Development of industrial SMEs in Vietnam

On 3 Dec. 2008, VDF organized a workshop on the development of industrial SMEs in Vietnam, presented by Mr. Pham Thanh Tung from Agency for Industrial Promotion (AIP, MOIT). After introducing AIP, Mr. Tung summarized legal documents related to industrial SME development, main programs carried out by AIP in last two years (2005-2007), and presented the strategy for industrial SME development in next 5 years. Participants included AIP leaders and staff, GTZ, UNIDO, JICA, JETRO... Discussion covered various issues, such as differences between AIP and other SME-related agencies, between AIP and other bodies inside MOIT; coordination mechanism between central and local governments and the participation of private sector in industrial SME promotion activities... SlidesE (PDF60KB)

VJSE Conference at Kyoto University

On 15&16-11-2008, Vietnamese Student Association in Kyoto organized the 4th Vietnamese & Japanese Students Scientific Exchange Conference at Kyoto University, Japan. Keynote speakers were Prof. T. Kitamura (nanotech), Prof. M. Yamaguchi (biotech), Prof. Tu Bao Ho (knowledge science), and VDF's Prof. K. Ohno (economics) who emphasized the need to drastically improve industrial policy making in Vietnam. Parallel sessions covered biology, material science, chemical engineering, IT, economics and environment, among others.

Development of Vietnam's financial sector: The key policy issues

On 13 Nov. 2008, VDF organized a workshop on “Development of Vietnam’s financial sector: The key policy issues” presented by Dr Vo Tri Thanh, Head of Policy Research and International Integration, (CIEM). The participants were researchers, policy makers and practitioners from Universities, SSC, banks and WB. The discussions focused on the key policy issues relating to how to develop the financial sector in Vietnam , including banking sector, stock and bond markets, especially bond market. This workshop was the first in the series of workshops will be held under a research cooperation proposal between VDF and SSC. Many research topics were also raised to identify a long term research project such as: how to develop a more balanced improvement of macroeconomic and financial statistics, building of earlier warning system, establishing a benchmark yield curve for Government bonds and setting up credit rating agency for development of corporate bond market etc... Slides

Can Vietnam's economic growth be explained by investment or export: A VAR approach

On 11 November 2008, Ms. Pham Thi Mai Anh, a lecturer of the Diplomatic Academy , Ministry of Foreign Affairs, presented her research evaluating economic growth of the Vietnamese economy during 1986-2007. This research analyzed whether economic growth has been investment-led or export-led, using vector autoregression (VAR) approach. Models relating important macroeconomic variables, such as real GDP, export, investment, and productivity, were constructed. The estimates showed that investment has played a significant role in explaining GDP growth variation, while exports and productivity have not really influenced on such a variation. A variety of question on modeling and policy implication were lively exchanged between presenter and participants. For further information, please click here for presentation file

Singapore conference on emerging Vietnam

On 30&31-10-2008, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) in Singapore organized a conference on Emergence of Vietnam as a Middle Income Country. 10 sessions covered macro & finance, industry & trade, SOEs, infrastructure, corruption, environment, Mekong subregion, etc. Presenters included Le Dang Doanh, Vo Tri Thanh (photos), Ton Nu Thi Ninh, Noritada Morita, MoNRE, IMF, WB and Fulbright. From VDF, Kenichi Ohno emphasized the need to renovate industrial policy to avoid the middle income trap, while Pham Truong Hoang and Nguyen Ngoc Son contributed on human skill and poverty issues. This was ISEAS's third study on regional countries.   industry   poverty

Findings on remittances and elderly welfare in Vietnam

On Friday 31 Oct.,  2008, VDF welcomed Dr. Wade D. Pfau (photo, right), an associate professor of GRIPS, to present his co-authored research with Dr. Giang Thanh Long (NEU/VDF) (photo, left) on the remittances, living arrangements, and poverty status of the elderly in Vietnam. This research is under the Univers Foundation Research Grant that the authors were awarded for the fiscal year 2007/08. The findings show that the percentage of the Vietnamese elderly who are living with their children is still high, but it has decreased over the past decade. At the same time, the percentage of households with only elderly or elderly living alone has been increased. Remittances vary, depending on the elderly household living arrangements, e.g. living with children results in less remittances, while having more children living outside the household results in more remittances. Logistic models show that remittances do help the poor, and pensions do not crowd out remittances. As such, even with the presence of remittances, expanding the pension scheme may have more beneficial impacts for reducing elderly poverty. Slides

