Community cultural activities for tourists in Sapa town. (Photo by QUOC HONG)

The above process is one of the important factors, creating efficiency in implementing the Party's guideline on cultural revival and development into practice in Lao Cai.

As a border province, at the head of the northern border of the country, Lao Cai had been a poor province, ethnic minorities account for more than 66% of the population. Along with a long-standing cultural tradition, rich in identity, in many localities, people's knowledge and agricultural degree are limited, and there are many backward customs and social evils, creating obstacles in the development process.

From that fact, many localities have had good direction, good experience, in preserving and promoting the cultural heritages and traditions of ethnic groups to become an important resource in socio-economic development. However, there are still many Party committees and authorities at all levels due to lack of awareness, the state management in this field still has many limitations and shortcomings, cultural factors are not really endogenous forces, foundations and resources in development.

Environment and cultural community

It is known that for many years in a row, Lao Cai province has been persistent and devoted to the goal of "Developing Lao Cai people comprehensively, rich in cultural identity of each ethnic group; improve intelligence, creative capacity, social responsibility, civic duty, sense of law compliance" to meet the requirements of sustainable development of the province.

Promoting the tradition of cultural identity, building a healthy and comprehensive cultural environment is the basis for the formation of a new person. Secretary of Lao Cai Provincial Party Committee, Dang Xuan Phong exchanged, Provincial Party Committee and People's Committee have directed the implementation of synchronous policies in the fields of: education-training; science and technology; medical; population-family; culture, arts, physical training and sports; sustainable poverty reduction; prevention of social evils...

Ta Ngai Cho Secondary School, Muong Khuong district has organized many extracurricular activities with the theme "Preserving and promoting the beauty of Mong ethnic culture", attracting a large number of students to participate. Along with dance and singing lessons, students also learn how to play the erhu - a traditional instrument of the Mong people.

Principal of Ta Ngai Cho Secondary School, teacher Nguyen Thi Thu Hang said that it is the artisans and parents of the school's students who are passionate about teaching and accompanying to educate the children about the love of cultural heritage. Secretary of the Muong Khuong District Party Committee, Giang Quoc Hung exchanged and built a model of a cultural school associated with national identity, which has been put into extracurricular activities by many schools in Lao Cai province with diversified content such as:

Learning brocade embroidery, collecting and presenting culture, teaching folk dance... In the process of implementing the Resolution and action plan of the Lao Cai Provincial Party Committee for the period of 2015-2020, the province has issued 6/19 key projects, allocating resources for implementation in the field of culture and other fields related to the construction and development of culture and people. Especially: Lao Cai province tourism development project; Fundamentally and comprehensively renovation of education-training, developing human resources, focusing on training high-quality human resources; Cultural and sports development; Continuing to renew the work of political ideology, propaganda and mobilization... Including the task of preserving and promoting the cultural heritages of the ethnic groups, forming an important resource contributing to the socio-economic development of the country.

From the requirements of creating a civilized, modern and rich cultural environment and lifestyle, first of all from the team of "civil servants", the province has the program "Officers, civil servants and public employees emulate office culture".

This process in units, departments, branches and localities is associated with the implementation of the Resolution of the 4th Central Committee Class XII "On strengthening the building and rectification of the Party, preventing and repelling the deterioration of political ideology, ethics, lifestyle, internal "self-evolution" and "self-transformation" expressions; the Directive No. 05-CT/TW of the Politburo "On promoting learning and following Ho Chi Minh's thought, morality and style" in order to create an educational and training environment that upholds the patriotic tradition, public service ethics, the spirit of serving the people. In fact, from many good practices, effective models, and close adherence to political tasks, it has created a new impetus and source of vitality for the public administrative environment of the province.

Accordingly, administrative reform has changed positively, with remarkable results in the satisfaction of people and businesses. The province's digital transformation program, effectively implemented, is focused on leading and directing the implementation in all three areas: Digital Government, Digital Economy and Digital Society…

With the direction and synchronous implementation of the province, the movement to build families, cultural residential areas, agencies, units, and cultural schools. Associating the movement of building cultural families with the movement of building villages, hamlets and residential quarters, focusing on mobilizing people to actively participate in building prosperous, progressive happy and civilized families....

This is also the process by which the Provincial Party Committee focuses on directing all levels of Party committees and authorities at all levels to focus on solving outstanding and urgent issues of family building in the highlands such as child marriage, gender inequality, and childcare and education for children with special circumstances... Chairman of the Fatherland Front Committee of Lao Cai province, Giang Seo Van said that the province has directed localities to survey, investigate and classify areas to have appropriate goals and methods. Accordingly, the localities identify the preservation and promotion of the value of relics, cultural institutions, and conventions as one of the criteria for building cultural life at grassroots levels, building new rural areas, civilized urban areas.

In recent years, with the participation of the whole political system, cultural institutions in the province have been invested quite synchronously from urban to rural areas. Currently, the province has 128 communal cultural houses, 1,568 village cultural houses; more than 1,000 cultural teams; 805 sports teams, 405 domestic violence prevention and control clubs; nearly 85% of cultural households, 89% of villages and groups have achieved cultural titles. From the movement "All people unite to build cultural life", the localities have established and developed propaganda clubs, creating models of village traditions and conventions; council of reputable people in the community...

