50222 Vietnam Partnership Report 2008: STABILIZING THE ECONOMY AND MAINTAINING ITS GROWTH POTENTIAL An Informal Report Prepared for the Consultative Group Meeting for Vietnam Hanoi, December 4-5, 2008 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This volume is the product of teamwork and partnerships in Vietnam, and brings together contributions from many of the joint Government-donor-NGO partnership groups, all working together to help Vietnam achieve its development targets, to improve the co-ordination and to make delivery of Official Development Assistance (ODA) more effective. Its production was only possible through the co-operation, contributions and active support of a wide range of development partners, including Government staff, donors and NGOs. Key contacts (though not necessarily leaders) of the groups, most of which have reported in this volume, are currently as detailed below. Non-inclusion in this volume does not imply non-activity on the part of a partnership group. Poverty Working Group/Poverty Task Force Cao Viet Sinh (MPI); Martin Rama/Doan Hong Quang (WB); Nguyen Tien Phong (UNDP) Partnership to support National Target Programs Nguyen Hai Huu/Tran Huu Trung/Tran Phi on Poverty Reduction Tuoc (MOLISA); Tran Van Thuat (CEMA); Gender Action Partnership Tran Mai Huong (NCFAW) ISG Environment Tran Thi Minh Ha (MoNRE) People's Participation's Working Group Trine Glue Doan (NGO RC) Partnership on SOE Reform & Equitization Martin Rama (WB); Nguyen Danh Hao (IMF) Partnership Group for SME Promotion and Nguyen Van Trung (MPI); Rie Vejs Private Sector Development Kjeldgaard (ILO); Trang Nguyen (IFC) Financial Sector Working Group Dang Anh Mai (SBV) Trade Reforms Working Group Martin Rama/Nguyen Minh Duc (World Bank) Vietnam Business Forum Sin Foong Wong (IFC) Education Working Group Tran Ba Viet Dzung (MoET); Noala Skinner (UNICEF); Anouk Van-Neck (EC) Health Sector Working Group Ministry of Health; WHO HIV/AIDS Technical Working Group UNAIDS Forest Sector Support Partnership Nguyen Tuong Van (FSSP)/ Nguyen Bich Hang, Nguyen Thanh Phuong Natural Disasters Mitigation Partnership Nguyen Si Nuoi (MARD)/Tran Van Tuan (NDP-P) ISG-MARD Le Van Minh (MARD-ISG) Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Partnership Nguyen Thi Tuyet Hoa (MARD- ISG)/Nguyen Danh Soan (RWSSP) Transport Partnership Group Truong Tan Vien (MoT), Motonori Tsuno(JICA) Urban Forum Pham Khanh Toan (Ministry of Construction) Legal Reforms Partnership Nguyen Minh Phuong (MoJ) Public Administrative Reform Partnership Ministry of Home Affairs Public Financial Management Partnership Nguyen Ba Toan (Ministry of Finance) Partnership group on Aid Effectiveness Ho Quang Minh (MPI); Kerry Groves (AusAid) Bo Thi Hong Mai (World Bank) managed production of this volume and coordinated the Theme Notes from the Development Partnership Groups. Further copies of this report are available from the Vietnam Development Information Center, Ground Floor, 63 Ly Thai To, Hanoi, and at www.worldbank.org.vn , www.un.org.vn and www.vdic.org.vn TABLE OF CONTENTS PEOPLE'S PARTICIPATION WORKING GROUP........................................... 4 HEALTH SECTOR WORKING GROUP..........................................................8 INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT GROUP - MARD..............................................11 INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT GROUP - ENVIRONMENT.................................15 FOREST SECTOR SUPPORT PARTNERSHIP...................................................24 NATURAL DISASTER MITIGATION PARTNERSHIP...............................................30 RURAL WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION PARTNERSHIP..............................35 FINANCIAL SECTOR WORKING GROUP.......................................................41 SME/PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP GROUP .................. ..46 TRANSPORT PARTNERSHIP GROUP..................................................................52 LEGAL REFORM PARTNERSHIP.................................................................62 PUBLIC FINANCE MANAGEMENT PARTNERSHIP .........................................85 2 ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ADB Asian Development Bank ASEAN Association of South East Asian Nations AFD Agence Francaise de Developpement CEPT Common Effective Preferential Tariff CIDA Canadian International Development Agency CIE Center for International Economics CIEM Central Institute for Economic Management CPNET The government information network CPRGS Comprehensive Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy CPLAR Cooperation Program on Land Administration Reform DANIDA Danish International Development Agency EU European Union FAO Food and Agricultural Organisation GDP Gross Domestic Product ILO International Labour Organization ISG International Support Group JICA Japanese International Cooperation Agency KfW Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau LPTS Legal Professional Training School LMDG Like-Minded Donor Group MDG Millennium Development Goal MOJ Ministry of Justice MOT Ministry of Trade NGO Non-governmental Organization NORAD Norway