The migrant laborers in Vietnam: typical research on textile and footwear industries

On Friday 24 Oct., 2004, VDF invited Ms. Ngo Van Hoai, a research fellow of the Institute for Labor Science and Social Affairs (ILSSA) of Ministry of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs (MOLISA), to share her research team’s findings on migrant laborers in Vietnam. This study was conducted during the period of 2003-2008 with a sample of more than 200 enterprises in textile and footwear industries in 10 provinces. The results showed that migration of people were motivated by various causes, in which economic factor was dominant. The research also indicated that in addition to benefiting from migration, such as improving income for their households and providing vocational training, laborers were facing a number of difficulties in their works and living conditions with low and unstable income sources. Many threats, including job loss, might push migrant laborers into vicious circle of poverty. Based on these findings, Ms. Hoai and her research team proposed a set of policies to firms and local and central authorities to manage such flow of laborers now and in the future. For more details, please access the presentation file here.

Business difficulties under macro instability

On 26-10-2008, a symposium to hear and analyze difficulties faced by  Vietnamese businesses under inflation and credit tightening was organized by the Economic Committee of National Assembly, NEU and VCCI. It was chaired by NEU Rector Prof. Nguyen Van Nam and attended by DPM Nguyen Thien Nhan and a large number of businesses, business associations and researchers. Main arguments evolved around the need to reverse macro tightening, the extent of credit crunch, and impact of global recession. Prof. Ohno, VDF's co-leader, was one of the speakers. VDF researchers also contributed background papers to this symposium.

First conference on social security

On 9 Sep., 2008at the National Economics University in Hanoi, VDF and CDEPP held an international conference on social security in Vietnam, namely “Social Security in Vietnam: Preparation for the Next Phase of Development”. The main purpose of the conference was to disseminate research information, findings, and challenges of the Vietnamese social security system in the new phase of development, as well as expand research network among social researchers and policy makers and advisers in different international and domestic institutions in Vietnam. More than 70 participants actively discussed with five presenters of the conference, who shared their analyses on various social security issues in Vietnam. This conference will be annual research activity  between VDF and CDEPP. For more information about the conference’s contents, please visit our official website at http://www.vdf.org.vn/1stSSConference/index.html. 

First national seminar on SI Action Plan
 

On 5 Sep. 2008, in Hanoi, VCCI and JETRO co-hosted the First National Seminar on Action Plan for Developing Supporting Industries in VN. Its purpose was to launch the work of designing concrete action plans for supporting industry promotion, which would implement the SI master plan approved in 2007,  through bilateral cooperation between Vietnam and Japan. The seminar was opened by VCCI Chairman Vu Tien Loc and Japanese Ambassador Mitsuo Sakaba. Key note speakers were MOIT Minister Vu Huy Hoang, VDF co-leader Kenichi Ohno, and Toyota VN President Nobuhiko Murakami. Three panel disccussions followed to cover human resources, FDI role, and finance and firm consultancy. The Japanese side presented bilateral vision and action plan proposals, showed concrete data to highlight competitiveness issues. VDF is supporting this bilateral effort through academic inputs and other assistance. SlidesE (PDF427KB), SlidesJ (PDF609KB), SlidesV (PDF912KB)   MORE

VDF assistance for supporting industry promotion

Since Spring 2008, VDF has worked closely with Japanese embassy, VCCI, JETRO, JICA and other related bodies to formulate a new VN-Japan project to strengthen VN's supporting industries. VDF has provided initial ideas, analysis and international experience, drafting of key documents, and logistic and translation support. This project will build bilateral strategic partnership for monozukuri (skilled manufacturing) with special emphasis on supporting industries (parts and components). It will be implemented under the VN-JP Joint Initiative Phase 3. Much of the work remains preparatory and confidential at present. The VCCI-JETRO conference will officially launch this project in early September.

