On March 18, 2010 The Thanh Hoa People's Committee Secretariat and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development have signed a project agreement with Prosperity Initiative to review and update the Bamboo Policy for the province. The agreement also supports the creation of several sustainable luong bamboo harvesting demonstration sites in Thanh Hoa - home to Viet Nam’s largest bamboo industry.

Through this collaboration, Prosperity Initiative’s Mekong Bamboo programme will work with Thanh Hoa to attract bamboo business investment in the province.

A domestic investor working in construction material also attended the signing ceremony. With Mekong Bamboo’s assistance, this investor will establish a pressed bamboo and construction board production facility in Thanh Hoa later this year.

The signing of this agreement is another step forward in Prosperity Initiative’s long term collaboration with Thanh Hoa province.

Prosperity Initiative is an International NGO headquartered in Hanoi with operations in Viet Nam, Lao PDR and Cambodia.  Prosperity Initiative believes in a market driven approach to poverty alleviation and is active in a number of sectors showing large scale poverty reduction potential.  Prosperity Initiative conducts bamboo sector development projects in Viet Nam, Lao PDR and Cambodia through its Mekong Bamboo programme.

Note: Names of people in the photo from left to right:

Le Van Mon – Head of Thanh Hoa provincial Sub-Division of Forestry (DARD)

Pete Power – Chief Operating Officer, Prosperity Initiative

Nguyen Trong Quynh – Chief of Thanh Hoa people’s committee Secretariat, Thanh Hoa Provincial People’s Committee

Nguyen Thi Ha – Project Manager, Mekong Bamboo Program, Prosperity Initiative

Le Van Doc – Vice director of Thanh Hoa provincial DARD

Kim Ngoc Hiep – Vice Head of Foreign Affairs Department, Thanh Hoa Provincial People’s Committee