Nguyen Van Chi, Permanent Deputy Chief of the Hanoi Office of New Rural Construction Program Coordination, told The Hanoi Times about the city’s plan to implement the One Commune One Product program (OCOP) in 2022.

Nguyen Van Chi, Permanent Deputy Chief of the Hanoi Office of New Rural Construction Program Coordination. Photo: TTXVN

2022 is still a challenging year given the rampant Covid-19 pandemic. As the pioneering city in the nation's OCOP program, what activities will Hanoi deploy to maintain the position?

The city will continue to boost training for staff and the program’s participants, expand trade promotion activities at supermarkets, safe agricultural retail points and e-commerce platforms. 

We will cooperate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and other relevant agencies to organize the International Forum on OCOP products, safe agricultural items, and handicrafts in 2022. 

The capital strives to make OCOP-labeled products the strong brands in the domestic and foreign markets.

Is the consumption of OCOP products the priority to encourage artisan households to participate in the program?

The Hanoi Office of New Rural Construction Program Coordination and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development have jointly organized many events for OCOP products introduction and business matching in recent years in accordance with the Covid-19 pandemic conditions.

Some events such as the OCOP Livestream Festival, the online forum on fostering farm produce consumption through connecting supply and demand of OCOP products and safe agricultural products and food received enthusiastic support from OCOP members and consumers.

The city also successfully organized four weekly OCOP promotion events, in which we gave counseling and sold OCOP products and regional specialties.

Hanoi is leading the country in the number of OCOP products. Would the proliferation of such products diminish their quality?  

Hanoi has advocated not to pursue the quantity, thus, the inspection and supervision work has been regularly carried out by the departments and localities.

In 2021, we inspected and monitored more than 40 members who are the manufacturers of 334 OCOP products from 18 districts and towns. At the same time, we gave advice and helped them overcome limitations in the process of producing and selling products, packaging, labeling, registering for product protection certificates, and issues related to the environment and OCOP product certification documents.

How has the Covid-19 pandemic affected Hanoi's OCOP program development goals in the past years?

For two years now, the Covid-19 pandemic has greatly hindered the OCOP program. Product evaluation and classification faced many difficulties due to restrictions against the pandemic. In addition, many trade promotion activities have been scaled down and postponed. 

In 2021, the city completed the evaluation and classification for 595 OCOP-labeled products, exceeding the set target of over 400 ones.

So far, the city has had a total of more than 1,500 OCOP products since the program was launched by the Prime Minister.

Thank you for your time.