Symposium on education at Aichi Univ. of Education

From 4th to 6th July 2008, Ms. Nguyen Thi Xuan Thuy, a VDF research participated in an international symposium on technological education at Aichi Universities of Education, Japan. The symposium included panel sessions, oral sessions, and poster sessions. Ms. Thuy presented at an oral session, introduced Vietnam's education and TVET system, then proposed measures to strengthen university-industry linkage for pushing up FDI-led industrialization in Vietnam. The symposium welcomed about 100 participants from 27 countries. Many lessons and experiences on technological education were shared. As a keynote speaker, Prof. William E. Dugger from Virginia Tech. University clarified the difference in science and technology, and suggested contents should be taught in the study of technology to ensure that all people are technologically literate in the future. At an oral session, Prof. Ikeda Norihiro from Toyohashi Univ. of Technology (TUT), Japan shared experiences in promoting U-I linkage in Sri Lanka, a project implemented by TUT in the framework of MEXT International Cooperation Initiative. Slides (PDF374KB).

Workshop on maternal and child health

On July 1, Prof. Megumi Haruna, Department of Midwifery and Women’s Health, Division of Health Sciences and Nursing, Graduate School of Medicine, Univ. of Tokyo presented a research on maternal and child health in Japan. Ms. Erika Ota, a PhD student at Pasteur Institute in Nha Trang province, followed by a presentation on "Pre-pregnancy body mass index and pregnancy weight gain: Associations with perinatal outcome". Attendants were doctors and professors from Institute of Sociology, Hanoi Central Maternity Hospital and Vietnam National Hospital of Pediatrics. According to Prof. Haruna, the rate of breastfeeding in Japan is much lower than Vietnam. Although the pregnant mothers in Japan have more conditions to take care their health, the risk of low birth weight in Japan is increasing. Beside this risk, there are many other perinatal risks like macrosomia, preterm delivery, pregnant induced hypertension, hemorrhage. HarunaSlides (PDF2.7MB).

Vietnam - Japan monozukuri partnership for SI

On 24 June 2008, Prof. Kenichi Ohno, Co-director of VDF presented VDF proposal for monozukuri partnership between the two countries to promote supporting industry (SI) in Vietnam. Monuzukuri is a native Japanese term, can be understood as Japanese style skill-based manufacturing. The monozukuri partnership aims to improve Vietnam's industrial capability, to pursuer win-win and long-term relationship. By establishing such partnership, the two countries will jointly produce high skill products through proper division of labor, where Japan will perform capital & knowledge-intensive monozukuri processes and Vietnam will perform labor-intensive monozukuri processes. The Japanese Ambassador Mitsuo Sakaba, experts from MOIT, MPI (ASMED, TAC Hanoi), VCCI, JICA, JETRO, VDF etc. participated in the workshop. Mr. Sakaba strengthened an important role of SI in solving Vietnam's long-term problems (such as Vietnam +1), which seem not be paid enough attention from top leaders. The participants raised questions on how to realize and what were criteria for the successful monozukuri partnership. A mechanism to effectively receive Japanese retired engineers in large-scale was also discussed to ensure right experts to be sent to right firms. SlidesE (PDF188KB), SlideV (PDF636KB).

Development of supporting industry in Vietnam

On 12 June 2008, VDF organized a workshop on Vietnam's supporting industry. Mr. Nguyen Anh Nam, an expert of Institute for Industrial Policy and Strategy (MOIT) explained the contents of the supporting industry master plan approved by the MOI (MOIT now) in July 2007. The workshop was attended by the Japanese Ambassador Mitsuo Sakaba, experts from JETRO, MOIT, MPI, and TAC Hanoi. The Ambassador raised a question on how the master plan has been implemented after its approval. In fact, measures proposed in the master plan are too general, so not many actions have been realized, excepting two projects on HRD in manufacturing introduced in HCMC and Thai Nguyen province. However, there is overlapping in implementation of some actions, for example, SI databases are produced by MOIT, VCCI, TAC, etc. Mr. Sakaba's idea is that to promote supporting industry, it is essential for Vietnam to improve local manufacturing capability prior to strengthening linkages between FDI and local firms. SlidesE (PDF268KB), SlidesV (PDF627KB)

