VTV1) 60 46 35 33 174 51 41 14 5 111 Trade(VTV1) 49 41 35 28 153 19 25 44 Economics/Business (HTV) Business Forum (Hai Duong TV)

36 37 73 14 23 37

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Recommendations to TV programmes in checklist

# of Comments Programme Bad Rec.

Comments/Reasons and Recommendations

5 Too general information (1); Not diversified coverage of industries/businesses (1); Boring (1); Focusing to much on State-owned and Big Enterprises (1); Failing to meet demand of SMEs (1)

Business Forum (VTV1) 55

Increase airtime, both length of programme and # of (re)broadcasts (1); Broadcast in evening but not on holidays/weekends when there are more entertainment programmes (45), i.e. businesspeople would choose entertainment over business programmes on holidays/weekends; Focus more on business trends (1); More coverage of small businesses and businesspeople, allowing businesses to speak out their difficulties (4); More specifics/details in business coverage, show regional features (2); Greater accuracy, stop bluffing by some businesspeople (1); Show assessments and conclusions at the end of programme (1)

3 No new information (1); Inconvenient broadcasting time (1); Inaccurate information (1)

Trade (VTV1) 8

More practical, detailed, relevant coverage (3); More updated information (1); Coverage of difficulties in exporting (1); More debate between businesses and government (1); Broadcast in late night (1); Information about new business relations and laws (1)

1 Boring (1) Economics/Business (HTV) 1 Information about new business relations and laws (1)

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Annex 4 – The supply side: TV programmes for SMEs

I - General Introduction The programs mentioned in this report are confined to VTV, HTV (Hanoi), Thanh Hoa TV, and Lao Cai TV. Those of Lao Cai and Thanh Hoa were described by its editing staff on telephone, comments taken from the natives of the two provinces. Firstly, Vietnam's Television now has two channels that broadcast programs targeting audiences in rural areas. These channels include VTV1 and VTV2. They are supposed to provide peasants and owners of cattle farms with news and dissemination of experience and techno-scientific knowledge on growing fruit trees, rice, industrial trees like coffee and rubber; raising cattle such as cows, goats, pigs and poultry like chickens, ducks, geese and so on. VTV1 has a program titled: "Countryside Nowadays", broadcast at 20h30 on Monday every week and rebroadcast at 7h30 every Tuesday morning. The program is focused on talking about new or typical successful models of growing trees and raising animals throughout the country. And it encourages people to follow those models. VTV1 also has some other programs that are intended to help businesses and equip them with legal and administrative knowledge. These programs include "Business Forum", at 7.30 am on Sunday and rebroadcast at 9h30 every Tuesday morning, "Economy", broadcast on Tuesday at 15h15, Wednesday at 20h00, Thursday at 8h30 and 20h20, Friday at 7h30 (rebroadcast of 20h20 on Thursday) and 19h45, "Village Story", broadcast on Thursday at 11h45 and Friday at 16h30, and "Trade", broadcast on Thursday at 18h45. VTV2 has a popular program titled: "Friends of Farmers", which is a kind of special program for rural audience who desperately want information about how to grow a new rice or fruit tree, or ways to eliminate hunger, reduce poverty and get rich. The program is made with the help of intellectuals and experts specialized in agriculture and biology. It is also contributed by typical people who have benefited from some new gardening models or fish raising farms. "Friends of Farmers" is broadcast on Monday at 14h00 and 20h00, Tuesday at 10h02 (rebroadcast of 14h00 on Monday) and at 16h00 (rebroadcast of 20h00 on Monday), Wednesday at 12h00 (rebroadcast of 14h00 on Monday) and 18h00, Thursday at 14h00 (rebroadcast of 18h00 on Wednesday, Friday at 10h02 (rebroadcast of 18h00 on Wednesday). "Friend of Farmers" program teaches farmers how to grow plants or raise animals and fish. For example, regarding to growing cucumber (first broadcast on 14h00 Monday, 13th Oct 2003), an agricultural master shows farmers all the steps from choosing seeds, fertilizing to harvesting. VTV2 also has another program for farmers namely "Agronomic Magazine", broadcast on Thursday at 19h00, Friday at 15h00 (rebroadcast of 19h00 on Thursday). The two farmer-oriented programs on VTV2 are rebroadcast at least once a week at different hours so that rural audiences can time themselves to watch or check again the information. Secondly, HTV has 2 programs, "Economy" and "The outskirts", targeting different audiences. "Economy" program mentions both rural and urban topics and it is a tool for the capital's

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Annex 4 – The supply side: TV programmes for SMEs

propaganda and dissemination of economic policies and plans. Sometimes, it talks about a new plan or policy of the Government. "The outskirts" is specially made for farmers living in Hanoi's suburban districts. It broadcast news, news reports, successful business models of typical households or communes within the area so that farmers can learn and apply. The program is aimed at assisting suburban residents to eliminate hunger, reduce poverty and increase household income. Thirdly, Lao Cai TV has a special program titled "Agriculture and Countryside", broadcast every Monday at 20h30 and rebroadcast on Tuesday at 8h00. According to the editor, the program is made for households in rural areas. It focuses on new successful production models, techniques and practical expertise in growing crop plants, raising cattle, poultry and breeding fish. Fourthly, Thanh Hoa TV has 2 programs namely "Encourage Pisciculture" and "Encourage agriculture and forestry". First, "Encourage Pisciculture" is broadcast every Monday at 21h00, rebroadcast on Wednesday and Friday at the same hour. Second, "Encourage agriculture and forestry" is broadcast on Tuesday and Thursday at 21h00. Thanh Hoa is a coastal province, therefore, according to the program's editor, "Encourage Pisciculture" is aimed at providing fishermen and fish breeding farms and households with ways to get financial aid from authorities to build boats and techniques to grow aquatic marine products. The two programs of Thanh Hoa TV are made with the cooperation of agricultural and fishery experts from competent bodies of the province like Aquaculture Department and Agriculture Department. Not only showing audiences typical successful businesses, farms or households within Thanh Hoa, the two programs also encourage the province's farmers, fishermen and businesses to learn and follow new economic models of other provinces in Vietnam. Thanh Hoa TV is planning to make special programs for its ethnic minority population. According to the deputy director of the television station, the programs are broadcast in H'mong language and supposed to give ethnic minorities cultivating techniques and new successful farming models which are suitable to their surroundings and cultural traditions. II – Description and comments on current programs 1) VTV1 - “Business Forum”, broadcast on Sunday, 02 November 2003, at 7h30. Title: Amendment of Cooperative Law (Söa ®æi luËt Hîp t¸c x·). This is an interview with an official from Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) about the proposed amendments to the Cooperative Law approved in 1996 and put into practice in 1997. So far, the law has shown some shortcomings that are not suitable to current economic situation, especially after the approval of the Enterprise Law. Cooperative members are farmers, people of poor finance and low status. They consider cooperatives a collective organization in which people help each other to get prosperous. It is written in the law that state bodies, financial institutions shall assist activities of cooperatives. However, in reality, cooperatives are faced with so many difficulties that constrain

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Annex 4 – The supply side: TV programmes for SMEs

their development. As quoted in the program, the Cooperative Law has fulfilled the wish of millions of cooperative members nationwide, highlighting the status and role of the cooperative economic sector. But since the Enterprise Law was introduced, the cooperative's status has shown some limits. Enterprise Law is more open, not limited by complicated practices. The Cooperative Law is so complicated. For example, founding a cooperative needs permission from ward and communal authorities then comes the problem of location. There are many unnecessary stipulations. People hope that the National Assembly will consider amendments to the Cooperative Law, making it compatible with daily life. They are looking for a legal corridor to develop the cooperative economic sector, keeping up with other sectors throughout the country. The program showed the audience some examples of successful models of cooperatives. One of them was located in the northern mountainous province of Hoa Binh. It demonstrated that an appropriate economic plan and adequate investment would gain benefit from wild land, giving local inhabitants greater prosperity. In the interview, many questions were asked focusing on specific shortcomings and how to solve them. The interviewee admitted that there were inappropriate items and articles in the existing Cooperative Law. She gave several reasons such as unpredictable factors and changing trends in economic development. Cooperatives were delighted when she confirmed that all the mentioned shortcomings had been submitted to the National Assembly for consideration. The most important amendment that cooperatives are waiting for is the definition and conception of “Cooperative”. They said the Cooperative Law is more complicated than Enterprise Law and it is not fair that cooperatives are not regarded as enterprises. In fact, cooperatives’ activities are the same as those of enterprises. Thus, according to cooperatives, favorable conditions on capital, land use right and credit entitled to enterprises in the Enterprise Law should be applied to them, too. The interview also concentrated on the complexity of cooperative registration procedures. The proposed amendment is to simplify these procedures. After watching the program, people would know which procedures would be omitted including the listing of cooperative members and business plans. Other mentioned amendments were buying insurance for cooperative members and laborers and the maximum contribution of a member to his cooperative. So far, the maximum contribution is 30% of a cooperative’s total capital. The MARD official said this was for the stability of cooperatives. This is a good program for cooperatives and people who want to join the business. Cooperatives are considered “companies” for poor people. The Vietnamese Government is paying increasing attention to them. - "Trade", broadcast on Thursday, 30 Oct 2003, at 18h45. Title: Export prospect of wood products (TriÓn väng xuÊt khÈu c¸c mÆt hµng gç). This program pointed out an increasing demand on Vietnamese woodcraft in foreign markets like Taiwan, Japan, and EU. It reports impressive gains of woodcraft export, which was $ 333 million in 2001, $ 430 million in 2002 and is expected to achieve more than $500 million by the end of 2003. In the north, most of Vietnam's woodcraft producing enterprises are located in handicraft villages. It is difficult for

