THỪA THIÊN- HUẾ — Eighteen outstanding artisans in central Thừa Thiên-Huế Province have been honoured for their technical inventions that helped ease work in various production fields.

The province’s Union of Science and Technology Associations honoured the artisans yesterday for the first time for their significant contribution to the local technical and processing sectors. They were selected from among 60 prominent artisans around the province.

The 60 artisans were shortlisted based on several criteria. Firstly, their innovation could be applied to practical production in the locality this year and would not consume the local government’s budget. At the same time, they must not be involved with any research centres and not trained in a professional institute.

At the meeting, kite-making artisan Nguyễn Văn Hoàng was noticed for his flying and ornamental kites, which were presented at kite festivals held in France, India and Thailand. Hoàng has 16 different types of flying kites, which the meeting organisers said were appraised by the locals and visitors to Huế. He also created ornamental kites in the shapes of dragons, Vietnamese legendary figures, such as Sơn Tinh, Thủy Tinh, Âu Cơ and Lạc Long Quân, and various insects.

Artisan Nguyễn Văn Chư was honoured for his outstanding woodcarving skills. Chư has his own workshop in the province, which is home to more than 100 practitioners from disadvantaged families, and he created many tools that have helped produce excellent carving works. The organisers said Chư was honoured for his smart use of natural wood stripe to feature his ideas.

Farmer Lê Hữu Minh was honoured for his inventions of hydraulic peanut oil refining tools and ginger drilling machine. The organisers noted that Minh did not complete  his secondary school education and stopped at Grade 8, but his innovations have helped thousands of farmers throughout the province to reduce the time period consumed by manual work. — VNS