Ninh Thuan Gazetteer has basically completed the compilation of the manuscript content.

Attending the workshop were representatives of the Board of Directors of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (the host), the Board of Directors, authors participating in compiling the topic and many scientists and experts from Hanoi National University, research institutes and universities nationwide.
On the side of Ninh Thuan province, there was the direct participation and direction of Mr. Tran Minh Nam, Head of the Propaganda Department of Ninh Thuan Provincial Party Committee, Deputy Head of the Steering Committee for the implementation of the Ninh Thuan Geographic Project; Mr. Nguyen Bac Viet - Former Standing Deputy Secretary of the Ninh Thuan Provincial Party Committee; Mr. Nguyen Long Bien - Vice Chairman of the Ninh Thuan Provincial People's Committee; Mr. Le Tien Dung - Director of the Department of Science and Technology of Ninh Thuan province.

Overview of the Workshop
 

Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Prof. Dr. Lai Quoc Khanh shared: “The University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU is one of the leading centers in the country in training and researching social sciences and humanities with the orientation of firmly adhering to the philosophy of “academics as the foundation, modernity as the trend”, promoting high-quality scientific products, strengthening cooperation with localities and serving the community. Typical of which is presiding over and organizing the compilation of the national geographical records and local geographical records. With the trust of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee and the People's Committee of Ninh Thuan province to preside over the implementation of the Ninh Thuan Geographical Records project, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities has mobilized a large number of staff and leading researchers inside and outside the school to participate in the implementation of the project. After a period of urgent and serious implementation, with the support, companionship and facilitation of the Provincial Party Committee, People's Committee, Propaganda Department, and local departments and branches, the project has now basically completed its scientific contents. Today's workshop is one of the important steps in the project implementation process, an opportunity for the Board of Directors and editorial members to listen to the opinions and comments from experts, continue to research and complete the Ninh Thuan Geography project to ensure the highest quality and progress. The success of the project is an affirmation of the prestige and commitment to the locality, contributing to the long-term and sustainable cooperation process between the University of Social Sciences and Humanities and Ninh Thuan province in the present and the future.

Prof. Dr. Lai Quoc Khanh delivered the opening speech at the Workshop "Gathering opinions on the scientific contents of the draft of the Ninh Thuan Geography" organized by VNU-USSH on December 25, 2024.

The project items have basically completed content compilation.

According to the report of Dr. Dinh Duc Tien (Head of the task): “Compiling the Local History in general, Ninh Thuan Geography in particular, is to synthesize the data system from the past to the present, in order to assess the current situation, reserves, potentials in all aspects of the locality... as a scientific basis for the Provincial leaders and management agencies to develop plans and orientations for future development. Under the direction of the Standing Committee of the Ninh Thuan Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial People's Committee has approved the Ninh Thuan Geography project description and assigned the University of Social Sciences and Humanities to preside over the implementation for a period of 16 months (starting in December 2023 and ending in March 2025). Ninh Thuan Geography includes 5 volumes: Volume 1: Administrative Geography; Volume 2: History; Volume 3: Culture; Volume 4: Religious ideology, National Defense and Security and Volume 5: Economy - Society. Up to now, the compilation groups have completed 95% of the workload.
Scientific workshop: Collecting opinions on the scientific content of the manuscript of the Ninh Thuan Geography is an important task in the compilation process, with the goal of focusing on evaluating and giving opinions on issues related to the professional content of the books. Based on consulting the opinions of scientists, the compilation team will edit, supplement and continue to complete the remaining items before appraisal and acceptance.

Dr. Dinh Duc Tien (project manager) presented a report on the results of compiling the Ninh Thuan Geographical Record.

At the workshop, the editor-in-chief and the editorial team of each book presented papers sharing the implementation results, advantages, difficulties, and adjustments and changes made during the compilation process.

Prof. Dr. Lai Quoc Khanh, Prof. Dr. Vu Minh Giang, Mr. Tran Minh Nam chaired the first session of the workshop.
 

Mr. Nguyen Long Bien, Dr. Dinh Duc Tien, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Kim chaired the second session of the Workshop.