Agency for Development NSCERD National Steering Committee for Enterprise Reform and Development ODA Official Development Assistance ONA Office of National Assembly OSS One-Stop Shop PPA Participatory Poverty Assessment RPA Regional Poverty Assessment SDC Swiss Development Cooperation SIDA Swedish International Development Agency SPC Supreme People's Court SPP Supreme People's Procuracy UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNODC United Nations Office of Drug Control UN United Nations UNFPA United Nations Population Fund UNICEF United Nations Children's Fund UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization UNV United Nations Volunteers UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee VDG Vietnam Development Goal VHLSS Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey VNU Viet Nam National University SBV State Bank of Vietnam WB World Bank WHO World Health Organization WTO World Trade Organization 3 PEOPLE'S PARTICIPATION WORKING GROUP PARTNERSHIP NOTE DECEMBER 2008 Partnership Note Ha Noi, Nov. 2008 The People's Participation Working Group (PPWG) was established in 1999 as part of a network of thematic development partnership groups. As a partnership group, the PPWG provides inputs to the Consultative Group (CG) meetings held semi-annually between the government and the donor committee. The PPWG is an informal network and forum for international organisations, NGOs, government employees, donors, project managers, consultants, researchers, etc. to meet and exchange information and ideas on issues relating to people's participation, grassroots democracy and civil society. The group is open to all those who are interested in participating and contributing to sharing information and carrying out joint goals and objectives. The PPWG is made up of a voluntary Steering Committe (SC) and a broad group of members representing a wide group of stakeholders. Presently, there are 279 organisations and individuals signed up to the PPWG mailing list, many of which take part in PPWG activities organised by the PPWG SC. The group is co-ordinated by an elected Chairperson, which is assisted by the SC. This SC currently consists of 20 members and includes representatives from UNDP, the World Bank, Embassy of Finlad, and international and Vietnamese NGOs, who meet regularly to organise relevant thematic workshops and other events. The current Chairperson is VUFO- NGO Resource Centre, represented by the Managing Co-director Ms Trine Glue Doan. The PPWG Mission The mission of the PPWG is to act as a platform to provide people and civil society organisations with opportunities to exchange information, participate and contribute to Vietnam's development and poverty reduction processes. 1. Update on key PPWG activities in 2008 1.1. PPWG Events in 2008 Work on Decree 151 During 2008 the PPWG task force on Decree 151/2007/ND-CP on the organization and operation of collaborative groups continued its work in relation to Decree 151. The main objective of this work has been for PPWG to assist the Government of Vietnam (MPI) with the content and development of the implementation guideline as well as the dissemination and awareness raising and training of CBOs and relevant Government agencies. A Consultation workshop, with participation from CBOs, NGOs, and Government representatives from all levels, was held in March 2008. The primary purpose of this workshop was to develop a guiding circular on how to implement Decree 151. Besides that, participants got an overview of the decree, was introduced to the constraints in its implementation, and was able to provide input and ideas to the guiding circular. In August 2008, the task-force had, in collaboration with MPI, also arranged two training workshops on the decree (one in the south and one the north), in order for PPWG to provide input on how training on 151 should be conducted (by setting a quality standard) and secondly to ensure a focus on grass-root level. The objectives of the workshop included: to help collaborative groups and CBOs understand Decree 151 and its implementation guidelines; to discuss some case studies on putting the implementation guideline into operation; and to collect information for the preparation of a handbook. Between 60 and 70 people, from various institutions (e.g. local authorities, DPI, Womans Union etc.) participated at each workshop. For more information, please visit http://www.ngocentre.org.vn/node/6652 4 Workshop's on Advocacy VASS & PPWG workshop on: Evidence Based Policy Development As policy development based on research evidence has been gaining increasingly relevance among both researchers and development practitioners and VASS and PPWG collaborated on organising a workshop on evidence based policy development in May 2008. The workshop aimed at providing VASS researchers, NGOs, and CSOs with an introduction to the key principles for promoting more evidenced based policy development, as well as provide examples from various developing countries on the links between research evidence and policy making. Around 50 participants attended the workshop which was organised at VASS. PPWG & CODE workshop on: NGO & CBO Participation in policy