"One commune, one product" programme in Quang Nam

(QNO) - The “One commune, one product” (OCOP) programme is supposed to bring a lot of opportunities to Quang Nam in the period 2018-2020, and the orientation towards 2030. However, there are still several problems and challenges in the process of implementation.

Fish sauce- a product from Cua Khe fish sauce village (Binh Duong commune, Thang Binh district) at a fair in Da Nang city.

According to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Van On, OCOP consultant in Quang Nam, the OCOP programme is the door to Quang Nam’s agricultural and rural development. However, the problems are what supports are necessary and effective, and how the supports are given to better the farmer’s life.

Opportunities and challenges

The OCOP programme is applied in rural economic development based on agricultural and non-agricultural products, tourism and services. Quang Nam is a province with the advantages of geography (mountainous areas, midlands, deltas, and coastal areas), the diversity of cultural features, handicrafts and local products. Therefore, it is easy for Quang Nam to implement the OCOP programme. Some other things that make this programme successful in Quang Nam are the strong movement of start-ups, the active programmes on new rural building and socio-economic development.

Besides the advantages, Quang Nam faces a lot of difficulties in the implementation of the OCOP programme. As can be seen, people are still relying on authorities’ supports, lack the knowledge of products and the capacity of markets. Several local products are rather simple and unattractive. The local businesses’ and authorities’ capacity of trade promotion, product advertising was weak. Customers have not had completely beliefs in the local products’ quality yet. The local products’ competitiveness is lower than the goods imported from China, Thailand, Japan, etc.

Future strategy

Vice Chairman of the Quang Nam Provincial People's Committee Le Tri Thanh said that the OCOP programme needed an integration of the whole political system. People play the key role with the helps from the authorities. Experts and scientists are encouraged to take part in the process of human resource training, products development, combination between tourism and production, promoting local cultural activities for tourism development, applying technology in production and businesses… The OCOP will help the locals with their products’ brand names and promotion. The target of the OCOP grogramme is developing rural economy based on the local products. Therefore, it is necessary to build a strategy to bring the local products out of the local border, make them popular with people home and abroad.