Dr. Giang Van Trong (Institute of Vietnamese Studies and Development Sciences, VNU) affirmed the practical scientific value of the task of compiling the Ninh Thuan Gazetteer: “Gazetteer is an important type of compilation, contributing to the preservation and promotion of local knowledge values, while providing a comprehensive database for research, planning and management. The Ninh Thuan Gazetteer is a work of profound scientific and practical significance, providing a comprehensive picture of the natural, socio-economic and cultural characteristics of Ninh Thuan province”. On behalf of the compilation team, Dr. Giang Van Trong said that currently Volume 1 has basically completed the compilation, with only a few items that have to be omitted and replaced by other items due to lack of documents or non-existence in practice (such as metamorphic rock infrastructure, etc.). In order to contribute to improving the quality of the manuscript, during the internal cross-reading process, we found that there are some points that need to be further edited: the content of some sections is still quite general, sketchy, without detailed statistics, many duplicate contents in sections (introducing administrative boundaries), data is not updated and lacks consistency. The copyright issue of images, maps, and diagrams is also a problem that the authors are facing many difficulties, we hope for support from local authorities.
 

MSc. Tran Xuan Hung (VNU-USSH) shared more about the difficulties in limited documents, especially the lack of administrative maps, information on administrative boundaries, names that are inconsistent in documents and have changed over time; the organization of fieldwork is also limited due to geographical distance, etc. Therefore, the compilation team expressed the hope that the locality would support the promotion of digitization of documents, especially administrative maps, not only for the immediate compilation of Ninh Thuan Gazetteer but also for long-term useful reference materials.

With the result of completing 222 items out of 227 items of Book 2 including content on historical chronicles, historical figures, relics, and artifacts of Ninh Thuan, Dr. Nguyen Huu Manh (VNU-USSH) shared his experience on connecting, mobilizing contributions, and participating in local experts, managers, and researchers, while promoting a high sense of responsibility within the Book's compilation group to cross-read, detect inappropriate points to edit and supplement together, ensuring consistency in style and quality.
Representative of the group compiling the section on Ninh Thuan History in the modern period, Dr. Pham Minh The (VNU-USSH) emphasized the results of the implementation, the items have been compiled to ensure the principles of comprehensiveness, objectivity, unity, close connection in the context of world, national, regional history; not getting carried away with describing local history in too much detail. The writing style ensures scientific, but also close, easy to understand, easy to read so that many people can access easily, especially teachers refer to compile teaching content on local history in the general education program.
 

Dr. Nguyen Van Phong (Tran Nhan Tong Institute, VNU) reported on the results of compiling Volume 4 on Ideology, Religion, National Defense - Security, emphasizing the effective coordination between the team of authors in Hanoi and local experts, including many Cham scholars with deep understanding of local cultural life, religion and beliefs.
 

The work is carefully compiled, serious, has high scientific and practical value.

Congratulating the results of the editorial team, comrade Tran Minh Nam (Head of the Propaganda Department of Ninh Thuan Provincial Party Committee) emphasized: “The Provincial Party Committee and People's Committee of Ninh Thuan province are extremely confident and assured when the task is carried out by a team of highly qualified and dedicated scientists from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities and a number of research institutes across the country. Although the implementation time is urgent and the geographical distance is far, the results achieved up to now are very remarkable, showing the meticulous, serious and careful work with a very scientific method. This is an important project to welcome the Provincial Party Congress in September 2025, hopefully the publishing work will be completed in August”.
 

Regarding some proposals from the editorial board, the local side fully supports and provides maximum support: ready to provide the most updated data (number of administrative wards and communes after merger, streamlining; latest statistics of sectors, etc.). Reference images and maps are copyrighted by organizations and individuals in the province, the Propaganda Department will have a written directive for the editorial team to be allowed to use them for compiling the Ninh Thuan Geographical Project. In addition, after the draft is completed, the locality will be ready to participate in criticism, review, and comment with the highest sense of responsibility.
Mr. Nguyen Bac Viet (Former Standing Deputy Secretary of the Ninh Thuan Provincial Party Committee) expressed his joy when the project is about to be completed, meeting the expectations of local leaders and people for many years about compiling a large-scale, comprehensive scientific work on all aspects of the province. With the results achieved so far, I firmly believe that the project will be completed on schedule and with the highest quality. Mr. Nguyen Bac Viet hopes that scientists will collect documents to confirm the details of Uncle Ho's stop in Ninh Thuan (specific location and time).
 

Dr. Nguyen Dinh Hoa, from the Vietnam Institute of Economics, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, highly appreciated the research and compilation results of the author group: “The information in Volume 5 is authentic, updated and clearly cited, in easy-to-understand language, serving the public; ensuring interdisciplinary approach, multi-faceted, multi-dimensional perspective and sustainable development. Not only analyzing the province's strong and unique economic activities, but also pointing out the challenges and potentials for Ninh Thuan to develop quickly and sustainably in the future. In the process of completion, the authors can supplement and emphasize some areas of strength and new models of Ninh Thuan (such as Ninh Thuan Wind Power), then the book will have very high scientific and practical value.