Many specific cultural models have been built such as "cultural tourism village" in Bac Ha district, Sa Pa; cultural villages of extremely difficult areas in Bat Xat and Bao Yen districts; The "health culture village" in Si Ma Cai and Muong Khuong districts... has had a positive impact on the cultural, economic and social development of rural areas. At the same time, the implementation of a civilized lifestyle in weddings, funerals and festivals associated with the construction of new rural areas and civilized cities has been unanimously implemented by the people.

Exploiting cultural resources for development

Practically in the process of construction and development, the Lao Cai Provincial Party Committee consistently implements the guiding viewpoint: Developing modern Lao Cai people, without losing their identity, linking cultural conservation with tourism development, implementing the point of view of conservation in place in the community and taking the people as the subject.

Accordingly, the province focuses on investing and building cultural heritage space. Currently, the province has 37 national intangible cultural heritages, 2 representative intangible cultural heritages of humanity, 50 national and provincial scenic monuments. Through the implementation of programs and projects, the province annually checks 6 to 8 heritage sites in more than 30 communes in the whole province. Up to now, there have been nearly 20 special festivals of 13 ethnic groups, such as: Mong, Dao, Tay, Nung, Giay, La Chi, Ha Nhi... have been restored and preserved. Many typical festivals have been included in the List of National Intangible Cultural Heritage by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Some festivals of regional and national scale such as Gau Tao festival of the Mong people in Muong Khuong, Thuong temple festival, Bao Ha temple, Co Tan An temple attract thousands of tourists.

In the districts of Sa Pa, Muong Khuong, Bac Ha, ... all have built tourist cultural villages. When each village has been built to become a tourist destination, the locality preserves cultural heritages. That fact has aroused pride in traditional culture, honored good cultural values, encouraged the creation of new and progressive cultural values, and abolished outdated customs.

In Lao Cai, for many years, there has been the motto of action "Turn heritage into property", from which cultural resources such as scenic spots, traditional ethnic festivals; historical sites; craft villages; traditional ethnic villages; ethnic cultural market; highland cuisine; highland agricultural products ... are exploited into a unique tourism product environment, attracting tourists.

The whole province focuses on building a healthy and integrating business culture environment, creating favorable conditions and environment to have a team of good businessmen, doing business in accordance with the law, responsible for the community and society; building and developing product brands with prestige and quality, bearing the characteristics of Lao Cai culture and people. The movement "Each community, each ethnic group, each region has a specialty that becomes a commodity" contributes to creating resources for tourism development in association with new rural construction and sustainable poverty reduction in the province.

Standing Deputy Secretary of the Bac Ha District Party Committee, Nguyen Thi Nga shared that although the district does not have a tourist environment like Sa Pa town to attract a large number of tourists, with the following advantage, the policy of Bac Ha district in tourism development is "associated with cultural identity", sustainably exploiting the advantages of landscape and climate, where the traditional cultural harmony of 14 ethnic minorities creates attractiveness for tourists. It is known that the whole district currently has 73 hotels and homestay accommodation establishments concentrated in some communes of Ta Van Chu, Ta Chai, Na Hoi, Bao Nhai...

The process of exploiting the strengths of cultural heritage and scenic spots to develop tourism in Lao Cai is associated with building and promoting unique and local product brands to form unique tourist destinations, should attract more and more domestic and foreign tourists. Thereby, the socio-economic life of the people in the tourism development area is improved, the traditional identity is preserved and promoted, which has a strong pervasive effect in the community.

Regarding the settlement of cultural relations and development, Vice Chairman of Lao Cai Provincial People's Committee, Nguyen Trong Hai said: Over the past years, the province has always strived to revive the development of culture and people in association with the goal of socio-economic development with the viewpoint and principle of "do not trade off the environment, culture, and social civilization for economic development".

However, in building the environment, developing culture and people in Lao Cai, there are still some issues that need to be solved and concerned such as: A part of cadres and party members have not really focused on building a civilized and modern civil service culture; There is also the potential risk of "self-evolution", "self-transformation" in thought, morality and lifestyle. Culture has not been closely linked in economic development. Infrastructure and cultural resources do not meet practical needs. Some outdated practices in the highlands and remote areas still exist and slowly to be overcome. The effectiveness of the education, restoration and exploitation of historical and traditional cultural values in many localities is not high...

The Standing Committee of Lao Cai Provincial Party Committee in the period of 2020-2025 has issued a Resolution on "Building and developing Lao Cai culture and people to meet the requirements of integration and sustainable development"; Provincial People's Committee has issued "Project on development of literature and art in the period of 2021-2025". Accordingly, the Party committees, authorities at all levels and the political system have been continuing to implement educational contents and solutions, promoting the strength of the entire people to build and develop human culture in the new era, which is an important factor for Lao Cai to develop quickly and sustainably.