Many advantages when allowing People's Committee of districts to verify OCOP products

​(News Portal – Dong Nai) - OCOP criteria set (one commune, one product) for the period 2021-2025 according to Decision No. 148/QD-TTg dated February 24, 2023 of the Prime Minister (replacing Decision No. 1048 /QD-TTg dated August 21, 2019) has a number of adjustments and additions to the existing requirements to match the OCOP Program development goals and practical requirements in localities in the new setting. 

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The province's OCOP products are promoted to a large number of consumers at the Long Khanh Fruit Festival in 2023. Photo by: Song Le 

The new set of criteria will be implemented in Dong Nai province from 2023 with many changes in the process of evaluating and classifying OCOP products. In particular, there is important content on the evaluation and recognition of OCOP products, which is decentralized to the district-level People's Committee to evaluate and recognize 3-star OCOP products, thus achieving many positive results.

The locality can be more flexible in evaluating

The OCOP criteria set for the 2021-2025 period has many amendments and supplements to create more favorable conditions for localities, especially for OCOP subjects participating in the program.

Specifically, regarding the process of evaluating and classifying OCOP products, regulations on registration documents for evaluation and classification of OCOP products have been amended in the direction of reducing forms, such as: Registration form for participating the program; production and business plans... In particular, the evaluation and recognition of OCOP products will be decentralized to the district-level People's Committees to evaluate and verify 3-star OCOP products; provincial People's Committee evaluates and verifies OCOP products as 4 stars; the central government evaluates and verifies 5-star OCOP products (national level OCOP).

In particular, the decentralization for district-level People's Committees to evaluate products as 3-star OCOP makes it much more convenient for localities to explain required documents and processes for appraisal and evaluation. OCOP subjects also receive closer support when participating in the program. Mr. Duong Van Bao, Deputy Head of Economic Department of Trang Bom district commented that in 2023, the locality had more OCOP certified products than in previous years. One of the reasons is that the implementation of the program is more favorable because new regulations have delegated authority to district-level People's Committees to evaluate and recognize 3-star OCOP products. Local officials are always closely involved in the activities of OCOP subjects. When assigned the responsibility of guidance, they are more proactive in implementation. On the other hand, from experience in previous years, local officials are no longer as confused as when they first started the program.

In addition, the new criteria adds 3 products in the ornamental biological product group, including: flowers, ornamental plants and pets; grouping souvenir, furniture, and decorative products into the handicraft products group; adding other products such as honey, essential oils... Regarding the structure of OCOP product evaluation content, readjusting the scoring structure between 3 parts including community strength score, product marketing ability and product quality; which increased points in the product's community strength content.

This set of criteria also adds a number of new requirements to improve the quality, value and exploitation of cultural values of OCOP products, encouraging the participation of women and ethnic minorities, such as : intellectual property, product manuals; encouragement points for subjects who are women/ethnic minorities, etc. The goal is more consistent with the orientation and strategy for sustainable agricultural and rural development until 2030, with a vision to 2045 in the direction of shifting from production agriculture to agricultural economics; from single-industry development to multi-industry development, forming "multi-value" integrated products, etc. The above adjustment is more consistent with the orientation and requirements of the OCOP Program in the direction of promoting internal resources and added values, as well as develop the rural community economy. 

OCOP products of the province participate in the trade promotion program in Bien Hoa City. Photo by: Song Le 

Promoting the initiative of OCOP program's participants

Although Dong Nai province has achieved many remarkable results in implementing the OCOP program, the quantity and effectiveness are still not commensurate with the potential, especially in terms of increasing the number of OCOP products. Through the process of implementing the OCOP program, localities encountered some difficulties. Among these reasons are some participants who are not fully aware of the meaning and benefits of the program, so they do not actively participate. Especially, they are afraid of procedures and have a mentality of waiting and relying on local support. The capability of many entities is still weak, so it is difficult to invest in perfecting the production process to improve quality and promote products, so the consumer market for the product has not been expanded. Also, the management at all levels, agencies, departments, sectors and localities are inexperience, and the organization of propaganda and guidance on the program in the early stages is still inefficient. ​

These problems are resolved with the new OCOP Criteria Set. According to the report of the Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, in 2023, Dong Nai's OCOP Program achieved remarkable results. Specifically, during the year, 11 out of 11 localities in the province organized evaluation of 74 OCOP products of 53 subjects participating in the implementation of the OCOP program for the first time. As a result of district level assessment, there are 3 products that do not qualify for 3-star recognition; 67 products achieved 3 stars; an increase of 19 new products compared to 2022. Up to date, in the province there are 221 OCOP products of 120 entities, 22 cooperatives, 39 enterprises, 52 establishments and 7 cooperative groups. Of these, there are 159 3-star OCOP products, 45 4-star OCOP products, and 17 products proposed to be rated 4 stars by the Provincial Council, including both new products and re-certified products.

Mr. Phuong Dinh Anh, Deputy Chief of the Central New Rural Coordination Office, said that decentralization in the assessment and recognition of OCOP products to localities will help to position and classify OCOP products easily, helping consumers better understand the characteristics of the product. In addition, enhance the role, responsibility and initiative of the district level in supporting product development and organizing inspection and supervision of OCOP products. At the same time, reducing the workload for the Provincial Product Evaluation and Classification Council. For participants, decentralization helps improve the capability of OCOP management staff at district and commune levels to support subjects; create motivation for OCOP subjects to develop and perfect their products after being evaluated and ranked, promoting motivation to strive for products to be rated with higher stars.