Dr. Ho Thang, Deputy Director of Department of Science and Technology
The prime target of the IP Development Program is to raise the awareness of the establishment, management and development of IP among organizations and individuals of Thua Thien Hue in the context of growing globalization and international economic integration. The program also supports the registration, exploitation and practical application of inventions and useful solutions for improving the productivity and quality of products whereby the brand value, the productivity, quality and competitiveness of the products are formed and raised, and the local specialty products likely to enter the domestic market and for export are given priority.
What are the foci of this plan, sir?
We focus on the five groups of issues: first, propagandizing and enhancing the awareness of intellectual property rights among organizations and businesses; second, supporting the material zones for specialty products; third, supporting the brand development which focuses on collective trademarks, certification trademarks and geographical direction; fourth, applying science and technology to the improvement of the productivity and quality of products; fifth, enhancing the commercialization and market access for Hue specialties. These groups of issues focus primarily on the Hue specialty brand development in association with the value chain so that products can be developed in a synchronous way.
Does that include the support for raw material zone development, sir?
That's right. We proposed that the Green Truong Son Project supports the development of raw material zones for two projects including the project to conserve and develop natural cajuput trees in order to develop Hue malaleuca oil distillation associated with Hoa Nen (Compressed Flower) brand in Phong Dien District and the project to develop the thanh tra pomelo-growing zone meeting VietGAP standards in the province. We also proposed some tasks to ensure the seed sources and production process for some agricultural specialties such as Hue lotus, Nam Dong oranges, Quang Tho pennywort and so on.
Hue thanh tra pomelos were registered as a collective trademark. Photo: L. Tue
How about the specialties of cuisine, agricultural products characteristic of the region?
Thua Thien Hue has the advantage of local specialty products. However, the building, management and development of the regional specialty brand remain very limited. In 2018, we will focus on building, developing the brands of Hue tunics, Hue shrimp paste, Hue lotus , Thuy Xuan incense, Tam Giang - Cau Hai ca vau ( a local variety of fish), and A Luoi yellow beef and so on. We also prepare to implement the geographic direction project for Hue thanh tra pomelos; with the support from the Ministry of Science and Technology, we have proposed a geographic direction project for Hue malaleuca oil.
At Hue Thanh tra Pomelo Festival in 2018. Photo: Phan Thanh
Many products of Thua Thien Hue have competitive advantages but are not methodically commercialized and do not enter the market well. In the near future, we strive to improve this situation with the synchronous solutions for developing our specialty brands associated with value chain, enabling our products to better enter the domestic and international markets.
Have you talked about the application of the scientific and technological advances to the IP management and development?
We are interested in the scientific and technological application to improve the productivity, quality and commercialization of products. The provincial People's Committee formulated a policy to support no more than VND 500 million per project to encourage businesses to improve their technology and promote inventions and useful solutions for increasing their goods production capacity. We will focus on supporting the application of patents and useful solutions so that enterprises can increase their production capacity and enhance the product quality. We will integrate resources from the productivity and quality projects to support the application of advanced production processes such as VietGAP, organic, GMP, ISO 22000 and so on. At the same time, we will also establish the quality standards for the specialties such as Hue malaleuca oil, Hue sesame candy and Hue shrimp paste. In collaboration with Hue College of Industry, we held a competition for designing logos, trademarks, models and so on for a number of brands such as melaleuca oil, thanh tra pomelos, Hue tunics, Hue shrimp paste, and incense. It is also a useful solution for supporting businesses in industrial design protection.
How have Thua Thien Hue’s specialties been supported for traceability?
Product traceability stamping is part of the task force to improve the productivity, quality of specialty products. Proposed by Thua Thien Hue, the General Department of Standardization, Metrology and Quality signed cooperation to carry out the traceability of some specialty products of Thua Thien Hue. In the immediate future, this support will be piloted for two products of sesame candy and melaleuca oil. For this task, we organized a conference on IP management and traceability stamping application for the provincial businesses. Many businesses have registered for product traceability stamping at the conference.
We are establishing a set of criteria for selecting the provincial key products including specialty products and rural products. After this list is made, we will recommend the provincial authorities to issue a framework of support solutions. In particular, the focus is on the group of brand development solutions associated with the value chain of specialty products including traceability support.
Thank you
Story: DONG VAN