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Annex 4 – The supply side: TV programmes for SMEs

them to reach out to the foreign customers. If they want to export, normally, they must do it through a middleman. According to the program, a research on many enterprises in Hanoi, Bac Ninh and Nam Dinh showed that most of the contracts worth over $10,000 have been signed through Taiwanese or Chinese brokers. Of course this affected the products’ competitiveness in terms of price. Furthermore, through brokers, made-in-Vietnam products are attached with foreign labels. And a director of a woodcraft producing enterprise said this should not persist because "building a trademark is very important", he said. Another issue is that every year Vietnam's woodcraft producers must import about 1 billion m3 of timber for their production. A part from the import cost being added to the products' price, this also makes the producers dependent on material resources. The solution put forth in the program was that producers should make use of domestic planted wood and pay more attention to planting trees and farmers who do that. In other words, in the long term, woodcraft businesses should create their own material resources within the country so that they can become independent of raw material import. This program rang a bell to remind producers of a need to set up future sustainable development plans and strategies given that local materials are running out. They should not depend on imported timber if they want to meet increasing demand on wood products. The program argues for the need to have cooperation between woodcraft businesses. To get rid of brokers, they must have agencies to advertise and promote sale of exported products in importing countries. The industry has such advantages as cheap labor, skillful workers and increasing demand but that is not enough. – “Countryside Nowadays”, broadcast on Monday, 13 Oct 2003, at 20h00. Title: Diversity of crop plants and domestic animals in Binh Thuan (§a d¹ng c©y trång vËt nu«i ë B×nh ThuËn). The program is about a new model of farming that brings a lot of benefits to farmers in Binh Thuan. The model has made poor people and communes prosperous. “That program is good and provides farmers with much practical and useful information and know-how on making money from their own land”, a viewer interviewed on telephone said. It pointed out that hunger elimination and poverty reduction and helping farmers need appropriate plans and policies. Surely, according to the program, plan and policy makers must work harder with grassroots-level people before instructing people to grow crop plants and raise domestic animals. One of the most interesting points that the program mentioned is the question raised by the chairman of a Commune People’s Committee: “People say agriculture is a job but there’s no school that trains or teaches people to be skilled farmers”. According to him, peasants are low educated, therefore, in order to help them scientists or agriculturists should work with them on fields. Intellectuals should pay much more attention to farmers’ thoughts and direct them out of movements on growing crop plants and raising animals and fish without understanding the market demand. The success of Binh Thuan is made possible by applying appropriate plans: Suitable soil for suitable plants and diversification of domestic animals and crops. Farmers learn a lot about cultivating through several typical farms after watching this program and they may take this as an opportunity to revise their on-going plans. If they follow Binh Thuan’s model and have more access to education, they will certainly succeed in their business, making good money from their land.

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Annex 4 – The supply side: TV programmes for SMEs

The program also has a downside as all the mentioned examples require a big capital investment and large areas of land, which are constraints to the majority of farmers today. It does not point out how to obtain money to start a business. This program is good in terms of policy propaganda. 2) VTV2 – “Friends of Farmers”, broadcast on Monday, 13 Oct 2003, at 14h00. Title: Cucumber growing technique (Kü ThuËt trång d-a chuét). The program is a lesson given by an agricultural master. It teaches farmers how to grow cucumber. People of poor access to agricultural information are targeted audience. It introduces the most popular seeds of cucumber and season to grow it. The master step by step teaches people to choose seeds, prepare soil, grow, fertilize, spray chemicals, and harvest cucumber. The lesson is comprehensive and sometimes it runs subtitles of important points so that viewers can take note. “The program is only applicable to midland. Farmers cultivating on sunken and low land cannot follow the model”, a peasant interviewed on telephone said. This is a weak point of the lesson as it cannot meet all the demands and conditions of every region. However, farmers in midland, if they watch the program and follow the instruction, will surely see the benefit of the lesson. - “Friends of Farmers”, broadcast on Monday, 13 Oct 2003, at 20h00. Title: Disease Prevention and Cure for Goats (Phßng vµ ch÷a bÖnh cho Dª). With a general introduction to benefits of raising goats, the program easily gets the attention of audiences who already run or want to run a cattle farm. The most common diseases that usually hit goats are listed and given techniques and medicines to cure. Goat breeders find the program a useful lesson, which is given by a vet. As the editor says the program is supposed to help farmers with knowledge, techniques to raise goats, increasing income of households. The program is good because after watching it farm owners can cure their goats themselves. The mentioned model also helps them to adjust the farms’ environmental condition. This is a good and practical lesson for goat breeders. 3) HTV - "The outskirts", broadcast on Friday, 17 Oct 203, at 8h00. Title: Shift of crop plants and seedling structure (ChuyÓn ®æi c¬ cÊu gièng c©y trång). This program is a mixture of news and news report. It picks up some typical communes and households in the outskirts of Hanoi as examples of prosperity without only cultivating rice. These households have gained much benefit when they turn to growing vegetables and other short-term agricultural plants to meet the needs and demands of Hanoi area. According to the new model, on shifting crop plants and seedling structure, the same area of land of cabbage or cress can be twice as profitable as that of rice. "The program points out a new way to get prosperous for farmers", said a viewer interviewed on telephone from Soc Son, Hanoi suburban district. Many rural households do not dare to replace

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Annex 4 – The supply side: TV programmes for SMEs

their long traditional rice with others crop plants for fear that they might loose and, further more, they do not know how and where to start. "After watching the successful farming model and hearing interviews with typical peasants, who are doing well, we can follow that", he said confidently. However, the program has a weak point as it does not tell the farmers how to sell their product. Nor does it quantify the needs and demands for vegetables of Hanoi's market, which may lead to superfluous crisis. 4) Lao Cai TV "Agriculture and Countryside", broadcast on Monday, 20 Oct 2003, at 20h30. Title: Women with botanical protection (Phô n÷ víi b¶o vÖ thùc vËt). The program is about typical women who are working as Lao Cai’s agricultural experts. They work on the fields with farmers and help with insecticide spraying and crop plants growing techniques. After watching the program, farmers have an address to call for help when they need advices on botanical protection. Most of the program is occupied by interviews with typical women who are working on a successful farming model and a report on the achievement of Lao Cai’s agriculture from the beginning of the year up to now. However, “the program should be focused more on pointing out the need to shift crop plants structure, especially specific cultivating techniques”, an official of Lao Cai’s economic department said. According to him, this program sometimes succeeded in giving its audience practical techniques to grow sweet potatoes and corn. He added that the program should be talking more about dissemination of new rice seeds and cultivation as now the province’s farmers are still growing their local traditional rice variety which is not as productive as the new ones. Lao Cai is a mountainous province, inhabited by a large number of ethnic minority households, but its television does not have a program for them, let alone helping them with agricultural knowledge or doing business through TV programs. Also according to the economic official, the "Agriculture and Countryside" program somehow is of no use to ethnic minority people. They may neither understand the language nor apply typical economic models mentioned in the program, which mainly target the Kinh audience. 5) Thanh Hoa TV "Encourage Pisciculture", broadcast on Monday, 13 Oct 2003. Title: Breeding fresh water fish (Nu«i c¸ n-íc ngät). The program shows farmers how to prepare water and food to raise fresh water fish. Through the program the audience can learn useful techniques and ways to treat several common diseases. They are also given the address of competent bodies to call for technical help in need. "The program is practical, but the constraint to households and farmers is finance, therefore it should tell people where they can get financial assistance", a viewer in Thanh Hoa said when asked on telephone. 6) Hai Duong TV Programme: Business forum

* Introdution of HD city and HD province: geography location, climate...

