A corner of present-day Thai Nguyen. Khuon Tat thatch-roofed house where President Ho Chi Minh lived and worked during the resistance war against the French colonialist (1946-1954). Raising goats for hunger elimination and hunger reduction in Luu Duc Trieu family in Quy Ky Commune, Dinh Hoa District. The mat-weaving craft in Ding Hoa providing jobs to thousands of young labourers.   Many farmer households in Dong Hy District becoming well-off from tea plants. A black tea-production line worth millions of USD being put into operation in Hanoi Tea Join-Stock Company. Young engineers at the construction site of the Zinc Electrolysis Plant in Song Cong Industrial Park. Whenever I think of historical regions, Thai Nguyen always appears in my mind as the headquarters of the leadership of the resistance war against the French colonialists (1946-1954). Sixty autumns have gone now and the locals in this historical land have witnessed numerous changes for the better. Changes in Dinh Hoa Visiting Dinh Hoa, dubbed as the "capital of the resistance war," I heard again the names of villages, mountains and hills closely associated to great and important events in a period of Vietnam’s history. The image that tens of thousands of Tay, Nung, Mong and Dao minorities from 24 communes and towns spending days going to markets for some salt, rice or fertilizer is no longer seen. Roads connecting villages, communes to districts and the provincial town have been built, repaired or upgraded with funding from poverty eradication investment sources. In Dinh Hoa, the construction of roads is taken as a breakthrough in infrastructures that creates a momentum for economic and social development. Tran Van Ich, Secretary of the Party Committee of Dinh Hoa District, showed me around some communes to see the changes with my own eyes. Pointing to fields, hills and gardens green with rice, tea and forests as well as vast orchards and even fish ponds, he said: "Previously, the land was barren. In recent years, thanks to the capital provided from Program 135, every village or commune could get hundreds of millions of dong to build key structures like electricity lines, roads, schools and clinics. Thanks to this, the life of the locals here has changed as a result of the development of their production." In 2000, over 40% of the commune's households lived below the poverty line, but the percentage has dropped to only 7% now. Every household in the commune has been connected to the national electricity grid. When people fall ill, they will get medical treatment at the commune's clinic, the practice of praying no longer exists." Commune's Chairman Dong Quang Sa joined Tue in taking me to the family of Hau Van Chuc of the San Chi ethnic minority, a good model of economic development in Khuoi Chao Village. Besides undertaking 20 hectares of forests under the PAM program, he borrowed capital from banks to plant trees on gardens and hills, to raise pigs, chickens and fish. His annual profit is registered at some 50-70 million dong. Thanks to this, the life of his family is much easier and his children now can afford their schoolings up to the level they want. Tea, a breakthrough plant for Dong Hy Located next to Thai Nguyen City, Dong Hy houses many remote and deep-lying communes where a hard life still hits the locals. Facing such a challenge, Dong Hy advocates to take tea as a key to help their people eradicate poverty and strive for prosperity. But it is no easy task to materialize this undertaking. Dong Hy daringly worked out a series of incentive policies for tea-planting households like providing soft loans, subsidizing the purchase of saplings, opening dozens of training courses on tea planting and tending techniques, sending technicians to localities to provide consultancy on the application of intensive farming, the reduction of the use of insecticides so as to improve the quality of the tea. As a result, 10 out of the 14 communes and townships have planted a total of nearly 20,000 hectares of tea, of which 14,000 hectares are now under harvest. When the tea production chain worth millions of USD invested by Hanoi Tea Joint-Stock Company was put into operation in mid-2005, people here were very happy as they were relieved from the worry of the outlet for their tea; now their daily care is to provide adequate raw materials for those tea plants. Currently, tea companies operating in Dong Hy have secured contracts to export thousands of tons of black and green tea to Japan, the US and EU. This has helped Dong Hy tea farmers overcome their difficulties and strive to make their fortunes. Industrial zones create momentum for economic development Among the developing industrial zones, the Thai Nguyen steel and pig-iron complex built in the 1960s with a focus on metallurgy is now still enjoying intensive investment to improve the quality of, and diversify its products in the process of the international economic integration. In 1999, with a goal of high expertise on engineering and strong development of light industries, the Song Cong Industrial Park was established. With its open and incentive mechanism, the Song Cong has had over 80% of its 69.37 hectares filled with 20 investment projects on engineering, manufacturing, electronic products, construction materials, garment, etc. A number of projects have become operational, including the Thang Long Steel Rolling Mill, the NPK Fertilizer Joint-Stock Company, the Vietnam-Italy Tile Plant and the Zinc Electrolysis Plant. Those plants have turned out quite a few products like rolled steel sheets, steel structures, refined titanium ore and fertilizers of high competitiveness which are largely on sale in the market. Maintaining the steel production line in Thai Nguyen Steel and Iron Mill. In the industrial zone development strategy from now to 2010, Thai Nguyen will build 27 industrial zones and parks in all the districts and towns. It is also planning to apply for the Government’s permission to build three more national-scale industrial parks of 150-200 hectares each. The coming into being of those industrial zones and parks promises a momentum for the economic development of Thai Nguyen. Thai Nguyen Province: - Area: 3,562.8 sq. km. - Population: about 1.1 million. - Ethnic races: mainly Kinh, Tay, Nung, San Diu, Mong, San Chay, Hoa and Dao. - Administrative geography: Thai Nguyen City, Song Cong Provincial Town, districts of Pho Yen, Phu Binh, Dong Hy, Vo Nhai, Dinh Hoa, Dai Tu and Phu Luong. - Natural geography: Thai Nguyen is a mountainous and hilly province located in the Northeast, bordering on Bac Can to the North; Tuyen Quang and Vinh Phuc to the West and Southwest; Lang Son and Bac Giang to the East and Southeast; and Hanoi to the South. - Climate: two seasons, cold from November to April, hot from May to October, annual average temperature of about 250C.  Story by Nguyen Tuan Long - Photos by Ngo Du