Diep Van Doan in Thanh Hai commune (Luc Ngan district) sets up shop with a Vinh orange growing model.

A boom of start-up models in rural areas

Local people and visitors are impressed with the garden of heavily laden Vinh orange of the family of Diep Van Doan, a 23-year-old man of the San Diu ethnic minority group in Xe Moi hamlet, Thanh Hai commune (Luc Ngan district). In 2017, his family harvested 20 tonnes of oranges, with an average price of 23,000 VND (1 USD)/kg.

Previously, few people believed that Doan will succeed as he replaced hundreds of over-20-year-old litchi trees with 300 Vinh orange trees and Dien pomelo. Graduating from Bac Giang Vocational College (Bac Giang city), Doan decided to apply scientific and technological advances into gardening.

Initially, Doan met with a lot of difficulties because he had not enough knowledge of these fruit trees as well as those related to irrigation.

He continued learning from books and other farmers. He borrowed more than 100 million VND (4,400 USD) to install an automatic drip irrigation system and used safe organic methods to kill insects. Doan slowly accumulated capital and expand the cultivation area. He also shared his experience in seedling and planting techniques with other young people in the locality.

Nguyen Van Tien (R) in Xuong Giang ward (Bac Giang city) sets up shop with a vegetable sprout growing model.

The wave of start-up spread, creating emulation movements among young people across the province. There are some of the outstanding start-up examples such as Nguyen Van Thanh in Dao My commune (Lang Giang district), who owns a wood workshop that brings turnover of billions of VND/year; Nguyen Thi Duyen in Dan Hoi commune (Luc Nam district), who created jobs for dozens of workers with her incense-tick production model.

Slowly removing difficulties, timely supporting

Although there are mechanisms to support and create favorable conditions by facilitating the access to preferential loans, but for some reasons, many young people in rural areas still faced difficulties in their start-up journey.

At present, almost of youth-owned economic models are small-sized and operate separately without multi-sectorial production and business plans.

Hoang Van Thuy (C) in Cam Dan commune (Son Dong district) was supported by the provincial Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union with 200 Vinh orange trees.

Recognising these obstacles, Than Trung Kien, vice secretary of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union of Bac Giang province, said the organisation will continue enhancing support for local young people’s start-up models by providing financial assistance, and connecting distribution and consumption channels for five start-up projects, with the target beneficiaries being youth people in rural areas.

Communication campaigns will be increased to raise public awareness of start-up, he noted.

It is necessary to take full advantage of social networks and websites to popularise policies and projects to support young people in economic development, Kien added.

To set up shop successfully, young people need to rely on their internal resources to build economic development models suitable for characteristics and strengths of their locality, he stressed.

Tuyet Mai