Bat Trang Vietnam - 1,000 Years of Craftsmanship

Bat Trang Vietnam - 1,000 Years of Craftsmanship

The ancient parallel sentences "With the skills of man, mud changes into assets. Under the heat of kilns, soil turns into gold" fully describe the value of the 1,000-year-old craft village of Bat Trang in Hanoi. With the recent launch of the brand "Bat Trang Vietnam - 1,000 Years of Craftsmanship" and the Bat Trang Export Promotion Centre, first-class ceramic products made by local skilled craftsmen will win hearts of more consumers as well as collectors around the world.

The Bat Trang Ceramics Association and the Mekong Project Development Facility (MPDF) under the International Finance Corporation, an arm of the World Bank, held a grand ceremony in Hanoi on November 17, 2004 to introduce the brand and the centre which are to make small-scale pottery producers in the village better known by domestic and foreign customers.

“Before the introduction of the brand, pottery makers in Bat Trang had to experience slow international economic integration, non-synchronous production and improper competition. With the brand ‘Bat Trang - 1,000 Years of Craftsmanship’, they will surely receive more orders, partly because their products will be appraised in terms of quality and aestheticism by professional councils before reaching customers,” said association chairman Duong Xuan Chanh.

Bat Trang, most famous pottery-making village in Vietnam, records big domestic sales and earns some US$40 million from exporting its products annually. Now, traders can seek local partners, and buyers can place orders via the center’s website at: http://www.battrang-ceramics.org. The association and MPDF have mapped out further actions to be taken in 2005, including participation in international trade shows, a re-launch of branded products to target high-end retail outlets and promotion of tours to the village.

"Within a few years, we expect to see positive results not only for Bat Trang's 400 plus business owners but also for the estimated 30,000 people they employ. We also expect that as the success of Bat Trang's collaborative approach to marketing and exporting becomes better known, it will lead to replication in other industry sectors in Vietnam and across the Mekong region," Adam Sack, MPDF's General Manager, said, noting that the facility will keep on providing technical assistance and offer US$150,000 to the project next year.

• Dong Phong