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Annex 4 – The supply side: TV programmes for SMEs

* General view of HD in innovation period (1991 - up to date): Economy has changed to market economy with socialist orientation, GDP, living standard. Achievements in production, education....Investment capital raise 20 to 30%

* Introduction of transportation system in HD province: highway No5, route18B, route 38 and waterway, railway...These are very favourable condition for HD to develope.

* The infrastructure: education, health network, communication are improved and rebuilt in whole province

* The production lines attracts numerous of labours like handicrafts, garment, mechanic work...

* Economic objective: GDP increase 9 to 10% compared with year 2000

* In Hai Duong, there are 25 state - run businesses, 292 private businesses with registered capital at 250 billion VND, 30 foreign investment businesses with registered capital at 500 million USD.

Hai Duong government pays much attention to creating favourable condition and open policies to attract more domectic and international investors. HD has plentiful natural resources which can be used for contruction materials.

* Presentation of factories, companies making food stuff, agricultural products and garment. In future, more capital will be invested to build and extend these kind of factories and companies.

HD also pay much attention to train jobs, especially restore traditional trade villages as well support private businesses.

* Introduction Trade centre in HD city which could be considered as a clue of trade promotion for business. This centre also acts as a key role of extend markets for businesses

* Objective of HD: Exporting turn over reach 150 to 170 billion USD in year 2010

Introduction of tourism potential in HD province: historical relics, landscapes...

HD government creates policies to encourage investing in tourism.

Besides, priority is given to investment in garment, aricultural production, handicrafts by HD government.

Need of investment capital in coming 10 years: 38.184 billion VND mainly provided by banks.

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Annex 5 – TV programme list

Broadcast Schedule of SME support programs

(Commented)

N0 Time Date Program Title Channel Contact

1 7.30-8.00 Sun, 02 Nov 2003 Business Forum Amendment of Cooperative Law VTV1

2 18.45-19.00 Thu, 30 Oct 2003 Trade Export prospect of wood products VTV1

3 20.30-21.00 Mon, 13 Oct 2003 Countryside Nowaday Diversity of crop plants and domestic animals in Binh Thuan VTV1

4 14.00-14.30 Mon, 13 Oct 2003 Friends of Farmers Cucumber growing technique VTV2 Ms Phuong Lan (producer) Tel: 7717078

5 20.00-20.30 Mon, 13 Oct 2003 Friends of Farmers Disease Prevention and Cure for Goats VTV2

6 8.00-8.30 Fri, 17 Oct 2003 The outskirts Shift of crop plants and seedling structure HTV - 8353410 (edit dept.)

- 8355798 (Eco. Edit. Dept.)

7 20.30-21.00 Mon, 20 Oct 2003 Agriculture and Countryside Women with botanical protection Lao Cai

TV

Mr. Quang San - 020 825155/6/8 (Edit Dept.) - 020 840093 (on duty)

8 20 mins Mon, 13 Oct 2003 Encourage Pisciculture Breeding fresh water fish Thanh Hoa

TV

Mr. Nguyen Hong Son Dep. Dir. 037 755041 (Edit Dept.) Directory: 037 852327

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Annex 5 – TV programme list

Broadcast Schedule of SME support programs (Recorded and translated)

N0 Time Date Program Title Channel Contact

1 7.30-8.00 Sun, 02 Nov 2003 Business Forum Amendment of Cooperative Law VTV1

2 18.45-19.00 Thu, 30 Oct 2003 Trade Export prospect of Wood products

VTV1

3 11.45-12.00 Thu, 23 Oct 2003 Village Story Shrimp and fish in Ham Tan VTV1

4 14.00-14.30 Thu, 23 Oct 2003 Friends of Farmers Growing CAYEN Pineapple VTV2 Ms Phuong Lan

(producer) Tel: 7717078

5 10.30-10.50 Fri, 24 Oct 2003 Economy Hanoi tourism after SARS

HTV - 8353410 (edit dept.) - 8355798 (Eco. Edit. Dept.)

6 Encourage Agriculture and Forestry

Techniques to take care of Autumn-Winter nut and developing garden-pond-cage model in midland and mountainous areas

Thanh Hoa TV Mr. Nguyen Hong Son Dep. Dir. 037 755041 (Edit Dept.) Directory: 037 852327

7 20.00 – 20.25 Business Forum Hai Duong TV

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Annex 6-Tapescripts

1 - "Business Forum - VTV1", recorded on 02 November 2003

Amendments to the Cooperative Law

Dear viewers, Discussing and proposing some law amendments relating directly to economic activities aimed at completing a legal system for production and businesses and adapting to the current situation are on the agenda of the National Assembly. This program focuses on issues that emerge from drafting some amendments to the Cooperative Law. Since the Cooperative Law was put into practice in 1996, new models of cooperative have gradually adjusted to the market economy and are no longer subsidized as much as before. Most of old-modeled cooperatives have changed in accordance with the Cooperative Law. the Cooperative Law has brought opportunities of becoming a member of a cooperative to many people, including those who did not have much money. Being members of a cooperative, they can benefit the support from and have chance to work together in their collective economic organization. This is very important as it is suitable to the average capability and capital of the majority of workers, especially, those in agricultural and rural area. Cooperatives’ activities in the period of renovation are not limited to a small area. They have changed their direction by varying forms, sizes, and products. A part from trade services, cooperatives in the Hanoi Union of Commercial Services Cooperative have also expanded their activities to other fields such as breeding or farming capitalized by cooperative members. Here is the swamp of Phuong Liet in mountainous province of Hoa Binh. Several years ago, it was originally a wild swamp. But now, it is a farm planting fruit trees, breeding fish and pigs. This cooperative has mapped out its own path of investing in exploiting wild but potential areas, making use of advantages of breeding and cultivating. With good labor, sufficient capital, and especially right development directions, cooperative sector has made a considerable evolution, experiencing a new vitality. On bringing the Cooperative Law into practice, many new effective models emerged, and one of which is Hanoi Union of Commercial cooperative. At present, the union has only 8 members. A part from expanding commercial activities, the union is taking up investing in production, and the cooperative in Kim Boi, Hoa Binh, is an example.

- This is a tremendous investment with great effort in a potential area that has not been exploited yet. In my opinion, with the current investment and the future planned capital, what awaits the cooperative is very promising in terms of aquaculture, pig husbandry as well as building an eco-tourism park. Back to Hanoi, after this research, we will create a more open legal framework.

The 1996 Cooperative Law is a turning point marking a new status of cooperatives. Cooperatives now operate effectively together with many other forms of enterprises in the national economy. The resolution of the Central Committee of CPV brings a new life to the development of collective and cooperative economy sector. Cooperatives need more attention and support. Cooperative members exercise self-determination in commercial activities and have more access to science and technology. The Cooperative Law, adopted by the National Assembly in 1996 and put into practice from 1997, has created a legal corridor for cooperatives, improving their performance. First, the law has made a more

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open legal system. Second, it has boosted the status of cooperatives in commercial and production activities. Moreover, it has granted cooperative more self-determination in mapping out projects on trade or production. The Cooperative Law has created a favorable condition for cooperatives to improve themselves in the market economy. On implementing the law, this is a very good legal framework for cooperative. Before this law was introduced, cooperatives had been heavily subsidized and their activities were more or less similar. Since the introduction of the law, farmers as well as officials have been more active and clearer in both their thoughts and actions. Cooperative members feel more responsible to their cooperative. Now any activity of a cooperative is attached to the benefits of its members and its members also contribute to the cooperative more actively. These are part of what will be proposed for the amendments to the 1996 Cooperative Law. Models of cooperatives with good performance recent years through out the country proved that implementing the Cooperative Law was right. However, the proportion of new cooperatives with good performance is still minimal. This shows that authorities at different levels have not been fully aware of the importance of the collective, cooperative economic sector. Besides, this also shows that some points in the law are no longer suitable to the current situation and economic development. Therefore, it is necessary to continue supplementing and amending the Cooperative Law in the new era, bringing the Resolution V of the Central Committee of CPV into full play. And this is also of great concern on discussing the amendment of the Cooperative Law this time. Interview: REPORTER: Madam Chu Thi Hao, could you please tell us why amendments to the Cooperative Law are on the agenda of the National Assembly this time? Are there any shortcomings in the the Cooperative Law passed in 1996? CTH: The law has been put into effect for 6 years. Amendments should be made not because the law is weak but because we were not realistic enough when we made it. As the law is implemented, problems occurred that we had not been able to predict. I think life and knowledge change with every passing day. When they change we have to adjust ourselves. Accordingly, in my opinion, at first, we have to amend some articles and sections of this law so that it will be more practical, and maximize the openness that helps cooperatives develop. Secondly, the legal status of cooperatives must be improved. If the current situation continues, cooperatives cannot do any thing. We have to clarify the nature of that organization. If the organization's nature is not clear, no law can be applied to it. In the past we defined that cooperatives were independent economic organizations set up by laborers of common interests and benefits. "Independent economic organizations" is not clear in meaning meanwhile cooperatives have activities like those of enterprises - in fact they are enterprises. Nor is it clear who laborers are. Are pensioners and soldiers laborers? Thus, in the coming time, to mobilize more people to join cooperatives and make them stronger, we have to define cooperatives as enterprises. Cooperatives actually are operating like enterprises but they are collective enterprises with a high sense of community. Their targeted participants are not only confined to laborers, but also individuals, households and legal institutions. Cooperatives are very weak now, if legal institutions are allowed to join, they will become stronger. REPORTER: Based on such definition and conception, will cooperatives' activities be rewritten? CTH: This is an interesting question. Definition is so, but what activities are cooperatives allowed to do and what are the main points. In the past, cooperatives were entitled to 10 rights, many of which were not

