베트남 탄 호아성의 농업경제 전문가 쿠코씨는 대나무 재배 농민들의 경우를 예로 들어 농민들이 더 많은 소득을 올리려면 대나무를 가공하지 않은 원자재로만 팔아서는 안되고 자체적으로 대나무를 어느정도 가공해야 한다고 지적합니다. 탄 호아성의 대나무 재배농민들은 아직까지 소득을 향상시키지 못하고 있습니다. 이들의 공동체는 비효율적이고 책임자는 농민들이 선출하는 것이 아니라 정부가 임명합니다. 대나무 사업에서 어떤 사람들은 돈을 벌기도 하지만 그들은 대부분 재배농민이 아니라 대나무 수가공을 하는 사람들입니다.
도 티 옹안 여인이 서른 명의 종업원을 두고 운영하는 대나무 수가공 공장에서는 대나무 접시, 대나무 공기 등을 만들어 유럽, 일본, 미국에 수출하고 있습니다. 옹안 여인은 외국의 대나무 제품 수요가 늘어나면서 자신의 수입이 연간 10만 달러로 증가했다고 말합니다. 75센트 정도의 대나무 원자재로 만들어낸 제품을 1달러 50센트에 판매하니까 그 만큼이 이윤을 더 얻는다는 것입니다.
옹안 여인에게 공급되는 대나무는 재배농민들로부터가 아니라 부이 티 무온 같은 초벌 가공업자로부터 나옵니다. 무온씨는 대나무 가격이 2년전에 1톤당 약 50달러였던 것이 지금은 약 65달러로 올랐다고 말합니다. 그렇지만 대나무 가격이 올랐어도 재배농민에겐 아무런 도움이 되지 않고 있다는 것입니다. 이른바 대나무 경제의 전문가인 사업개발 자문인 니젤 스미스씨는 베트남의 대나무 산업이 아직 효율적으로 운영되지 않고 있는 것이 문제라고 지적하면서 베트남은 대나무 산업의 세계선두주자인 중국으로부터 배워야 한다고 말합니다.
베트남 대나무 산업의 큰 문제점중 하나는 중국에서는 수확된 대나무를 조금의 손실도 없이 모두 사용하는데 베트남에서 사용되는 대나무는 3분의 1에 그친다는 것입니다. 또한 대나무는 수확하는 장소에 따라 각각 다른 용도로 쓰이기 때문에 대나무의 고객도 다양해서 대나무의 재배와 수확은 상당히 복잡하다고 스미스씨는 지적하면서 그렇기 때문에 다른 분야의 여러 사람들이 체계적으로 활동해야 한다고 강조합니다.
올바른 여건을 정착시키는데는 정부가 큰 역할을 해야 한다고 스미스씨는 강조합니다. 중국에서 대나무 산업만으로 수 백만 명이 가난에서 벗어났듯이 베트남에서도 그렇게 될 수 있지만 그렇게 되려면 시장경제가 가난한 사람들에게도 혜택을 줄 수 있도록 중국처럼 베트남 정부와 그 밖의 기관들이 관여해야 한다고 전문가들은 지적합니다.
An organization called M4P is exploring how poor Vietnamese can escape poverty by taking advantage of the free market. At a recent workshop in Hanoi, experts said that using market forces to fight poverty is promising, but far from easy.
It has been 20 years since Vietnam first began moving toward a market economy, and rapid economic growth has brought millions of its citizens out of poverty. But the rising tide has not lifted all of Vietnam's boats.
Vietnam's poorest people lack the resources or skills to take advantage of business opportunities. An organization called M4P is looking at how to help them use the market to escape poverty. The name M4P stands for "markets for the poor".
"The basic idea is that, rather than giving people handouts and so on, that people can help themselves if they're able to participate in markets, if they get better market opportunities and they're able to take advantage of those," explained Alan Johnson, M4P's project coordinator.
But getting more market opportunities is not easy. Individual farmers are too poor to use the market effectively. They have few skills, and banks will not lend them money.
So, to take advantage of Vietnam's market economy, poor farmers have to learn how to voluntarily do something they once were forced to do under communism: act collectively.
"I think that collective action is always necessary, not only in Vietnam, you know? Because without collective action, many things cannot be done by individual farmers. For example education, health, access to the market," said Professor Dao The Thuan, the head of Vietnam's Center for Rural Development.
Agronomist Ivan Cucco has studied the bamboo economy in Vietnam's Thanh Hoa province. He says the way for growers to make more money is to stop selling raw bamboo and start doing some of the processing themselves.
"You can cut it into poles or divide it into slats and provide that to a pre-processing producer at a more advanced stage, so actually more of the value that's generated inside the chain could be retained by smallholders and by poor producers," he said. "And that's where the idea of collective action steps in, because actually it's not something that you can do individually, but you need to pool resources, to pool bamboo, and to pool capital."
So far, bamboo growers in Thanh Hoa have not been able to improve their incomes. Their collectives are not effective, and the leaders are usually picked by the government, not by the members.
"So usually these end up with cooperatives being managed by leaders who are not really skilled in terms of marketing capacity and business ability," noted Cucco.
That means that some people make money in the bamboo business, but they are not usually bamboo farmers. They are more likely people like handicrafts entrepreneur Do Thi Ngoan.
The sound of sanding and polishing fills Do Thi Ngoan's workshop. Her 30 employees make bamboo and lacquer plates and bowls for export to Europe, Japan and the United States.
Ngoan says that as foreign demand has grown, her revenues have risen to $100,000 a year. She charges $1.50 for a small bowl that contains 75 cents worth of bamboo.
But that 75 cents does not all go to the farmers. Ngoan buys processed bamboo from traders like Bui Thi Muon.
Muon says the price of bamboo has gone from about $50 a ton to about $65 in the past two years. But the rising prices are not helping bamboo farmers much.
She says bamboo farmers are poor ethnic minorities, and they never get rich. Sometimes they have enough to eat, and sometimes they do not.
Business and development consultant Nigel Smith is an expert in the bamboo economy. He says the problem is not just that bamboo farmers' collectives do not work, but that the Vietnamese bamboo industry is not working yet.
He says Vietnam needs to imitate the world leader in the bamboo industry: China.
"The problem at the moment is that in China they use every inch of the bamboo that gets harvested, whereas here it's less than a third," explained Smith.
Bamboo harvesting is complicated. Different parts of the plant are used for different products by different customers.
To make the system work, Smith says, a lot of players need to get involved.
"The government has a big role to play in setting the right conditions. I think you need the big private sector players to be interested in doing it, but they naturally will be, because they can get their costs down," he said. "And you need the farmers, the growers, to be interested."
In China, bamboo has helped millions of farmers escape poverty. Experts say bamboo and other industries could do the same in Vietnam. But as in China, the government and others will have to intervene to make the market work for poor people.
출처: VAO