Bac Kan (VNS/VNA) - Using Facebook and other social media platforms to sellproducts is nothing new among urban communities.

But nowethnic women in remote mountainous areas of northern Bac Kan province arefollowing suit.

Threemonths ago Ly Thi Quyen, from Dao ethnic minority group, used her Facebook andZalo accounts to post photographs of dried banana packaging and video clips ofthe production.

She isthe director of Thien An Cooperative in Vi Huong commune, Bach Thong district.

Quyen’sdigital marketing started to pay off and she began to receive orders, not justfrom the local community where she lived, but also from Hanoi, HCM City, LaoCai and Nam Dinh.

“I thinkusing a technological application to sell is the only way to reach a very largenumber of customers,” she said.

“Findingstable markets for our products is our great concern because products’ outputbrings incomes for all 14 female workers of the cooperative. All of them arefrom poor households.”

Beforegoing online, the Thien An Cooperative reached a small number of customers fromthe local community through traditional channels like word-of-mouth, marketsand trade fairs.

Now theThien An Cooperative sells around 200 packs of dried banana each week through bothonline and offline channels, earning 4 million VND (174 USD).


This has also led to a rise in salaries for the ethnic women in the cooperative.

To expandtheir business, the Thien An Cooperative is selling through voso.vn,a newly-launched e-commerce platform owned by Viettel Post, the delivery arm ofViettel Military Industry and Telecoms Group (Viettel).

More andmore small production units and co-operatives run by ethnic women in Bac Kanwill be helped go digital by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) andViettel Post.

The twopartners signed an agreement last month as part of UNDP’s initiative called“Economic empowerment of ethnic minority women via application of I4.0”, whichis expected to enable 450 ethnic minority women to expand their business.

Theproject equips ethnic women with the necessary skills to take photos, makevideos and post them on Facebook, Zalo and e-commerce platforms like voso.vn.

Oncelocal products are put on sale on Viettel Post’s online market will providelogistic support to deliver the items and receive money directly to their bankaccounts.

Bridgingthe gap

Bac Kan’sagricultural products, locally made by ethnic women using natural materials,ranging from dried fruits, tea and dried vermicelli to high-valued productswith multiple functions like turmeric extract and bee honey taken from forests.

However,diversified local products are not enough to make the local economy thrive. BacKan is still left behind other northern mountainous provinces in terms ofeconomic development because of poor communities.

Ethnicminority people make up 95 percent of the province’s multi-dimensional poorhouseholds.

Localpeople’s productions and livelihoods are vulnerable to extreme weather eventssuch as storms and flash floods, leading to low productivity.

Small-scaleproduction and low productivity have held back local economy’s development andput ethnic women in poverty.

Pham DuyHung, Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, said ethnic women whoown or work for small-production units and co-operatives lack access to andknowledge about IT application.

He said:“Applying technology to advertise products is not popular and seeking marketsfor their products remains a challenge for ethnic women who are familiar andskillful with making products but not good at going out for marketing.”

20/10 NongHa Cooperative produces vermicelli and creates jobs for more than 20 localwomen. The products receive certificates of origin, food safety and havebranded packages.

Nguyen ThiHiep, the cooperative’s owner, tried to create a Facebook page to introducevermicelli online but does not regularly update photos and information. Theco-operative’s online sale, therefore, is not effective.

This isan example to show that local co-operatives, in spite of making good-qualityproducts with food certificates, still cannot reach large markets due tolacking IT application and marketing skills.

Hunghoped that with the assistance of UNDP and Viettel Post, local ethnic womenwill be instructed to use technology to approach more customers.

CaitlinWiesen, UNDP Resident Representative in Vietnam, said the new partnership withViettel Post looks at e-commerce platform, logistics and delivery as well ase-payment system. The industry 4.0 technologies help reach gaps between localproduction, women in rural economy, ethnic minority women and the marketoutside.

“When weclose that gap, that’s where the magic happens, where women and localcommunities are lifted out of poverty, where we have decentralised thrivingeconomy,” she said.

“If we doit together with business from the start, then you will have much highersuccess and sustainability at the end.”

To ensurethe sustainability of the programme, once the products reach big markets viaonline channels, local authorities will encourage ethnic women to continue tomaintain quality and expand production with larger quantities to meetincreasing demand, Hung told Vietnam News.-VNS/VNA