Workshop on impacts of environment regulations

On 6 June 2008, Ms. Le Ha Thanh, NEU/VDF researcher presented her study on impacts of environmental protection fees on industrial wastewater (Decree 67) on firms’ behavior in food processing industry. The study aimed to generate evidence that inform decision-makers about the effectiveness of Decree 67 in inducing changes in pollution abatement behavior of firms over time. In general, Decree 67 has been successful in raising environmental awareness among different stakeholders especially business enterprises in Vietnam. The declining trend in average fee paid by industrial firms in general and firms in food processing industry in particular may reflect the light effect of Decree 67 in inducing changes in pollution control behavior of firms. However, the declining trend may imply some weaknesses of implementing process. The limitations seem to have a lack of appropriate knowledge, awareness and management capacity at all levels. There is little/no evidence that the top government agencies have sufficient (environmental/financial) knowledge and capacity to wisely implement the Decree 67. In addition, weak cooperation between the state management agencies at both central and local levels also hampers the implementation of environmental regulations. Slides (PDF143KB)

Workshop on reducing HIV-related stigma in Vietnam

On May 28, 2008, Institute for Social Development Studies (ISDS) cooperated with VDF to hold a workshop on “A Community-based  Action for HIV-related Stigma Reduction in Vietnam   – Experiences and lessons learnt”. Representatives from local authorities and Youth Unions of Cam Dong Ward, Quang Ninh Province, and Cai Khe Ward, Can Tho Province, the two provinces with highest rate of HIV infected people in VN, also attended the workshop to share their experiences. Ms. Van Anh and Dr. Khuat Thu Hong (ISDI) presented their achievements and proposed suggestions about HIV – related stigma reduction after 5 years working with the two local provinces. SlidesV (PDF777KB), SlidesE (PDF383KB)

Supporting industry promotion in Thailand and Indonesia

On 21-5-2008, VDF organized a workshop on Mizutani Report (Thailand, 1999) and Urata Report (Indonesia, 2000), two SME promotion plans supported by Japan. Nguyen Thi Xuan Thuy (VDF) compared the policy menus of these reports while Pham Truong Hoang (VDF/NEU) reviewed the progress in the two countries. The workshop was attended by Japanese Ambassador Mitsuo Sakaba, JETRO, VCCI, MOIT, MPI, JICA expert and VDF. Mr. Sakaba raised questions regarding the current SME situation in Vietnam, AFTA deadline impact in 2018, and VN's policy coordination framework. In a series of research and workshops, VDF academically assists SI promotion policy formulation in VN. As the topic for the next workshop, Mr. Sakaba suggested the examination of the current SI master plan.  Thuy slides (PDF82KB)  Hoang slides (PDF162KB)  Ohno memo (PDF92KB)

Seminar to introduce VDF book on post-addict issues

On May 20, 2008, VDF and the Institute for Social Research of HCMC co-held a seminar in HCMC to introduce the book "Management, Education and Personality Rehabilitation for Post-addicts: Problems and Experiences in HCMC". The research was conducted from 2004 to 2007 by the Institute for Social Research with the participation of not only researchers from research organizations, government officials, educators in training centers and rehabilitation centers but also local social workers who work directly with drug addicts, and local communities. The research was published in book form with financial support of VDF in April 2008. Dr. Ho Ba Tham, co-editor of the book presented key findings and successes of the research. He suggested that the new rehabilitation model and the three-year rehabilitation program should be applied in larger scale not only in HCMC but also in other provinces. On this opportunity, Ms. Duong Kim Hong (VDF) made a brief introduction about VDF research activities and called for papers on migration issues of Vietnam. Hong’s slides (PDF620KB)