Speeches Shim
Between April 21-22, USAID and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) co-organized an in-depth Public-Private Partnership (PPP) bootcamp in Da Nang where more than 50 provincial government officials and members of the private sector received training on international best practices and their application in the Vietnam context. USAID has supported Vietnam in strengthening its PPP framework since 2019, especially with the drafting of the 2020 PPP Law. Following the bootcamp, USAID and VCCI are working to launch a virtual PPP helpdesk and an upgraded PPP portal. The curriculum developed for the bootcamp will be available online, through the portal, to a wider audience.
Between April 19-21, USAID, through the USAID Trade Facilitation Program (TFP), and the General Department of Vietnam Customs (GDVC), held a three-day training workshop in Vinh Phuc for 51 customs officials (18 females, 35 males) on risk management of air cargo. Risk management is one of the key vehicles for customs to identify and address potential high-risk goods. An effective risk management system enables Customs officials to optimize the efficiency of their goods processing, minimizing delays in clearance while effectively identifying goods needing additional scrutiny.
SMEs, especially those outside the digital hubs of Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and Danang, are struggling to keep pace with larger competitors in the race to digitally transform. To promote a deeper understanding of digital transformation (DX) - the adoption of digital technology to improve efficiency, value or innovation - the USAID Linkages for Small and Medium Enterprises (USAID LinkSME) project, Vietnam’s Agency for Enterprise Development (AED), and the southern coastal province of Ninh Thuan organized a workshop for more than 300 SMEs from the agricultural, manufacturing, tourism, and service sectors, among others. The April 21 event showcased DX support offerings from LinkSME and AED, along with a DX support program for local SMEs that was recently approved by Ninh Thuan provincial authorities.
USAID’s Reducing Pollution project promotes a collective impact approach to help address environmental pollution in Vietnam, bringing together communities, government, and businesses to work toward a common goal. From April 20-21, the Reducing Pollution team convened a Pause and Reflect workshop co-designed and co-facilitated with participants from leading local environmental organizations. A group of 45 representatives convened to share successes, challenges and lessons learned on key topics, such as working with local government counterparts and the private sector, engaging communities in collecting data via citizen science initiatives, and building sustainability in collective impact initiatives. By the end of the workshop, each organization had identified specific actions they could take to improve their collaborative pollution reduction efforts, such as taking lessons learned to develop new resource mobilization strategies, forming working groups to share monitoring approaches, and working together to learn how to better apply research findings to policy development and advocacy efforts.
On March 10, 2022, the Vietnam Administration of HIV/AIDS Control (VAAC) for the first time released guidelines governing the implementation of social contracting to fund community-based HIV services (outreach, risk-reduction commodities, HIV testing, and referrals to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)) in seven pilot provinces. These guidelines, which were developed with support from USAID’s Meeting Targets and Maintaining Epidemic Control (EpiC), Local Health Systems Strengthening (LHSS) and USAID Local Assistance to Develop and Deliver Excellence, Resilience, and Sustainability in Vietnam (LADDERS) projects, are critical to efforts to expand social contracting to four USAID focus provinces this fiscal year. To help roll out these guidelines and share experiences between provinces that are currently implementing social contracting or plan to implement it soon, representatives from seven provinces, the VAAC, USAID, US CDC, and USAID’s implementing partners gathered for a meeting in Danang, where the seven provinces presented their targets, planned procurement methods, and timeline for implementation of pilots.
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Last updated: May 06, 2022
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