Meeting Tuan in a morning in July in Mai Chau town, Mai Chau district, and listening to his stories, we know that his days in Laos have become sacred and priceless memories.

 A brocade with That Luang tower embroidery - the symbol of Laoshas been preserved by Ha Van Tuan.

 In late 1983, Tuan was surprised with delight to be sent from Mai Chau Agriculture Office to the provincial Committee for Economic-Cultural Cooperation with Laos. He was dispatched to Luang Phrabang to help the province build a pilot agricultural cooperative and develop high productivity rice varieties. This was part of the economic and cultural affilication programmes of the two twinned provinces of former Ha Son Binh province and Luang Phrabang of Laos.

 He was a little nervous when arriving in the country with strange geographic names, such as the Tay Trang border gate, Nam Bac, Nam U, and Mekong River, but he became confident with his fluent Thai language. His team included some leaders of the district, officials of Van Mai commune’s agricultural cooperative as well as construction and architecture companies.

 At that time, Vietnamwas on a subsidy period with many difficulties, but the living conditions in Laos were even more difficult. Locals in the country faced many problems, especially low literacy and the spreading of malaria, along with poor infrastructure system and tough roads.

 Sharing difficulties facing locals, Tuan and other members of the working group were resolved to make all-out efforts in order to help them practically. The first job was to understand local geography as well as cultivation and production conditions in the locality. Thanks to support of Lao friends, the working group had many chances to visit hamlets and districts in Luang Prabang to learn about locals’ farming methods. They, therefore, proposed using only organic fertilizers, not using or using a small amount of chemical fertilizers, aiming to generate productivity equal or higher than the traditional farming methods which used a lot of chemical fertilizers. The proposals were agreed by their superiors. They helped agricultural officials in Luang Prabang conduct experiments on rice varieties in order to select suitable varieties to plant in the locality. With the passion, Tuan rode a bicycle to the Pak-Suong centre of rice varieties to work together with local agricultural officials to create new rice varieties. His efforts paid off as productivity was improved and local agricultural officials and farmers got used to the advanced farming methods. Tuan collected a lot of memories after the three-year working trip, from travelling hundreds of km to the experimental centre to conversations with farmers in Na Sang, Khoi and Pong Van hamlets in Sang Kha Loc commune to exchange farming experience, or with Lao friends such as Bun Thin, Hum Phenh, Lot-vi Say, Phu Ma and Kham Keo. 

After the re-establishment of Hoa Binh province, Tuan had a chance to return Vientianeand Luang Prabang. He was delighted to see changes in UNESCO-recognised Luang Prabang city and meet with his Lao friends. The city has maintained its hospitality and lifestyle in the 1980s, which has made it become more beautiful and memorable. Tuan and other officials of former Ha Son Binh province contributed to developing the twining relationship between Ha Son Binh and Luang Prabang provinces as well as between Vietnamand Laosin general. 

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