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used due to a lack of internal strengths. The most important right was excluded. Cooperatives had to register the products that they would be producing before starting their business. Since then they had to ask for permits for whatever products they were interested in. This caused troubles to cooperatives and loss of opportunities. The waiting time for a permit was not short. In the coming amendments, cooperatives have the right to trade in any products that are not banned by laws. I believe this will delight peoples. Should this right be applied, cooperatives will have more conditions to expand their business; and the difference between some types of cooperatives such as agriculture, commerce, and construction will be of less importance.

- The Cooperative Law has fulfilled the wish of millions of cooperative members nationwide, highlighting the status and role of cooperative economic sector. But since The Enterprise Law came into existence, the cooperative's status has shown some limits. The Enterprise Law is more open, not limited by complicated practices. The Cooperative Law is so complicated. For example, founding a cooperative needs permission from ward and commune authorities then comes the problem of location. There are many unnecessary stipulations. We hope that the National Assembly will consider amendments to the the Cooperative Law, making it compatible with daily life. We are looking for a legal corridor to develop the cooperative economy, keeping up with other economic sectors through out the country.

REPORTER: You have mentioned procedures for registration and establishment of cooperatives, at present, there are opinions that the procedures are still complicated compared with those of other enterprise types. What do you think about this? What are the amendments? CTH: The Cooperative Law came into life before the Enterprise Law. We thought it was good. But in 1999 when the Enterprise Law was introduced, the Cooperative Law became more limited than Enterprise Law. Meanwhile, participants of cooperatives are poor farmers, people of low status. We tied ourselves by accident. That is why registration procedure should be amended. We used to need many permits. First, list of cooperative members will be omitted because when establishing a cooperative, people are supposed to know they need at least 7 members. In a cooperative with thousands of members, listing is so complicated. Second, business plan is omitted, too. REPORTER: According to existing stipulations, many cooperatives, especially agricultural ones, must have model regulations. What do you think about this issue as many cooperatives having different scopes, activities and products but they use the same model regulations? Does this have any impact on activities of cooperatives? CTH: That is also a shortcoming. Being people who developed the Cooperative Law, through reality, this is what we have to learn. We used to have model regulations for agriculture and commerce. The regulations basically copy that of the law. The most important regulation, which is used to settle internal affairs, is not written in the model. Therefore, the stipulation on model regulations will be omitted. It is how to write a model regulation that counts. And the model regulation must show details of the cooperative's capital, insurance, etc. REPORTER: Give cooperatives more self-determination? CTH: That's right. And this will make cooperatives' model regulations more effective and meaningful. If not, they are just used as a tool for registration procedure.

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REPORTER: Beside amendments, are there any other new stipulations on the personnel and management apects of cooperatives? CTH: What we have mentioned above have been submitted to the National Assembly for consideration. Even within developing staff, we still have different opinions. But the majority acknowledges that a cooperative is an enterprise, a collective enterprise. Being an enterprise it must be clear in two functions: management and administration. Management is called management board or management council and administration is called chairman (director in company). In the past, there was a management board voted by cooperative members then the head of management board concurrently worked as the chairman. Two functions do not mean there must be two people. One person can be in charge of management and administration at the same time. A multi-industry cooperative can hire laborers. The cooperative’s chairman is not necessary its member. Many opinions say that is too complicated and cooperatives are poor but their personnel are too excessive. But I think this legal framework is open for the majority and the future. REPORTER: Let’s talk about insurance for laborers in cooperatives. This is clearly written in law. However, many members have difficulty in buying insurance. The difficulty is caused by many factors. Don’t we have a specific solution to this issue? CTH: Actually, the current Cooperative Law also has stipulations on buying insurance for members. But they are very general. This is simple but linked to the cooperatives’ vitality and it makes members more confident. Without insurance, people have to change their jobs at times. Many talented personnel trained by Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development have left cooperatives after some years. This time the amendments will make buying insurance for all members and laborers compulsory. Civil servants working for cooperatives are also their members. REPORTER: Many cooperatives, especially those of industry, say this has a big impact on their products price and competitiveness on the market. They want to have an insurance fund. What do you think about this? CTH: This has not been written in the law but many provinces have done that such as An Giang and Hai Phong. These provinces have set up insurance funds taken from their own budget. REPORTER: Do you think that we need coordination with insurance companies? CTH: That’s what I am interested in because buying insurance is not confined to a single industry. It also includes insurance companies and Ministry of Labor War Invalids and Social Affairs. In the future there must be coordination among industries. Now I can’t answer that.

- At present, if we want to receive loans we have to mortgage. We have no choice but put our house as security for the loans. Thus, although it is written in the law that state bodies and credit institutions shall assist cooperatives’ activities, capital, land, and office use rights are current constraints.

REPORTER: Cooperatives’ access to credit is difficult and mentioned a lot. Why is that? CTH: Now cooperatives are allergic to this issue – they want to receive loans but they can’t. This is due to many reasons. Banks say if people want to receive loans they must meet certain requirments, and

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cooperatives have nothing to mortgage as security. Many chairmen mortgaged their own houses. Maybe, banks and financial institutions should go into play. Currently, only 15% cooperatives, including about 30 agricultural ones, receive loans. REPORTER: Besides mortgaging what about projects building capability of cooperatives? CTH: Even when they have good projects, cooperatives cannot receive loans from banks. Security is a must. REPORTER: Despite of a feasible project, access to capital resources is still difficult. Is that because of a bold social stereotype on cooperatives? CTH: That is because many cooperatives say they do not want to be considered secondary citizens. They want to be considered enterprises. That’s why “Cooperative” will be changed to “Enterprise”. REPORTER: Agricultural and non-agricultural cooperatives wonder whether we should change the stipulation on members’ minimum and maximum contribution to the cooperative asset. CTH: There are two opinions. First, cooperatives’ capability is weak, so why can’t a person have a big capital contribution? After discussion, we agree that is a characteristic of cooperatives. If we allow unlimited capital contribution, cooperatives will become companies. If people want that they should turn to companies. We want a cooperative to be an organization of people helping each other. Contribution is limited to no bigger than 30%, which assures the cooperative’s stability. If a member withdraws 30% of his share, the rest of 70% will still keep the cooperative operational. If a member keeps 90% of the capital, the cooperative will be broken when he withdraws all of his contribution. This will not only affect an individual but a village or commune as well. REPORTER: There exists an opinion that members may have different capital contributions to a cooperative but their rights to voting are equal. Does that encourage members to offer their contribution? CTH: Besides the Cooperative Law we also have Enterprise Law. Cooperative has a high community sense. It is a collective enterprise. Dear viewers, The collective economic sector (cooperative) is important to Vietnam’s economic development, especially during this period when many regions across the country are faced with high unemployment, low financial capability and technological knowledge. The development and approval of a practical Cooperative Law will be a driving force for the collective economic sector (cooperative) in the coming time. To some extent, practicality should be attached to the the socialism-oriented market economy, which pays much attention to society as well as the effectiveness of production and dealing business. END

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2 - "Trade- VTV1", recorded on 30 Oct 2003