advocacy As a response to the increasing awareness of the importance of lobbyism and advocacy in contemporary Vietnam and due to the fact of civil society's limited understanding of and experience with policy advocacy, PPWG and CODE co-organised a workshop entitled "NGO & CBO Participation in policy advocacy: Practical experiences & legal framework" held on September 16. The purpose of the workshop was for NGOs and CBOs to achieve better understanding in terms of concept, practice and legal framework for policy advocacy work and to share experiences and best practices. Another aim of the workshop was to establish a network among stakeholders and CSOs on lobbying and advocacy towards social change and pro-poor policies for sustainable development. Around 90 participants attended the workshop. For more information, please visit http://www.ngocentre.org.vn/node/6652 1.2. Other activities in 2008 In the first half year of 2008 the Steering Committee of PPWG completed its process of reviewing the objectives and strategy of the Group and developing a Strategy for the period 2008-2010. The strategy includes strategic directions and thematic areas and is combined with an operational plan. Both documents are available at: http://www.ngocenter.org.vn/node/119. 1.3. Relevance for the Socio-Economic Development Plan 2006-2010 The work of PPWG is mainly targeted towards the local and grassroots levels and it is primarily cross-cutting, hence it does not refer to one specific topic alone. This makes it a bit difficult to compare the achievements of PPWG with the Socio-Economic Development Plan (SEDP) 2006-2010, which mainly focus on area-specific development. Anyhow, some perspectives of PPWG's work in relation to the SEDP may be provided in a more general fashion. The SEDP states that "the majority of people, particularly those in remote, less developed areas still have limited awareness of the law and the market economy as well as poor observance of the law". PPWG's work on Decree 151 is clearly relevant in this respect, as it seeks to disseminate the decree and inform people at grass-root level about its main features. The SEDP continues, and points to the fact that: "the development and enforcement of policies as well as advocacy do not correspond to reality, customs, and practices of people in remote and mountainous areas" (SEDP: 51). Here the work on advocacy, which is also targeting the community level (but not necessarily mountainous areas), is relevant as it seeks to illuminate CBOs and NGOs about the dynamics and usage of advocacy. As already mentioned the "151 efforts" concentrate on ensuring a better understanding of the decree. Thus in turn, the aim is also to ensure an improved public administration of the restrictions and regulations involved in Decree 151. This makes the work relevant to the Public Administrative Reform (PAR), which is also briefly mentioned in the SEDP. 2. PPWG Activities in 2009 5 2.1. PPWG thematic focus PPWG has identified a number of themes and issues as key to people's participation and civil society development in Vietnam. These themes and issues will provide focus for the outputs and activities of the PPWG until 2010. The themes and issues include: The changing legal and policy framework for people's participation and civil society. During the past few years the Government of Vietnam has showed determination to promote the growth and increasing role of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and the active participation of people at all levels in promoting socio-economic development nation-wide. Several legal documents have been or are in process of being drafted offering new opportunities for CSOs and the participation of people. As this legal framework is constantly changing it is important to take ongoing stock of the opportunities and implications provided by these changes. Local governance. People's participation and CSO's roles are key in relation to local governance issues, including such as planning and budgeting processes, local legislative bodies, political representation at the local level, the electoral system, etc. As the legal framework is changing is it becoming even more important to focus on the practice of application and opportunities and constraints in this relation. Civil society and Anti ­ Corruption. There is an increasing mention and emphasis of the role of the civil society in support of the Vietnamese Party-State's anti-corruption efforts. Currently, the government of Vietnam is in the process of drafting its long term anti- corruption strategy, period 2010-2020. Enhancement of the civil society's roles and contributions are among three key issues to be dealt with in this strategy. Socialisation (Xa Hoi Hoa). The concept enter currency to government policy with Resolution No. 90/CP (21.8.1997) on "directions and guidelines for socialization of activities and operations in the fields of education, health and culture" and then Decree No. 73/1999/ND-CP (19.8.1999) on "the policy of encouraging socialization of activities in the fields of education, health, culture, sports and games". But the idea - of engaging the people in public service, either as collaborative groups or