Opening the Border and Normalizing Vietnam

This job is not too hard but it can earn money to increase income. When there are goods, the Chinese owner will ask me to transport the goods, then sell and look after the goods. The Chinese owners do not need to do anything, they gather about 4 people to play mahjong together - a traditional Chinese card game. Ms. Hoang Thi Muoi, Ban Thau village said, " The reason is because the Chinese mentality is that they like to be the boss, moreover, hiring our people is cheaper and our demand for work is also high . The average sales fee of everyone is about 2 million VND/month. But because I know Chinese, I don't have to pay for translation, so each month I get more than everyone else, about 3.5 million/month. I know Chinese but I just learned it by stealth, without going to any school."

Thus, currently, knowing Chinese is also an advantage for the Tay people in Ban Thau village when looking for jobs in the Tan Thanh border gate area.

3.2.2. Trade and services

Ban Thau is one of two villages in Tan Thanh commune whose land was reclaimed by the State to build a border gate economic zone. After losing their agricultural land, the Tan Thanh Trade Management Board allocated each household in the village a plot to make a kiosk for selling goods right near the border gate, and each year they have to pay nearly 4 million VND in seat tax. Therefore, currently, in addition to farming and working as hired laborers/coolies, the Tay people in Ban Thau village also sell goods at the border gate market. The main items are still clothes, shoes, electronics... However, many households in the village are not familiar with the market, so they do not sell goods directly but rent out kiosks to earn money. In 2010, Ban Thau village had 60 households with kiosks for rent at the border gate market. The rental price of the kiosk at that time was 40 - 50 million VND/year depending on the lot on the street or inside. In addition to having kiosks for rent, according to my survey, the Tay people in Ban Thau village also have another type of service, which is renting out boarding houses. This is also a rather special type of livelihood .

located in the Tan Thanh border gate area. Taking advantage of the geographical location near the border gate - a place that attracts many residents from the province as well as other provinces to come and do business, households with a lot of land in the village have built rows of boarding houses for people from the lowlands to rent. Mr. Hoang Van Hoan said, " In 2011 , there were about 30 Tay households renting out boarding houses. Even my own family has a boarding house for rent." The main tenants are people from the lowlands who come to do business, the most populous are the provinces of Bac Giang, ...

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Ninh, Thai Binh, Hung Yen, Thai Nguyen... The boarding houses are built in rows, each room is about 20 square meters with an average price of 300 - 500 thousand VND/month. Mr. Hoan also added that there are many boarding houses in the village that are built very large, with many floors, depending on the characteristics of being close to the road or in the alley, the area is large or small, there are also different prices. The spacious houses have prices

from 800 thousand to 1 million/month. Some people also rent a second floor apartment for 50 million/year. Some people, because they intend to do business here long term, can also buy a house in the village.

In Ban Thau village, there are also some other services of the ethnic people such as opening pho restaurants, refreshment shops, cameras, photocopy shops, car rental services, and some small companies have been established. However, these services are still very few, limited, scattered in a few shops and mainly belong to the majority of households with large capital and experience in business. Unlike the Tay households who mainly live on agriculture and work for hire, participating in these new service activities has contributed to bringing a significant source of income to the Tay households here.

Chapter 3 Summary

The livelihood activities of the Tay people in Ban Thau village, Tan Thanh commune since Doi Moi (1986) have been very diverse and rich. In particular, there has been both innovation in traditional livelihoods and knowing how to take advantage of the border area, so the Tay people here have boldly approached new sources of livelihood to increase their income.

The most noticeable innovations in traditional livelihoods are changes in crop and livestock structure, the application of scientific and technological advances in agricultural production, and forest exploitation associated with afforestation. Thanks to that, crop area and productivity have increased, and food security has been ensured.

Since the opening of the Vietnam-China border, especially when the Tan Thanh Border Gate Economic Zone was established in the early 90s, a number of new ways of making a living have appeared in Ban Thau village. These are hired labor in the form of working in inland areas of China; porters, loading and unloading goods at the border gate; selling goods for Chinese and Vietnamese owners. Although dangerous and hard, the number of hired laborers in the village is increasing day by day because it is the fastest way of making a living that people here can do and must face in exchange for their lives until they find a new direction for their lives.

