Dr. Ho Thang
The motivation for developing local specialty
Thua Thien Hue has presented the policy to support the development of intellectual property until 2020 in order to promote creativity, transfer and development of intellectual property, ensure investment environment and healthy competition in production and business; as well as to protect and enhance the value of agricultural products, which are specialties of traditional craft villages and rural trades.
In an interview with Thua Thien Hue reporter, Dr. Ho Thang, Vice Director of the Department of Science and Technology acknowledged that Thua Thien Hue has had a variety of culinary specialties and agricultural products well-known at home and abroad. However, the establishment, management and development of local specialties have shown some drawbacks. The application of mechanisms and policies on intellectual property development for local specialties remains confusing.
Dr. Ho Thang emphasized that, in the global trend towards the innovation in growth patterns and in productivity and quality enhancement, The 2017 - 2020 Program of Intellectual Property Development in Thua Thien Hue’ would be useful for enterprises to affirm their brands and introduce products to consumers, which enables consumers to have a better choice of high-quality products. The program aims to support the establishment, management and development of intellectual property of enterprises, especially small and medium enterprises. In particular, it helps businesses better deal with issues of product protection, investment in design, product design, production support, raw material development, and accessibility to markets.
Reporter: ‘The 2017 – 2020 Program of Intellectual Property Development in Thua Thien Hue’ aims to support small and medium enterprises. How is it introduced to these businesses?
Dr. Ho Thang: This program is particularly concerned with intellectual property development for specialties, products of rural trades and craft villages in the province. Prior to the Prime Minister’s policy on the national project of intellectual property development in the period 2016 – 2020, in 2013, Thua Thien Hue initiated a strategy to develop the specialty brand of Thua Thien Hue province until 2020.
We have helped enterprises understand the nature of intellectual property as well as the policy of the provincial government on intellectual property through programs on media, seminars, dialogues and Science and Technology forums. Typical programs of these include the dialogue forum ‘Intellectual property – intangible assets of enterprises’, the workshop ‘Solutions to brand development for specialties and rural handicraft products in Thua Thien Hue’, and the Science and Technology forum ‘Innovating, Improving, and Enhancing the Accessibility to the Industrial Revolution 4.0’.
Reporter: What are the key tasks of the program of Intellectual Property in 2018?
Dr. Ho Thang: Sticking to the principle of developing the brand in association with the values of specialty, we will focus on supporting the development of raw material areas for such specialties as thanh tra (a kind of citrus fruit unique to Thua Thien Hue), cajuput oil, Nam Dong oranges, and Hue lotus.
We will establish and promote collective trademarks, including the Spotted Fish (Caranx ignobilis) of Tam Giang-Cau Hai Lagoon, Hue-styled glazed bronze items, Hue-styled fine shrimp sauce, Thuy Xuan incense, Nam Dong oranges. We will help to establish and manage large-scaled collective brand names such as the Communal Tourist Village of Thanh Toan Tile Bridge and Hue Lotus. We will form the Association of Ao dai tailoring of Hue to affirm the collective brand for Hue traditional ao dai.
We also concentrate on the important task of building geographical instructions for the two specialties of Hue, namely, thanh tra and cajuput oil. At the same time, we assist with the market access by registering the trademarks for me xung (‘sesame-coated jelly’) in Thai market and bun bo (‘beef rice-noodle’) in Singapore.
Reporter: Quality standardization is one of the key stages in the value chain of the products. How are businesses supported in this respect?
Dr. Ho Thang: From the standpoint that a brand name ought to be developed in association with the value chain of the product, we take seriously measures to improve the quality, reputation and competitiveness of products. We are very concerned about the issues of setting the quality standards for enterprises to comply with, ensuring the quality and reputation for products. At present, we have established the quality standards for Hue cajuput oil and me xung (‘sesame-coated jelly’), and we will soon have standards for Hue-styled fine shrimp sauce.
In addition, through the Program of Intellectual Property Development, the provincial government have presented policies to support the product traceability and the implementation of stickers of barcode and QA code for products, as well as policies to support technology innovation for the sake of product quality.
In particular, financial support will be granted for the application of inventions and effective methods to raise the productivity and quality of specialties in the localities if the total support fund does not exceed VND 500 million per project; the application of research results, technology transfer, production process and initiative if the total support budget is under VND 200 million per project. We acknowledge that this is a great consideration of the provincial government to support and encourage businesses, especially small and medium enterprises.
Reporter: Thank you for the talk.
By Dong Van