In the field of culture, literature and art, on the basis of affirming the importance of compiling geographical records for national and local governance, Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Xuan Thach (Head of the Faculty of Literature, VNU-USSH) emphasized the significance and results achieved in collecting and preserving the unique cultural values ​​of Ninh Thuan through compiling local records. “The compilation of the content of Volume 3 on Ninh Thuan Culture faced many difficulties such as lack of documents (especially the period from 1945-1975), some research documents could not avoid prejudices, political “intentions”, the authors tried to consult a variety of sources with the spirit of criticism and the highest caution; making the most of the research results of previous scientists to be able to filter and affirm the unique cultural values ​​of Ninh Thuan in this work.

Dr. Nguyen Huy Binh further affirmed: “In terms of research methods, this is a very new approach, approaching the way of compiling encyclopedias, a modern, feasible and suitable approach today, helping to bring about a very comprehensive but also very specialized knowledge information system, ensuring all aspects of a locality. The Culture book basically ensures the highest principles of a geographical record: covering the most basic issues of the locality, presented sequentially, seamlessly, updating documents both domestically and internationally, maximizing the exploitation of bibliographical sources combined with fieldwork results”.

Suggest many practical ideas to improve the quality of the manuscript

At the workshop, in addition to affirming the scientific and practical value of the compiled content and information, scientists also contributed some ideas to improve the quality of the work such as: All sections must follow a common structure to ensure integrity and unity, some places are still written in general, quite rambling, need to go into depth to analyze the cultural characteristics, phenomena, and special events in Ninh Thuan province; Transcription of local languages ​​is also consistent to ensure objectivity and accuracy; Attention should be paid to paying appropriate attention to all ethnic groups living in Ninh Thuan province as subjects creating, preserving, and promoting cultural values.
Mr. Nguyen Long Bien, Vice Chairman of the Ninh Thuan Provincial People's Committee emphasized: "Ninh Thuan is a province with extremely harsh natural conditions, "wind like fan and sun like fire", but these disadvantages create unique characteristics of Ninh Thuan in terms of economy, culture and tourism. Therefore, we hope that the authors will try to highlight the unique and outstanding values ​​of Ninh Thuan, while updating and adding very new highlights: restarting two nuclear power plants, Cham pottery village recognized by UNESCO as an intangible heritage in need of urgent protection, ... in this work.

Mr. Nguyen Bac Viet hopes that the author will pay more attention to highlighting the contributions of the Raglai community to the history, economy and culture of Ninh Thuan. The Raglai people are a nation loyal to the revolution with famous heroes, and are also the owners of a very special epic and long poem.

Concluding the workshop, Prof. Dr. Vu Minh Giang once again emphasized: “At this workshop, we once again need to unify the understanding of geography and how to make geography. Geographical geography is not a collection of data about a locality, but it is a system of knowledge that has been drawn on the basis of processing, analyzing, comparing documents and information from many different sources, ensuring the principles: orthodox, fundamental, comprehensive, modern, updated. From there, the knowledge in new geographical books is truly a reliable and valuable reference source for planning local or national development policies.
With a short time of about 2/3 of the project's implementation time, the editorial team has completed more than 95% of the workload. This is a very encouraging result, affirming the outstanding efforts of scientists, and also showing the consensus and strong and effective facilitation of the locality. The research results up to now have been highly appreciated by scientists for their scientific value, standardization, reliability, and ensuring full compliance with the established principles.
However, at this workshop, scientists also noted a number of points that need to be further edited and improved, especially emphasizing: The manuscript needs to be reviewed and evaluated by local experts, managers, and intellectuals; information needs to be updated as soon as possible; vivid and rich illustrations, ensuring copyright issues; reinforcing and upgrading content to highlight the unique, distinctive, and special values ​​of Ninh Thuan.
Prof. Dr. Vu Minh Giang especially noted the progress requirement: the editorial team needs to urgently complete 100% of the manuscript compilation work, then widely consult scientists, review and accept, and complete the launch of the book series by August 2025 at the latest to serve the political tasks of the Province.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Associate Professor, Dr. Dang Thi Thu Huong congratulated the success of the workshop and congratulated the scientists for their very positive initial results. As the focal point for the compilation, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities is committed to mobilizing and creating conditions for scientists to urgently carry out the remaining work in accordance with the process, completing the compilation progress with the highest quality. This is an extremely important political task, and at the same time, a clear demonstration of the model of close coordination between training and research units and localities, to enhance the application of research results to participate in building and developing the local socio-economy, spreading knowledge and values ​​to the community.
 

Mr. Tran Minh Nam (Head of Propaganda Department of Ninh Thuan province) presented souvenirs to the University of Social Sciences and Humanities

Delegates attending the conference took a souvenir photo