Export prospect of Wood products

Vietnam's wood product exports reached $333 million in 2001, $430 million in 2002 and is expected to surpass $500 million in 2003. Export market for these products is expanding. Now, they can compete in Taiwan, Japan, EU markets and are penetrating the US market. According to statistics, at present, through out the country, there are about 2,000 wood manufacturing and processing enterprises, more than 300 of them specializing in exporting wood products and importing wood materials. Most of these enterprises are located in the North and the South. In the North, enterprises are mainly based in handicraft villages in provinces of Ha Tay, Bac Ninh, Bac Giang, Nghe An, and Hanoi. These villages focus on producing traditional products and wood fine arts from timber. Each year, quasi-antique wood product exports gain about $200 million. The Southern region is regarded as the biggest place of producing wood products of Vietnam. These products are made mainly from planted trees like rubber, wattle, etc. The export value amounts to $300- 500 million a year and is expected to increase in the coming time. The problem now is most enterprises have to export through middlemen. Research on business of many enterprises in Hanoi, Bac Ninh and Nam Dinh showed that most of the contracts that are worth over $10,000 have been made through Taiwanese or Chinese middlemen. Therefore, the exports gains are not high. Moreover, Vietnamese wood products, when exported through middlemen, are attached with foreign labels. From this, we can conclude that what Vietnamese enterprises should do is to build a trademark and make it public in domestic market. - I think building a trademark is very important. For a long time, Vietnamese woodcraft producers haven't paid attention to this. In reality, in domestic market, most consumers buy wood products from enterprises that they know well. In foreign markets, we have to sell through a middleman. And that requires us to build a trademark. We are boosting up activities to promote trade like participating in trade fairs. We also intensify supervision from the very beginning stage of production, which is importing materials. According to specialists, wood material is also a big problem. At present, we have to import about 1 billion m3 of wood each year. And this raises the products' price. In the short term, importing wood for production is necessary but in the long run, Vietnam's enterprises should map out a strategy to make use of Vietnam's planted wood, gradually replacing imported materials. - After the Regulation N0 821 on banning and limiting wood exploitation, importing wood is unavoidable. In my opinion, this will continue. To overcome this, we need a comprehensive policy to privatize public land and forest, and plant trees. Concerning enterprises, they also should improve their capability of producing fine and valuable products from domestic materials. When enterprises are strong enough, they should attach their benefits directly to those of wood manufacturers and forest planting people. They also should lessen their dependence on imported materials. In line with the program of exploiting and manufacturing forest products to 2010 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on August 2003, Vietnam has worked out an outline of a national trade-promoting program. According to this program, from now to 2005, Vietnam will build a system to sell wood products to more countries and regions. The export value is expected to increase by $1 billion in 2010. It is a right direction for these products. In comparison to other agricultural products, wood products are the most stable and most competitive thanks to low cost and skillful workers. Many enterprises in this

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industry have bravely invested in depth, applying modern technology, seeking a new breakthrough to make wood product one of the best exports of Vietnam. END 3 - "Village Story - VTV1", recorded on 23 Oct 2003

Shrimp and fish in Ham Tan Ham Tan is a coastal district in Southern Central region, located in the middle of the country’s three large economic areas of Eastern South, the High Lands and coastal central region. Ham Tan has an area of nearly 100,000 hectares, including many wavy slopping hills from north to south. It has a coastal line of 50 km. Most of the population here are migrants due to upheavals during the country’s history. The Kinh accounts for the majority of the province’s population and the rest includes the Cham, the Co ho, and the Choro. The province’s ethnic minorities used to be very poor and backward. Ham Tan’s agricultural land has little soil, mainly concentrating along the coast. There’s no delta that reaches 500 central region hectares. In the past, cashew trees grew in bushes in Ham Tan. Old people said, the inhabitants ate the cashew fruits but few of them ate the nuts like people eat nuts nowadays. Only until they were exported did the nuts become a resource of the commodity economy.

- How much did you get this year? - 400 kg. - Your family harvested 400 kg, didn’t you? Did you earn much money? - 900,000 VND for 100 kg, so for 400 kg we earned 3,600,000 VND.

Now because the cashew trees in Ham Tan have become old, people have to plant a new generation of cashew trees which are more productive and have higher quality. There have been many farms planting fruit trees like longan and litchi but the quality and production are low and have not become commodities for the market. The shift of plant and seedling structure in Ham Tan has not found out trees that are suitable to its soil. Located along the N01 national highway, only 150 km away from Ho Chi Minh City, an industrial developing city, Ham Tan has taken the advantage and its firms only make final garment products for the city. This helps create many jobs for women who are not suitable for fishery. We must take into account Truc Mai business that uses the plenty of local material to produce goods for export. This business has created hundreds of well-paid jobs for laborers. In the coming years, Ham Tan is going to build La Gi town and the center of the district into an urban center of Binh Thuan province. Education has been paid much attention. The number of students in 2003 is 44,270. Lots of new schools have been built. For many years, Ham Tan’s students, who live far away from schools, have been taken to school by bus, which make parents delighted. Ham Tan has nearly 50 km of coast, on which there are many beautiful and clean sand beaches for bathing and relaxing. Here the water is pure and clean attracting tourists from Ho Chi Minh City and Ba Ria-Vung Tau. There are many sea products here. Right on the beach, enjoying the wind from the sea while eating Ham Tan’s sea food like shells what attract tourists from all the corners of the country. Ham Tan also has many historical heritages. In this pagoda, local inhabitants come and pray for health and prosperity for their family. People also have a practice to release birds, which is rich in Buddhist thoughts.

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It is regretful that the beautiful nature of this place has not been exploited and invested adequately. For a long time, we have been obsessed with an image of a poor area when we talk about the central region. But Ham Tan’s sea has a lot of sea products Thanks to the favourable sea environment, Ham Tan has many kinds of fish such as, cuttlefish, goldfish, anchovy, and tuna. Considering sea products a spearhead of the economy, Ham Tan is paying much attention to its high capacity fishing boat fleet. At present, Ham Tan has 1.198 boats and ships, 100 of them can go fishing far off shore. There are ships that have a capacity of 834 HP, installed with modern equipment. Therefore, the fishing productivity is increasing.

- In the past we only could go fishing nearly the shore, and we could earn a benefit of about 50 million VND. But as now fish near the shore has disappeared, which has led to low income. I am trying to build a big vessel so that we can go farther, farther than the smaller boats can reach.

Take only the period of three months in 2003, Ham Tan fished 7.724 tons of sea products of all kinds, of them fish accounting for 2.643 tons, shrimps 29 tons, cuttlefish 1.029 tons, shells more than 3.000 tons. Having a rich resource of sea products, Ham Tan's fishing capacity is remarkable. It is regretful that there's no professional processing factory, except for a private owned company. Ham Tan's seaport is becoming deposited with alluvial, which makes big ships unable to enter. This is a limitation to Ham Tan’s fish productivity. Ham Tan is rebuilding the port, but even when it is rebuilt, the new La Gi port will not be as good as Ham Tan port.

- When the cargo port is completed, it can harbor from 1000 to 2000 boats and ships and the cargo output may reach more than hundreds of tons.

- Does that meet Ham Tan's demand on fish? - It only can meet two third of the demand, and that is not enough.

In Phu Tan Company, a processed sea product exporter, I was told that Phu Tan's products are liked in many countries, including Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong. But this is just a small business, which has consumed not a big amount of Ham Tan's sea products. If Ham Tan has a big processing factory equal to the sea productivity of Ham Tan, surely, the district's sea product value will be much higher.

- I invest here, wishing to contribute to the construction of my homeland. Further more, Ham Tan is one of three areas that have biggest sea product potential of Binh Thuan province. I hope that my investment here is a factor that promotes Ham Tan's fishery.

Like many other coastal district in Vietnam, Ham Tan's households are digging ponds to breed shrimps. There are many big projects on breeding shrimps here. There are farms of 30 hectares and 50 hectares. Hundreds of hectares of land near the shore in Ham Tan have become shrimp ponds. Breeding shrimp here is rather easy, generating high income in a short time. Here shrimps are growing fast, with 40 ones weighing 1kg. We are told that a pond of 0.5 hectare breeding sugpo prawn can generate an income of 500 million VND after 3-4 months. Breeding shrimps is

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difficult and risky but Ham Tan's people are experienced. Shrimp is bringing dreams of getting billionaires to Ham Tan’s people.

- It is good for breeding shrimps here, environment not polluted and industrial parks have no effect on the inhabitants. Based on that we believe breeding shrimps will become a big and modern industry of our district.

In Ham Tan, at this time, everyone is busy, after a long looking, we finally meet the chairman of the district people's committee, Huynh Cong Ly.

- With Ham Tan's conditions, and in accordance with the guidelines and aim set by the province which is to turn Ham Tan into a town, our policy is to encourage investment. Recently, the province has provided support to create favorable conditions for businesses. We are trying to develop our local internal force as well as take advantage of the support from the higher level authorities. We hope to create the most favorable conditions for everybody to have chance of getting rich on the land of Ham Tan. We believe that in the near future Ham Tan will become prosperous, keeping up with the common trend of the province as well as the region.