In addition, some trading and service activities have also appeared in the village such as renting kiosks; renting out boarding houses; opening restaurants... Income from these activities has made significant contributions to the household economy, helping to solve part of the spending needs in the current period of high market prices.

Chapter 4‌‌

FACTORS AFFECTING LIVELIHOOD CHANGES OF TAY PEOPLE IN TAN THANH COMMUNE

4.1.Influencing factors

4.1.1. Impact of Policy factors

With the practical impact of policies and support from the State, the livelihood of the Tay people in Ban Thau village, Tan Thanh commune has changed in a positive direction, helping to eliminate hunger and reduce poverty for the people. Based on research on potentials and available conditions, the People's Committee of Van Lang district has supported crop and livestock varieties for poor households in the village, subsidized prices and fees for the villagers. At the same time, it has directed the grassroots to promote the transformation of crop, season and livestock structures, and the application of scientific and technical advances. Irrigation works such as lakes, dams, water pumping stations, and canal consolidation have been funded and cemented by the State to build and upgrade, creating a fairly complete irrigation system. Agricultural extension, forestry extension, veterinary, and plant protection work has been carefully prepared by the commune, promptly supplying new varieties, fertilizers, and pesticides for production. With active measures, in recent years, agricultural and forestry production in Ban Thau village, Tan Thanh commune has had positive growth (1 sao of rice yields more than 200 kg).

In recent years, the socio-economic situation in Ban Thau village, Tan Thanh commune has improved a lot. This result has an important contribution from the implementation of preferential credit programs of the Government in the area. There are 4 organizations in Tan Thanh commune that guarantee credit for members to borrow capital and guide procedures with the Social Policy Bank, namely the Women's Union, the Farmers' Association, the Veterans' Association and the Youth Union.

Implementing credit programs, preferential loans with low interest rates, in recent years, the Transaction Office of the Bank for Social Policies

Van Lang district has continuously paid attention to improving the quality of lending programs for many different subjects such as lending to farmers for production and business; lending to students in difficult circumstances; supporting poor households to build houses. In Ban Thau village, in 2010, 14 households were supported with long-term loans for building houses for 5 years. Along with the attention and encouragement, encouraging borrowing capital for economic development, many households have borrowed capital of tens of millions of VND, boldly investing and expanding production scale. On the 22nd of each month, the Social Policy Bank of Van Lang district comes to the commune to transact and collect interest. If there is a source of disbursed capital, it will also lend to people and do not have to mortgage assets. Billions of VND of capital from the Policy Bank have been used by people to purchase machinery for production such as hand plows, water pumps, buy seeds of plants and animals... helping to solve difficulties in labor production, increase productivity and output. Thereby increasing income, improving and enhancing the lives of villagers.

Every year, Tan Thanh Border Guard Station and the Fatherland Front of Lang Son province also have many support programs for the disadvantaged people in Ban Thau village in many forms such as cash support, working days, house demolition...

In addition, Van Lang district has also paid attention to exploiting and promoting its potential for trade and service activities. In recent years, with many sources of direct investment capital from the central and local budgets, mobilizing capital from the people, in Ban Thau village, Tan Thanh commune, many infrastructure works on electricity, roads, schools, stations have been built, contributing to changing the structure of agricultural and rural infrastructure. In particular, Tan Thanh Border Gate Economic Zone has been invested by the Party and the State to build into a bustling open economic zone, contributing to increasing budget revenue, solving jobs, improving and raising the living standards of local people.

Implementing Decision 120/2003 of the Prime Minister on supporting border communes and Decision No. 34/QD-UB dated June 8, 2004 of the Provincial People's Committee

Lang Son issued regulations guiding the implementation of Decision 120/2003 in the province. The People's Committee of Van Lang district established a Steering Committee and organized, developed plans, operating mechanisms, and guided border communes to implement the 120 program according to decentralized management. By 2010, the total investment capital for developing socio-economic infrastructure, supporting the protection of border markers and border security was nearly 20 billion VND. Thereby, 8 new traffic projects with a total length of nearly 13km, 4 road upgrading projects and 6 bridge and culvert projects, and spillways with a total investment capital of 10.38 billion VND; invested in 3 projects to bring national grid electricity to 100% of villages in border communes with the rate of households using electricity reaching about 96%. In addition, also from the capital of the 120 program, Van Lang district has invested in building a pumping station for irrigation, repairing a medical station, and 2 sub-school classrooms in Tan Thanh commune with a total investment of over 473 million VND. In addition, the work of supporting the protection of border markers has also been focused on, with the total cost of implementation in 7 years (2003 - 2010) reaching nearly 2.5 billion VND. Tan Thanh is one of the 5 border communes of Van Lang district that benefit from the above programs (along with Thanh Long, Thuy Hung, Tan My, and Trung Khanh communes). Each year, the commune is supported with 400 million VND to build infrastructure and 100 million VND to build border markers.

