My father’s childhood was spent wandering around the countryside. The game with them is simply fighting, confetti, chicken grass, playing cards, fighting ticks, piggybacking, land cannons, river bathing, fish foul… More naughty, dad followed us to pick grapefruit, guava, baked potatoes, peanuts to eat. In the countryside, the older children teach the children to swim. The beaches, banks, and fields are deeply imprinted in my mind, until now, every time I have the opportunity to pass by, all the memories keep coming back. Children’s childhoods do not know if they are lucky or unlucky, there are no more popular games (adults still say that children now have no childhood). It has been replaced by Online Games, Tiktok, Facebook… Although there is a direction for children to explore, it is certainly in a different, very different direction! I hope that because of that, your hearts are poor in the ability to feel. Every time I go back to my grandmother, in the vast fields, in the windy afternoons, I hope that you are sharp enough to feel a little country spirit, even if only through the prism of children’s eyes. If possible, at some point, you should take off your sandals and wade into the mud with your bare feet to try to catch snails and crabs… I hope you feel a little country spirit… I just want your hearts to be nourished by simple, rustic but sincere things, not the hustle and bustle of life! The rest, when born, life will teach you. Just prepare your mind and accept it, everything will be fine, baby!

Vinaconex is the unit that won the most construction and installation packages in the East North-South Expressway Construction Project. On the afternoon of June 15, the Project Management Board 2 (Ministry of Transport) and the joint venture between Mien Trung Construction Group Joint Stock Company – Vietnam Construction and Import-Export Corporation (Vinaconex) signed a contract for the package. XL3 contractor: Construction and surveying, construction drawing design for section Km364+410.75 – Km380+000, Construction investment component project of Highway 45 – Nghi Son section of the project to build some road sections expressway on the East North-South route in the period 2017-2020. Accordingly, the contract for Package XL3 has a winning price of VND 1,144.4 billion, which is a mixed type of contract, in which the survey is performed at a fixed unit price; construction drawing design is implemented in a package; construction and installation shall be carried out at the adjusted unit price. Contract Package XL3 has a contract execution time of 720 days, funded by the state budget. The construction investment project of the National Highway 45 – Nghi Son section is one of 11 component projects of the project to build a number of expressway sections on the East North-South route in the period 2017-2020. This is a project. converted from PPP investment to public investment. This project has a length of 43.28 km, passing through the territory of Nong Cong district and Nghi Son town (Thanh Hoa), investment is phased according to the scale of 4 lanes, width of road bed 17m, design speed 80 km/h. The total investment of the project is VND 5,534.4 billion, of which the cost of construction and equipment is VND 3,193 billion, construction time is 2 years, completion in 2023. The project is divided into 3 construction and installation bidding packages, 3 supervision consultancy packages. Currently, PMU2 is asking the consortium of Mien Trung Construction Group – Vinaconex to urgently complete the preparation work to be able to start the bidding package at the end of June 2021. Currently, Vinaconex is the contractor winning the most packages in the Project to build some expressways on the East North-South route in the period 2017-2020. If including the XL3 package, Vinaconex has directly participated or participated in the project. in the form of a consortium of 4 construction and installation bidding packages with a total value of about VND 10,000 billion.

Many fish sauce production establishments in Ba Lang (Nghi Son town) already have booths to display their products. Facing new development needs, about 4-5 recent years, the fish sauce-making households here have all invested in expanding production scale, looking for ways to improve product quality and design. In that hundreds of years old traditional craft village, the fish sauce production establishment of Mrs. Dong Thi Huy’s family had 4 generations of succession to his father’s profession. The owner of the establishment has “belt” a lot of valuable experience to produce the famous fish sauce, shrimp paste, sour sauce and shrimp paste, which are widely used by many people. With nearly 50 salt tanks and hundreds of large jars located in 3 different production zones, each year this facility produces about 3,000 liters of fish sauce, nearly 100 tons of shrimp paste and shrimp paste. Ms. Dong Thi Huy, owner of the production facility, shared: Fish sauce and other types of fish sauce used to be mainly sold in the region, a little bit wide in Thanh Hoa city and some localities in the province. But now, we have to aim to develop the national market, even to export, so we have to change the way of doing. The product is no longer put in large plastic cans, but is converted to bottles with many different large and small capacities to meet the tastes of many customers. Trademarked products contain barcodes, addresses, and date of manufacture and expiry date. With many efforts, in 2020, the family has 2 products, which are fish sauce and sour sauce, which will be recognized as OCOP products in Thanh Hoa province. By the beginning of this year 2021, the family shrimp fish sauce products continued to be considered and recognized for OCOP products. We consider this as a turning point, as a condition to promote and develop the market for Ba Lang fish sauce products in general, for families in particular. Synthesized from the Do Xuyen Fish Sauce Association – Ba Lang, in Hai Thanh ward, there are more than 120 establishments specializing in producing fish sauce and salt of all kinds. Only 23 large enterprises and households are members of the Do Xuyen Fish Sauce Association – Ba Lang, each establishment brings to the market thousands of liters of fish sauce per month, the most being Processing Company Limited. Tuyen Hoa seafood sells about 6,000 liters of fish sauce / month. Mr. Duong Xuan Tac, Chairman of the Do Xuyen Fish Sauce Association – Ba Lang, shared: In the past, the fish sauce job was mainly spontaneous, and the family did it strongly. Accordingly, the quality of fish sauce from many families is not high, affecting the “brand” of the craft village. Now we are constantly training as well as sharing our experiences to make the quality more uniform. For example, in the past, the raw materials for making fish sauce are mixed with small fish, shrimp, etc., making fish sauce and shrimp sauce in many households flattering and not smooth. Now we agree to carefully select raw materials, remove all new salt impurities. The finished fish sauce, before being bottled, is also puree, sifted to make the sauce really smooth, no new shells … Recently, products of Ba Lang fish sauce and fish sauce are always present in product exhibitions and exhibitions at fairs inside and outside the province. That is an effective way of advertising to bring the name of the product to a large number of customers from afar. Many production establishments now have contracts to supply fish sauce products for military units, many collective kitchens of state agencies at the central and local levels. Plastic and cement tanks are gradually replaced by ceramic jars and ceramic tiles to ensure food hygiene. Surveying around this traditional craft village, we found that most of the owners of production facilities built booths to display and introduce their products. This is a new “move” that in previous years almost no family implemented. When quality, design and food safety are concerned, the fish sauce industry in Ba Lang will surely have a step of sustainable development and grow stronger.