Title: Beyond OCOP Targets: Indicator Mismatch and Microeconomic Constraints in Mekong Delta Craft Villages
Authors: Nguyen Ha Nam Bach
Nguyen Manh Ha
Volume: 10
Issue: 8
Pages: 1-9
Publication Date: 2026/08/28
Abstract:
This paper examines the microeconomic constraints reported for traditional craft villages in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta and argues that the regional indicators most often cited obscure conditions in the sector those indicators describe. The craft village is framed as an agricultural household producing under one budget constraint, from which three propositions follow: incomplete credit markets make craft input purchase respond to farm income shocks; credit is rationed by quantity rather than by price; and apprenticeship is underprovided because part of its return accrues beyond the household. The One Commune One Product (OCOP) programme, though it has exceeded its certification targets, is dominated by food products, at 78.3 per cent of the certified national stock against 9.1 per cent for handicrafts, which bounds what a certification count can establish about craft production. Neither that series nor handicraft export earnings is published for the delta. Rebasing the published enterprise series onto the five units established on 1 July 2025 gives 57,104 operating enterprises across all sectors at 31 December 2024, against 774,392 handicraft establishments recorded nationally, indicating that craft production sits outside the enterprise register. Out-migration of adults aged 20 to 39 weakens apprenticeship, and salinity intrusion compresses household working capital; neither constraint is visible in regional statistics. Four policy implications follow, on statistical reporting, credit assessment, logistics and skills transmission.