Nhan Dan - Nguyen Cuong reports on two outstanding young people, who are making a contribution to the building of their home villages.

At the age of 30, Nguyen Dinh Binh owns a six hectare farm in Quang Tien commune, Cu M'gar district, Dak Lak province. Starting his business with an initial capital of VND 1 billion, Mr Binh has one of the largest farms in Cu M'gar district.

Born to a family with 11 brothers and sisters, Mr Binh had to abandon his studies when 11th grade, and had to help his parents with their farming work.

Since his childhood, Mr Binh had dreamed of having a farm to earn a living, taking advantages of potential of his home soil.

In 2003, with the support from his family and the local youth unions, Mr Binh joined training courses on technology transfer and visited farms in Dak Lak province.

In the mid of 2003, Mr Binh started up his business. He replaced ineffective coffee trees with paulownia timber, a wood of high economic value, and aquilaria crassna (Thymeleaceae) on an area of three hectares.

To accumulate capital for the raising of the trees, Mr Binh planted fruit trees and raised chickens. However he faced his first failure when 200 chickens died of an epidemic. Not discouraged, Mr Binh shifted to the raising of cows and tortoises. This helped him earn incomes to re-invest in his farm. As a result, late in 2003, he bought three more hectares to expand his farming land.

Having worked hard, Mr Binh now has a farm with 4,000 paulownia timber, and aquilaria crassna, 40 cows and three ponds of tortoises.

Recently, he invested VND 100 million in building an electric line for irrigating his farm.

His farm has generated jobs for tens of local young people.

Nguyen Van Truc in Ea Kao commune, Buon Ma Thuot city, is another example. Mr Truc chose to raise fish as his business.

Mr Truc started his business in 1998. At that time, the farming of coffee trees was mushrooming as coffee was sold at high prices. Many people sold their ponds to start their coffee farming work.

Mr Truc, however, had a different view.

"Coffee is a traditional crop of the Central Highlands people, but Ea Kao is home to many ponds and lakes. Therefore, the advantage should be developed with aquaculture," he said.

He started his business by raising 50 kilogrammes of fish on an area of 2,000 square metres. Mr Truc earned VND 20 million in profit.

Knowing about the high profits possible from the raising of fish fries, Mr Truc expanded his business by increasing the area for raising fish fries from 2,000 to 5,000 square metres.

In 2004, his farm became a household name in Dak Lak and other localities. His breeding fish reached other localities, such as Gia Lai, Kon Tum and Binh Thuan provinces.

Each year, Mr Truc earns around VND 100 million from his business, which has also generated jobs for many young people.

In recognition of his achievements, Mr Truc was the only person in Dak Lak province, selected to take part in a conference for outstanding young people in aquaculture development in Can Tho city.

Mr Binh and Mr Truc are two examples of hundreds of outstanding young people in Dak Lak province, who have overcome difficulties to develop their business.

Talking about the young people, H'Kim Hoa Bya, secretary of the Dak Lak Youth Union, said: "The efforts made by young people have made a significant contribution to hunger and poverty reduction and economic development in the province. They have set examples for other young people to follow."

Nguyen Cuong