On the N01 national highway there is a junction, where people can see a steel globe and an attractive greeting. The globe symbolizes the diamond. Ham Tan's people and authority are trying to be come Binh Thuan's diamond and the whole southern central region. The district is trying to increase its annual per capita income to $360 by 2005. END

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4 - "Friends of Farmers - VTV2", recorded on 23 Oct 2003

Growing CAYEN Pineapple Viewers and farmers, As we all know, now pineapple is not only retailed in domestic market but also processed into many products for export. At present, canned condensed pineapple and pineapple juice are very popular on the world market, especially in Russia and the U.S. Therefore, planting pineapple for processing is now the choice of many farmers. In many places pineapple has replaced other less effective plants to be the cash crops. However farmers’ knowledge of pineapple is limited, especially on techniques of growing CAYEN pineapple. Today’s program will show you how to grow this variety of pineapple in hilly areas. Because pineapple is suitable for processing, manufacturers are very fond of it. CAYEN pineapple is heavier than QUEEN pineapple. On average, each fruit weighs 1-2.5 kg. The fruit is cylinder and its knots are shallow, which is easy for processing. Main CAYEN pineapple varieties are: Cayen Chan Mong, Cayen Duc Trong, Chinese CAYEN, and Thai CAYEN. These species grow fast. They are productive and suitable to hilly land where water drains away easily. This is some general information about CAYEN pineapple. Now we turn to some more specific knowledge on its favourable conditions such as temperature, water and soil. Concerning temperature, the best for CAYEN pineapple to grow and develop is between 28 and 30oC. CAYEN pineapple is more vulnerable to cold whether than QUEEN pineapple or other local species. It can’t grow in too hot weather. If it is more than 380C, fruit will be browned. As for water, annual and monthly rainfalls are the two most important factors influencing CAYEN pineapple’s growth. The best annual rainfall is between 1,000 and 1,500 ml and this amount is divided equally for each month. If the amount is bigger, it will do harm to CAYEN pineapple’s growth. Or if drought lasts long, pineapple’s growth will be slowed down; its productivity and fruit quality will be affected. As soil’s requirement goes, pineapple can grow in many kinds of land but its roots are weak, therefore, it is recommended that pineapple should be planted in broken up and porous soil, and in places where water can drain away easily. PH concentration should be between 5.6 and 6.0. Now we turn to how to grow this kind of pineapple. The first thing to do is decide where to plant and how to prepare soil. In areas where the slope percentage is lower than 50, you should plant in lines. The distance between beds may vary from 30-40 cm for narrow beds and 80-100 cm for wide beds. (That distance is convenient for you to take care of pineapple and harvest.) A long with main beds or around the area, you’d better plant perennial and wood trees. They will not only provide shade but also block wind effectively. In even areas with the slope percentage is higher than 7-80, you should plant in equal-leveled lines, and build irrigation system to keep water. Remember some main roads and paths up to the hill in the area should be included. Under each pineapple bed, you can grow green-manure plants such as rheumatism, cassia. They are good for soil and, at the same time, prevent fruits from being browned. In even and flat areas, you should plough (one time) and harrow (one time), then divide the area into many parts.

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In areas with high artesian waters, you should first dig furrow-drains and then plough and create beds. In areas with great slope percentage, you can plough and harrow the whole or in part. Soil should be prepared right away before planting (so that soil won’t be dry and pineapple is easy to grow). That is all about land preparing and organizing. Now it comes to when to grow this kind of pineapple. This, for sure, is of your great concern. According to scientists, in the South, pineapple can be grown almost at anytime as long as you can water enough when pineapple is immature or bearing fruit. In the North, thanks to the application of techniques forcing pineapple to bear fruit out of season, now you also can plant almost at any time, too. But normally, it is best to plant in spring and autumn. In spring, you’d better choose big shoots (from 200-300 g/shoot). In autumn, you should choose smaller shoots (150g/shoot) to avoid it bearing fruit too soon. There are 3 kinds of shoots: top shoot, end shoot, and side shoot. This is a scene of taking shoots in Tam §iÖp, Ninh B×nh. From each plant after harvesting, you can take 2-4 end shoots and side shoots. These shoots will be classified and planted in different parts. Shoots that have been classified are tied in small bundles and treated with chemicals to prevent mycosis and kill bugs. This chemical liquid can prevent shoots from being rotten and some diseases. You dip shoots into the liquid for about 30 seconds then take them out and these shoots should be planted the following day. After being treated with this liquid that is kept in a basin, shoots will be protected from being rotten and some diseases. According to scientists, soil must be ploughed and harrowed carefully by machines until it is broken and porous. After that, you can make beds and plant. At present, distance between beds are 40 cm and for every 4 beds, you should leave a road of 80 cm. The pineapples should be planted at intervals of 30-33 cm. With such density, each hectare of land can grow 60.000-62.000 pineapples. After creating beds, you scatter NPK fertilizer mixed with Van Dien phosphate fertilizer along beds. Each hectare needs 2 tons of NPK and 1 ton of Van Dien phosphate. The next stage is to put shoots into beds.

- There are two ways to do this: following rectangular shape or crocodile-jaw shape. The interval is 30-33 cm. Each hectare needs 50.000-60.000 shoots.

- After putting basic fertilizer, we plant. We dig holes that are 5-7 cm deep, put shoots into the

holes vertically, earth up and press gently but tightly around the foot of the shoot with a small hoe. A small hoe is very convenient for you to plant pineapple.

According to the experience of farmers in Lac Thuy, Hoa Binh, you don’t need to water after planting as pineapple grows very well in dry soil. What should be taken into consideration here is to put the shoots into holes vertically. If you don’t do so, when it rains, the plants may be uprooted.

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After 10-15 days of planting, roots develop and stick to the soil. Then, what you have to do is just weeding and fertilizing periodically. Let’s talk about weeding. After 1-2 months of planting, weeds begin to grow, you should weed right away. Do not let weeds develop over pineapples. If so, weeds will take all nutrition of pineapples, and shade them. (It is very harmful as pineapple loves direct sunlight).

- When weeding, you just can use a hoe in double-beds. To weed between single-beds or plants, you can only use hand to pull them out. Do not break or bruise pineapple leaves.

According to scientists, if each leave is damaged, the growth and development of the plant will be slowed down 10-15 days. The next stage is applying additional fertilizer periodically. One hectare needs 1,500 kg Nitrogen Urea, 1,500 kg phosphate and 1,500 kg Kali. The first time is 2-3 months after growing with 1/2, 1/3 and 1/3 above quantities respectively. The second time is 5-6 months after planting with 1/3 above Nitrogen and 1/3 above Kali quantities. The third time is 2-3 months before forcing pineapple to bear fruit out of season, the same as the second time. Remember to mix up thoroughly kinds of fertilizer and put them down 5-10 cm away from the foot of the plant. Cover up fertilizer with a small hoe. You should not do this when it is very hot or rains like cats and dogs. The best time to do it is when it is cool, especially after it rains. Like may other fruit trees, pineapple are often infected by many kinds of insects and diseases that are seriously harmful to the growth of pineapple. Here are some typical insects and diseases of pineapples. The First is bugs. Here is a typical case of pineapple being damaged by bugs. “Bugs have attacked the foot and interstices. The symptoms are the plant is a little bit withered, curled up and pinkish. If you watch carefully, at the foot of the plant, there are ants crawling. These ants are sucking honey created by bugs. Bugs not only directly damage pineapple but also creates favourable condition for other kinds of diseases (e.g. WILT disease) to spread out. Once pineapple suffers from this, there is no remedy. Therefore, you should prevent this in advance by treating shoots. The second disease is WILT virus. The symptoms are pineapple leaves are dried up gradually from foot to head. To prevent this disease, you should choose shoots that are free from diseases. Remember to treat shoots, and kill Bugs and ants before planting. The third disease is rotten bud. This disease often emerges from October to March of the next year when it is cold and rainy. The symptom is that the pineapple’s colour is not technically green though we performed reasonable fertilizing. To prevent this disease from spreading out, you can use some chemicals as following: Maneze: 0.3%-0.5%. Spray 3-4 times, the later time is 10-15 days after the previous, 800-1000 l/ha. Alliete and Sumeight spray 2-3 times. Fourth, boiling leave phenomenon. The symptoms are green leaves gradually turn whitish and finally, white as they are boiled. The main cause is pineapple lacks Maggie. To prevent this, you use fertilizer comprising Maggie and pay attention to the appropriate proportion between NPK and micro-amounted fertilizer.