The effective implementation of the capital of the 120 program in Tan Thanh commune has brought practical benefits to the people here, making the livelihood of the Tay people in Ban Thau village have many positive changes, creating trust and consensus of the people in the village in the correct guidelines and policies of the Party and State.

4.1.2.Opening the border and normalizing Vietnam - China relations

Economic exchanges across the Vietnam-China border have a long tradition. According to political fluctuations, economic relations are also affected and change from period to period. It depends on two main factors: the emergence

life, level of development of commodity production and development path of two countries sharing a border.

After World War II, on September 2, 1945, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was born. On October 1, 1949, the People's Republic of China was also established and on January 17, 1950, Vietnam and China established diplomatic relations. Since 1951, the two countries began trade relations with each other and this relationship was formalized in 1952 when the Trade Agreement was signed between the two governments. Next, in 1954, the two governments signed the " Protocol on opening small-scale trade at the border of the two countries ". On November 4, 1958, the Prime Minister signed Decree 486/TTg promulgating the " Regulations on the management of small-scale trade of people in the Vietnam-China border area ". On December 5, 1962, the two governments signed the " Trade and Maritime Treaty "...

The above documents opened up trade relations between the two countries in two forms: informal border trade and official import-export trade.

During the resistance war against America to save the country, Vietnam's economic relations

- China developed normally. In addition to simple trade in goods, during this time China also provided Vietnam with some supplies, goods and military aid.

It can be said that before 1979, economic exchanges were mainly conducted on a large scale between the two States. The exchange of commercial goods across the border at this time was only a preliminary relationship. Chinese goods exported to Vietnam had a strong appearance and content of government aid because they were poured according to plans, were cheap and were not fully accounted for [9, p.26]. The exchange of goods across the border at this time was still influenced by the centralized planning model or, in other words, dependent on the mechanisms and policies of the two Parties and the two States. The characteristics of the mechanism were the cause of hindering the development of production, making circulation constrained and due to the government.

The policy of “blocking rivers and banning markets” and not opening up. Apart from state-owned commercial units, private trading during this period was considered evil and not true to the nature of socialism. Therefore, economic sectors were not allowed to participate in import and export, even in the form of small-scale trade. People in border communes could only “ sell secretly what they had, and could not buy enough of what they needed ”. The closed economic structure, self-balancing food and consumer goods in the style of “ each locality is a fortress ” was clearly unsuitable for border provinces, including Lang Son province, because it did not contain the development factors to move steadily on the path of self-balancing budget revenue and expenditure, building a prosperous border region.

In 1979, the border war broke out, causing all previously undeveloped economic relations between the two countries to come to a standstill. In the spirit of fundamental and long-term interests, Vietnam showed its goodwill, starting with the open border policy of our Party and State.

The open-border policy is not outside the system of Renovation and Open-door policies in general and the foreign economic development policy in particular of our Party and State. It is the policy of building a socialist-oriented market economy for the goal of a rich people, a strong country, a fair, democratic and civilized society, the policy of industrialization and modernization of the country, the motto that Vietnam wants to be friends with all countries that our Party has worked hard to research and experiment.

The first step in the field of Foreign Trade was Decree 40-CP dated February 7, 1980 of the Government on Policies and measures to develop export production. The change lies in the new principle of “The State monopolizes foreign trade, while promoting the initiative and creativity of sectors, localities, and grassroots units...”

The 5th Party Congress (1982) further affirmed that "Rapidly increasing exports and expanding services to earn foreign currency is a matter of strategic significance, an important step contributing to ensuring the balance of the plan.

Opening the Border and Normalizing Vietnam - China Relations

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