Exploiting cultural values ​​is the key to promoting product development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

In order to promote the strengths of products imbued with the cultural values ​​of ethnic minorities, on September 29, Industry and Trade Magazine organized a seminar with the theme "Exploiting cultural values, developing products in ethnic minority and mountainous areas". At the seminar, many recommendations were made to promote the exploitation of cultural values ​​in developing products in ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

At the seminar, a representative of a social enterprise, with many activities supporting the development of products for ethnic minorities, Ms. Tran Tuyet Lan, Director of Craft Link Social Enterprise Joint Stock Company shared that in recent times, Craft Link has carried out projects across the country with many ethnic minority groups to train and support them to increase their internal strength, using their own traditional handicraft skills and traditional cultural characteristics to introduce new products to the market, thereby increasing their income.

In the process of supporting groups, Craft Link has developed separate plans, suitable for each ethnic minority group. Because each ethnic minority group has a different traditional cultural identity, different languages ​​and ways of expressing culture, especially, the way of receiving training sessions is also different.

Every month, Craft Link invites representatives of an ethnic minority group to Hanoi to demonstrate their traditional crafts. Every year, Craft Link organizes a traditional handicraft fair and invites ethnic minority groups to participate. From there, people from ethnic minority and mountainous areas will have the opportunity to interact directly with customers. They will not only introduce their own traditional culture but also have more information about the needs and trends of the consumer market.

“Through Craft Link’s support, ethnic minority groups have gained new knowledge and strengthened all their traditional craft skills, thereby preserving their traditional culture and cultural identity contained in their products,” Ms. Tran Tuyet Lan emphasized.

However, Ms. Tran Tuyet Lan shared that the most difficult thing when exploiting the typical products of ethnic minorities is how to smoothly combine and bring traditional cultural values ​​into new products. It is necessary to filter out which details, motifs, and patterns are typical to put into new products. In addition, new products must also have features and functions that are suitable to the needs and tastes of consumers, so that they can stand firm in the market.

At the same time, it is also necessary to research how foreign customers and tourists can recognize the cultural aspect when looking at the product. Ms. Tran Tuyet Lan commented that the task of organizations like Craft Link is to spread these unique cultural values ​​widely, thereby supporting more ethnic minority groups.

Effectively exploiting cultural values ​​in product development

From the real story of Craft Link, Ms. Be Hong Van, Deputy Director of the Department of Ethnic Policy, Ethnic Committee, said that there are 5 important factors contributing to the success in exploiting cultural values ​​in developing products of ethnic minorities and mountainous areas.

That is, the internal strength of the value chain owner, including: educational level, practical experience, desire, pride in the community and ethnic culture; access to technology; exploitation of local knowledge through product development; connection from policy through experts or science and technology; promotion of cultural traditions, accessed and used through community tourism development as well as through communication and marketing.

"Through exploiting traditional values, businesses provide products and services to the market and once recognized by the market, those products will contribute to preserving and promoting the fine cultural traditions of each nation." - Ms. Be Hong Van emphasized.

From an expert's perspective, Dr. Chu Xuan Giao, Institute of Cultural Studies, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, highly appreciated the efforts of ethnic minority and mountainous people in proactively choosing typical and unique products associated with their own culture to sell in domestic and foreign markets.

According to Dr. Chu Xuan Giao, culture can be both a shape and an indefinable shape, and we should not be satisfied with what we have. The problem is to orient ourselves to survive, develop, enrich and continuously innovate.

“Innovation here does not mean seeing others “carrying a spade” then you also “carry a spade”, seeing others go fishing then you also go fishing, that is, you do not have to follow the trend, but have to find your own direction. At the same time, people also need to build for themselves a long-term development strategy, persevere and try, creating their own, sustainable brand.” - Dr. Chu Xuan Giao shared.

Making cultural factors an advantage of products from ethnic minority and mountainous areas

In previous years, the issue of supporting product development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas has been integrated into socio-economic development programs and policies for ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

Up to now, the product development program for ethnic minority and mountainous areas has organized 445 models to support production development according to the value chain and 402 models to develop community production, creating 249 models of startups and business startups in ethnic minority areas and organizing 52 events to connect product consumption markets as well as festival events linking trade with tourism; events to promote the consumption of ethnic products, etc.

In particular, 35 training conferences on commercial capacity were organized, including training on commercial skills and sales and business skills with the participation of more than 1,400 ethnic minorities.

However, the actual implementation shows that the exploitation of the value of ethnic cultures has not yet fully exploited its potential. Production processes, trade promotion and advertising activities have not yet fully conveyed the unique cultural elements of ethnic minorities in each locality.

To contribute to promoting the consumption of products from ethnic minority and mountainous areas with strong national cultural values, Ms. Be Hong Van proposed a number of contents that need to be focused on in the coming time. Specifically, it is necessary to create an environment connecting partners participating in value chain linkages, including government agencies, which are representatives of mechanisms and policies.

At the same time, promoting the role of local businesses has successfully implemented the role of technical support and creating motivation for exploiting cultural values ​​in production and developing ethnic products.

To exploit cultural values ​​in product development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, economic experts say that state support projects must include knowledge factors, traditional cultural values ​​as well as community cohesion in the criteria for selecting projects to support value chain development.

In particular, policies must pay attention to local artisans because they are living witnesses who transmit and preserve local culture forever.

In particular, there needs to be synergy and consensus from all levels, sectors, localities, businesses and ethnic people to turn cultural factors into advantages. Thereby, spreading the unique cultural features in ethnic minority products further.

Industry and Trade Magazine