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Dear farmers, To plant pine apple for export, forcing it to bear fruit out of season is very important. If pineapple grows naturally, each year, you can harvest in 30 days. But if we force pineapple to bear fruit out of season, we can harvest it almost anytime. So we can always provide pineapple as material to manufacturers. That is why the next part will deal with the question of how to do that. There are 3 ways of deciding the time of interfering: - Count from planting. - Count the number of leaves - Measure the maximum height of the plant. Among these, the simplest way is to measure the plant’s height. When it is 10 cm high, it can be forced to bear fruit out of season. To do that, farmers often use calcium carbide. Here is the experience of farmers in Hoa Binh. Put calcium carbide clods of less than 50g weight into a barrel then pour water up to 2/3 it. Do not pour till it is full. Cover it. After about 1 hour, calcium carbide is dissolved absolutely into the water. Uncover, stir up the liquid. Ladle out eh liquid with a plastic bucket. Pour this liquid directly to the bud with a small dipper (60-100 ml). The bigger the plant is, the more it needs to be poured this liquid. After 3-4 days, you should do like this again. That will make pineapple bear fruit in masses. The best time to do this is from Sep 5th to Oct 5th. After 40-50 days of being treated like this, pineapple will bear fruit. Then, you can take care of pineapple as usual till you harvest. Dear farmers, Harvesting pineapple seems to be simple but, in fact, it must meet manufactures’ requirements. So as far as CAYEN pineapple concerned, when you can harvest and what should be done? The next part will deal with these questions. Here is a scene of harvesting pineapple in Dong Trieu, Dong Giao. All of these pineapples are for processing. On average, each fruit is 1.5-2.5 kg heavy. Some can weigh nearly 4 kg. According to the farmers, in this crop they can harvest 50-60 tons/hectare. Apparently, it seems to be unripe but, in fact, it has ripened. - When the fruit turns yellowish, you can harvest. On harvesting, you should use your left hand to hold

the fruit, and then use the right hand to break the peduncle. Put it gently down the beds, cut out the flower. These fruits then are taken to manufactures, where they are processed into juice, candied, etc.

Many foreign markets are very fond of these products. Please visit pineapple farm of Tran Van Hung in Lac Thuy, Hoa Binh with us. He rent this farm from Song Boi collective farm. His family has harvested the main crop. But at present, these pineapples continue to bear fruit out of season. Because this area is under strong influence of the Southwest wind, pineapples here are often browned. Mr. Hung surmounts this by tying together pineapple leaves. Though he has planted pineapple for just a short time, he has very good knowledge and a lot of experience of growing pineapple.

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- I often advise farmers that they should check the PH concentration of soil, prepare soil carefully before

planting. When planting, farmers should choose shoots of good quality, put down fertilizer according to the right procedures and appropriate proportion among N, P and K.

Mr. Hung harvested nearly 50 tons of pineapple per hectare in the main crop. In the coming time, he plans to expand his farm. Hopefully, this program and Mr. Hung’s experience will be helpful to you. Wish you success in planting pineapple. END

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5 - "Economy - HTV", recorded on 24 Oct 2003

Hanoi tourism after SARS

On applying many measures to recover the market after a difficult time caused by the outbreak of SARS, tourism in the third quarter has made some development. However, according to the Vietnam Administration of Tourism (VNAT), the achievement of the past nine months is not as impressive as that of the same period last year. In order to attract tourists toward the end of this year and in 2004, many projects on upgrading hotels are being carried out, and the service staff’s knowledge improved. Advertising activities and sales of tours with images of SEA games 22 have been held during recent months. The number of foreign tourists to Vietnam after SARS is increasing, however, during the past nine months Vietnam has just received more than 1,630,000 arrivals, a decrease of 17.3% compared with the same period last year. The number of tourists from key places such as China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Australia, France, America and ASEAN countries decreased. But in September alone, Vietnam received 209,000 arrivals, an increase of 8.3% compared with that of August and approximately equal to that of September 2002. Tourism experts predict that Vietnam will receive about 800,000 arrivals of foreign tourists in the next four months of this year. SEA games 22 is an occasion when Vietnam tourism will receive a lot of tourists. To take advantage of this opportunity, VNAT has been promoting advertising activities abroad.

- Advertising activities must be more accelerated continue to be focused on key markets like northeast region, Asia, ASEAN, Europe, and North America. Activities include meetings, fairs, seminars and promotional trips to Vietnam.

Apart from Western Europe, China, Japan, and South Korea, the US is one of Vietnam’s potential markets. We are not only aiming at mere tourists but also business travelers. Recently, a famous American leisure magazine has ranked Hanoi the second most attractive place in Asia. This event has a lot of positive effects on tourism at present. From 9-13/11, VNAT will be sending a delegation to the International Tourism Fair in England. This is an annual activity aimed at advertising Vietnam's tourism next year. VNAT will costshare participants’ expenses. Beside VNAT's activities, tourist businesses also have their own plans. Some hotels and tourist companies like Sofitel Metropole and Saigon Tourist have held meetings attended by international press in Vietnam.

- Metropole Hotel will continue many advertising activities and improve our capacity to receive our guests during the last months of this year and in the New Year. We estimate that the number of tourists staying in our Hotel in December will increase to 15% compared with the same period last year.

Beside advertising activities, VNAT is cooperating with related agencies to limit the number of beggars and vendors, especially during SEA Games. Although, Vietnam will try to attract many tourists during SEA Games, tourism experts say that the number of visits to Vietnam this year may decrease about 15% compared with 2.6 million arrivals in 2002. Widening its cooperation with organizations in the country and from abroad has helped Hanoi tourism successfully implement many plans such as advertising tourism, training staff, and setting up new tours. Report: Widening cooperation to develop tourism

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Developing and widening co-operation with domestic and foreign tourist businesses are an essential measure to attract investment, draw out expertise and improve the service quality of Hanoi's tourism. This measure will support many other activities to reach a common goal on developing tourism into a spearhead economic industry in the first decade of this century. Under the direction of the Capital's government, Hanoi's tourism now is cooperating with more than 162 countries in the world.

- We have close ties with international tourist organizations such as WTO, FATA and other markets in large regions like ASEAN countries, Europe, and America. In future these relations must be further promoted, because we have a strong tourism potential. At present, Hanoi just receives about 1 million foreign tourists and 3 million domestic ones. From now to 2005 we must try to receive from 1.5 to 2 million international tourists. If we want to achieve that goal, we surely need to cooperate with international travel agents and businesses, especially those of Western Europe, China, North America, and northeast Asia.

First, concerning regional countries, Hanoi is an important chain in Asian cities in the 21st century. One of their goals is to carry out common tourism advertising programs. Many tourist fairs have been held, attended by many travel companies in Hanoi. Through these activities, more information of Hanoi’s tourism came to international tourists. This helps advertise Hanoi’s tourism and attract more investment to training its staff, developing its labor force. In reality, thanks to support of international tourist organizations, many Hanoi’s tourist staff have got chances to go abroad to study, participate in management of tourist businesses. In the country, Hanoi’s tourism also pays much attention to this activity with other provinces’ tourism. Many programs on improving the quality of the labor force, projects on investing and implementing construction of new tourist resorts have been carried out between Hanoi and other cities and provinces. These relations are focused on creating favorable conditions for tourist businesses to expand their tours from Hanoi to other places and vice versa.

- I think that if we develop Hanoi’s tourism, Bac Ninh is just one of the needed factors. It is so because Hanoi is not far from Bac Ninh. Foreign visitors to Hanoi like going to the countryside and Bac Ninh’ countryside is near Hanoi, which is convenient for them.

- Ha Tay is near the suburban of Hanoi and it has a lot of advantages for tourism development. We

are focusing on three kinds of tours: handicraft villages, ecology, and cultural and historical places. We have exploited these three advantages. We consider tourism a spearhead economic industry of out province. We have succeeded in planning, calling for investment, especially tourism with construction of new resorts like Ao Vua, Khoang Sanh, golf green, Suoi Mo and so on. 147 handicraft villages together with 975,000 people are important factors that meet the tourism demand of Hanoi. Concerning historical heritages, they are also tourist attractions. Having a favorable location like that, we acknowledge that Ha Tay has a mutual benefit with Hanoi, especially in developing tourism.

Hanoi’s tourism development still has a long way to go. In parallel with this development, among many relations, it is important that Hanoi effectively take advantage of its cooperative relations with travel agents inside at home and abroad, aiming at improving its own competitiveness. Dear audiences, Hanoi’s tourism will be more attractive if we have more diverse products, meeting tourists’ needs. Apart from our backbone tours to cultural and historical sites, ecological tours are getting great attention and

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investment. If it is developed appropriately, eco-tourism will help create jobs and improve the competitiveness of Hanoi’s tourism. Eco-tourism has only briefly developed in our country but it has attracted many tourists. Therefore, many areas have concentrated on developing this kind of tourism. Hanoi is one of them. Tu Liem fruit tree garden is an example. The main activity of the company is to grow fruit trees and green trees, but it also makes use of its garden for Eco-tourism service. And it has gained success.

- During the past two years, Eco-tourism has created more jobs for our laborers. Now we have 171 workers and the average annual income is 800,000 VND and we will make it 1000,000 next year.

