No soil roads in the village

We visited a beautiful 2-storey new house of Nguyen Thi Tinh (72 years old). We just saw her and her two grand children preparing for lunch in the very clean ceramic-floor house.

Workers of the Garment Factory number 2, Bac Giang LGG Garment Joint stock Company in Nghia Hoa industrial cluster, Lang Giang district.

Tinh has 3 children. Her youngest daughter works as a nurse in the town while her second son is working in Taiwan (China). She is living with her eldest son’s family who are workers.

Nguyen Van Thinh (59 years old) who is neighbor of Tinh’s family has 3 married sons. His 2 sons and daughters-in-law are workers in a garment company while his second son is working for another company near his house.

According to Dong Van Thuan, Vice Chairman of the people’s committee of Nghia Hoa commune, the 2 garment companies attract the largest number of workers. More than 2,000 out of 7,000 laborers working in Nghia Hoa Industrial Cluster are from Nghia Hoa commune.

The average salary of garment workers ranges from 7 million to 10 million VND (302 to 431 USD) per month depending on working experience, position and productivity. The workers here do not have to work night shift. They leave home for work from 6.30 am and go home at 6 pm to pick up their children from the grandparents.

According to Nguyen Thi Lac, head of the village, the local people have stable jobs and incomes. Especially, the middle-aged people also take their time to work under seasonable contracts such as cooking and cleaning for some factories after their farm work. Apart from young workers in the companies, many local people work as construction workers in different localities.

Bang village is home to 480 households and 1,740 inhabitants including 13 poor households facing hard conditions (the family member suffers from serious diseases or unable to work).

The income per capita of the village is estimated at 48 million VND (2,071 USD) in 2019. There is no soil road in the village at present.

Changing lifestyle

Stable jobs, income and life for local people in line with support of the district and communal government to build and upgrade the infrastructure, the rural commune of Nghia Hoa now has a new face, absolutely different from some years ago.

The new house of a family in Bang village, Nghia Hoa commune.

With total investment of 90 billion VND (3.9 million USD) from state budget, enterprises’ capital and socialized fund, 100 percent of the rural traffic road has been concreted. 

Next to the headquarter of the communal people’s committee is a new kindergarten built from the budget and socialized fund valued at about 23 billion VND (992,665 USD) covering an area of 2 hectares to meet the demands for study and entertainment of 500 children in the commune and some neighboring communes whose parents are workers in the locality.

Previously, there were fierce objections against agricultural land acquisition to build the industrial cluster because growing vegetables in some villages especially Bang and Ha villages brought stable incomes for many households. Nevertheless, the industrial cluster was established thanks to the great determination of the local party committee, government and enterprises.

What it has done is to make a clear change in socio-economic development, infrastructure, attitudes and lifestyle of a rural area. Young labor force in Nghia Hoa can find jobs right in their own homeland creating a village of workers. The local people’s living standard has been dramatically improved thanks to joint development of agriculture, industry, trade and other sectors.

The income per capita is estimated at 53.7 million VND (2,317 USD) in 2019 while the communal state revenue is 14.3 billion VND (618,433 USD), up 7 billion VND (302,729 USD) compared to 2018.

According to Dong Van Thuan, Vice Chairman of the communal people’s committee, the commune has completed land handover to the projects of the BT road (Build-Transfer) connecting Nghia Hoa industrial cluster and expanded Kep town, Bac Giang LGG Garment Cooperation, Lang Giang BGG Garment Factory Phase 2 and some other projects. Nghia Hoa is expected to be more robust and change its face in years to come.

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Number of guest workers to Republic of Korea increase

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Housing projects for workers accelerated

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Japan continues to be largest market of Vietnamese workers

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Kim Hieu