News and Events

Major Training Initiative for Public Officials Launched by Asian Development Bank and the Government of Japan

HANOI, VIET NAM (10 December 2007) - Today the Asian Development Bank, with the funding from Government of Japan, inaugurated its Executive Public Policy Training Program in cooperation with the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Home Affairs. The Opening Ceremony was attended by the Minster of Home Affairs, Mr. Tran Van Tuan, Ambassador of Singapore, H.E. Mr. Lim Thuan Kuan, Minister, Embassy of Japan, Mr. Daisuke Matsunaga, and the Asian Development Bank Country Director to Viet Nam, Mr. Ayumi Konishi.

Viet Nam is currently at a stage of development where the country’s existing capacity lags far behind the demand for efficient civil service delivery, timely decision making, and able civil service management for the business sector, both domestic as well as foreign.

The Executive Public Policy Training Program is intended to help address these needs by helping establish effective knowledge networking partnerships between transitional economies, such as Viet Nam, with outstanding public policy research and training institutions both within and outside the region. Key activities include the implementation of core competency courses in aspects of public policy ranging from basic economics and public finance to public management, leadership and change. It is expected that over a three year period some 1,200 Vietnamese Government civil servants will benefit from the training programs.

Undertaking the delivery of the initial training program is the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy of the National University of Singapore. This school is well known in Viet Nam, having previously been involved in designing and delivering executive training programs for government officials from Viet Nam and other countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion. The school possesses a world-class faculty comprising eminent academics and distinguished practitioners with first hand knowledge of the Viet Nam situation.

Attending the first week of the 4 week program are approximately 35 civil servants representing key ministries and policy related agencies within Viet Nam.

The training program, being implemented under Asian Development Bank’s Regional Technical Assistance for Public Policy Training Program 2007-2010, covers the Mekong countries of Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Viet Nam. The Program is funded by the Government of Japan through its Japan Fund for Public Policy Training.

The overall goal of the Public Policy Training Program is to build public policy management capability of government officials through executive training programs. The objective is to upgrade the knowledge and skills of civil servants in Viet Nam to better analyze and formulate policy reforms as well as more effectively implement existing policy frameworks. The policy agenda principally addresses the transition to the market and the integration with the world economy under the rule of law.

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