Many people like Eco-tourism simply because they want to come close to nature, relaxing and breathing fresh air. Green trees, pure water, and well protected wild animals are essential factors that create attraction of this type of tourism. If developed reasonably, Eco-tourism does not do any harm to the environment. But it is not easy to build a true Eco-tourism resort. This kind of resort must be more carefully exploited than any other kinds of tourism. In Hanoi, some places having a water surface of only some hundreds square meters like this are also called Eco-tourism. This kind of Eco-tourism only has fishing, eating, and drinking.

- Green tourism, sea tourism, or farm tourism are not true Eco-tourism. These types are just close to the definition of Eco-tourism. Eco-tourism is a type of tourism that is responsible for the landscape and Eco-environment. That is, Eco-system must be preserved and sustainably developed with tourism and environment. And it must bring benefit to the local community because they are the real and true owner of the tourism resort.

Hanoi has a lot of green trees of all kinds with more than 3,600 ponds and lakes, especially the forests and lakes in Soc Son. This is a potential for Eco-tourism. The question is how to develop this type of tourism while protecting the Eco-system and environment. Recently, the Government has approved a pre-feasibility study report on building a cultural Eco-tourism resort in Soc Son, with an area of about 274 hectares, capitalized at around 620 billion VND. Infrastructure like roads, wild animal reserve, and other buildings will be built. This will be the biggest Eco-tourism resort ever built in our capital, opening a new page for Hanoi’s tourism and attracting more tourists. END

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6 - “Encourage Agriculture and Forestry" - Thanh Hoa TV Techniques to take care of Autumn-Winter nut and developing garden-pond-cage model in

midland and mountainous areas I - Techniques to take care of Autumn-Winter nut plants Now the nut plant is flowering. This is one of important periods that decide productivity and quality of the nut plant. To achieve high productivity farmers should carry out some necessary techniques as follows: - Supplement the nutrition. Nut fruits can directly absorb the nutrition like calcium and phosphate in the soil. Based on this characteristic, people can supplement phosphate and calcium in order to make the nut fruit bigger, its cover thinner, and nut commodity more beautiful. Hereafter are some fertilizers farmers should use when nut plants are flowering. - To supplement calcium, use 15 -20 kg of powdered lime for 360 m2. For fields covered with nylon, sprinkle powdered lime directly on the plants' leaves. For fields that are not covered with nylon, you scatter powdered lime along both sides of the bed then use a hoe to earth up it to the nut plants' foot. This makes the nut fruits develop better. - To supplement phosphate, use 200-300 grams mixed with 8-10 liters of water for 360 m2. From the time when the nut plants bear flowers till they bear fruits, you can spray the liquid (30-40 liter) twice to three times, with an interval of 7 -10 days. In case the nut plants do not grow well or the soil is too dry you can spray some chemical fertilizers on their leaves to supplement nutrition. Remember do not use nitrogenous fertilizer for nut plants during this period. Let's talk about watering and draining. Nut plants are well adapted to dry soil, but during flowering and fruit bearing period, without adequate water, the productivity will decrease. Therefore, if the weather is dry, you should try to water the plants adequately. You should make furrow-drains on the fields for the water to come in. When the soil has enough water you discharge it. Protect nut plants from insects: During flowering period, nut plants are usually hit by some insects such as leave rollers, cirphis salebrosa butlers, and span worms. These insects eat leaves, decreasing the plants' photosynthesis and affecting the productivity. You also should check the fields regularly. When discovering an insect brood, pick it or kill the baby insects right on the leaves. If insects are so condensed, you should spray chemical insecticides like ofatox subatox. (Summary) Techniques to take care of nut plants during flowering period include: - Use powdered lime to supplement calcium. The best time is during blossoming period. The needed amount is 15-20 kg for 360 m2. You can sprinkle it directly on nut plants' leaves. - Mix phosphate with water, 200-300 grams phosphate with 8-10 liters of water. Spray this liquid on nut plants' leaves. 360 m2 need spraying 30-40 liter of the mixture twice to three times, with an interval of 7-10 days.

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When the nut plants do not develop well, you should use fertilizers that can be applied on their leaves such as oganic humat, komic, and humic. Read carefully the instructions to use each fertilizer. If the soil is too dry, you should water the nut plants adequately. Furrow-drain watering is recommended. Concerning insects, you can kill them by hands or spraying chemicals like ofatox, subatox and so on. You can also use Bordox and Zineb. II - Developing garden-pond-cage model (VAC) in midland and mountainous areas Midland and mountainous regions have lots of land so farmers can expand their gardens. However, in these areas, the soil layer is thin and dry, therefore, people should pay attention to protect soil, prevent erosion, and enrich soil with fertilizers. In the eco-system of garden-pond-cage (VAC) in mountainous areas, houses should be built on open and even places that are easily accessible, near water source, and avoiding direct wind. There are three kinds of gardens: home garden, hill garden, and forest garden. - Home garden is made around the house. Here people grow fruit trees, which are suitable to the soil and need regular care, including orange, tangerine, banana, papaya, etc. In this kind of garden, fruit trees should be grown intercalated with cash crop plants such as bean and nut so that people can harvest many products and improve the soil's fertility. People can also plant vegetables for breeding livestock. Vegetables need regular watering so they should be grown near a pond. A vegetable garden should be fenced to protect it from cattle and poultry. People should plant popular vegetables like mustard greens, turnip cabbage, potherbs, amaranth, etc. In the garden's corners you should plant spice vegetables like onion, garlic, and sage. Plants and trees in home gardens should be taken care of and watered regularly as well as weeded. Its soil should be fertilized with manure to make it more fertile. The manure must be well rotted before fertilizing. - Hill garden is made on a fairly low slopping level hillside. If you wish to cultivate on hill gardens you need to apply farming techniques for slopping land. Beside making stepping fields, planting trees like perennial and pineapple, etc, on land having thin soil layer or lots of rocks, people can make stone walls to create places for cultivation. On hill gardens, people should plant fruit trees like longan, litchi, apricot, plum, etc, or industrial trees like tea, coffee, rubber, and so on. Between tree lines we should grow cash crops like bean, nut, or medical herbs like ginger and bastard cardamom. Intercalated plants give farmers more products and they also make the soil more fertile. In areas at the hill's foot, you should grow seasonal crop plants like corn, millet, and sweet potato intercalated with fruit trees like longan, litchi, orange, tangerine, papaya, etc. Following this model, you can harvest all year round. And if you lose one tree or plant you still have others to harvest. Cultivation on slopping land needs crop rotation. Thanks to crop rotation with bean or nut plants, the soil will become more fertile. - Forest garden has a high slopping level. It needs good care and protection especially that of upstream forests. Besides protecting regenerating forests, people should plant new wood trees like texture and melaleuca. You can plant cinnamon trees in bare places or where there are no regenerating trees. Taking care of regenerating trees by clearing the areas of weeds and bushes and turning up the soil around trees' feet. In case the forest garden is too far away from the house or the household does not have enough laborers so you should focus on protecting regenerating trees. Planting trees is difficult but protecting them is more difficult. This is the responsibility of all people. Authorities of all levels must create conditions for farmers to improve the living standard to decrease the pressure on forests. Propagandize the

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benefit of protecting forests, laws and Government's policies on forest protection. Each village and commune must have forest protection regulations and rangers. And there must be cooperation between villages and communes. Pond is dug in front of the house, at a hill's foot or near a stream. This is for breeding fish and watering trees. The pond must have drainage for the water to come in and discharge easily. On the pond's banks, you can grow vegetables and fruit trees. Near the water surface you can grow calla palustris for feeding pigs. On the surface of the pond, you should make loofah or calabash trellis, which give you vegetables and keep the water cool in summer. You should breed some kinds of fish at the same time so that the food is not wasted and the water environment not polluted. Different kinds of fish will support one another to grow. Common fish that you should breed include dory, carp, cirrhina molitorella, and African carp. Gardening gives you vegetables for livestock breeding. Thanks to this, cattle are fed in cages. Clean cages and adequate food make cattle healthy, less infected by diseases. Infected cattle are treated better, avoiding spreading diseases. Cattle's manure is a good fertilizer for fields and gardens. Cattle's cages should be built near the house in places that are cool in summer and warm in winter. Cages' doors should be opened to the Southeast to avoid direct sunlight, cold wind and keep the inside dry, limiting diseases. Cattle and poultry cages are built with available local material like bamboo. Cages' floor can be made of bamboo or if possible paved with cement and bricks. To keep the floor dry, we should build it fairly slopping backwards. Cages must have manure-rotting holes. This will be a resource of fertilizer for gardens, fields and food for fish. To people living in mountainous areas, a part from pigs, chicken, and ducks, they should breed cows and honeybees. Diversity of crops and livestock, cultivation, and reasonable exploitation of natural resources will meet basic needs of farmers. If livestock breeding develops, farmers will have more fertilizer for agricultural production. In short VAC model has changed the production from self-sufficiency to commodity production. END