as private sector actors - is larger and more pervasive and appears in other areas as well. In addition to the above four issues, the PPWG might also include other issues in response to new developments and interest of the members of the PPWG. 2.2. Specific activities planned for 2009 The specific work plan of the PPWG for 2009 will be fully developed and finalised at the PPWG end year meeting in December 2008. However, at this stage the following activities have already been identified. Follow-up with the implementation of Decree 151 Following on the work related to Decree 151 in 2007 and 2008 the 151 task force has planned the following activities for the last part on 2008 and 2009: PPWG will organize a workshop in Hanoi to report on the results from the two training workshops, recommendations, and action points for future follow up. PPWG will continue supporting the dissemination of Decree 151, in order to reach the targeted groups (especially CBOs and local authorities) in an understandable way. PPWG will document the whole Decree 151 process as a case of contribution to the policy development. Workshop on Socialisation (Xa Hoi Hoa) A newly established PPWG task force on Socialisation (Xa Hoi Hoa) will start up the work on Socialisation by organising a workshop on the topic focusing on existing research and reports. 6 This workshop would identify new areas as well as gaps in the socialisation initiative to be researched, which could be carried out or coordinated by PPWG. Input for the Law on Access to Information. This Law project on the list of legal document to be developed within 2009. Ministry of Justice is assigned to lead the development of this Law, which is planned to be submitted to National Assembly on the Nov. 2009 session and be approved in the May 2010 session. The Law is supposed to improve the transparency and openness in the state management of information in order to promote and facilitate people's participation. PPWG plans to provide input to the preparation of this Law through a number of activities, including: Coordinate its member organization to conduct survey on information access situation at grassroots level (in their project areas) to provide input for drafting team. Organize consultation workshop with different stakeholders and among PPWG members on the Draft Law Provide technical support to drafting team in Law development process 7 HEALTH PARTNERSHIP GROUP Partnership report to CG Meeting in Dec 2008 1. Introduction The Health Partnership Group (HPG) was established in 2004 to promote national ownership and leadership over development assistance for health and enhance MOH's role in coordinating development partners in the sector. The HPG is co-chaired by the Ministry of Health and development partners, and attended by UN agencies, multilateral and bilateral development partners, national and international NGOs, research institutions as well as other government ministries. The HPG meets quarterly, and it enjoys the enthusiastic support and commitment of development partners. From the perspective of the Ministry of Health, the HPG is an important forum to discuss the strategic orientation of partner support to health; to dialogue on new health sector policies and emerging health challenges; and to develop mechanisms to improve the effectiveness of donor support for health. 2. Progress over the last 6-12 months The last 12 months have been particularly dynamic and productive for the Health Partnership Group, and for MOH-partner dialogue more broadly. Vietnam has successfully completed its second Joint Annual Health Review (JAHR). The JAHR is the process through which the Ministry of Health and Partners jointly assess progress in the health sector on an annual basis, and agree on future priorities. As such it is, along with the Health Partnership Group, a key mechanism for dialogue on sector development. In 2008, the JAHR focused on health financing. An in-depth consultative process was organized to gather feedback from partners, across government and from relevant stakeholders as drafts of the JAHR were developed. A total of 4 workshops were held, with the participation and support of the HPG. In addition, the Ministry of Health and development partners have developed a Statement of Intent on improving the effectiveness of development assistance for health. This document sets out principles and actions for improving the effectiveness and impact of aid in the health sector, by showing how the Hanoi Core Statement will be applied and operationalized. In an effort to be concrete and specific, the Statement of Intent has set 10 time-bound milestones, which will help to hold partners and government to account as they work to improve the effectiveness of health aid. To develop the Statement of Intent, the HPG established a drafting committee with members from five constituencies: UN; Development Banks; EU/EC; other major bilateral donors (Japan, Australia, US); and, Civil Society. Three separate consultations were held with civil society, with international NGOs, national NGOs and professional associations. The final text of the Statement of Intent was agreed at special meeting of the HPG in late November, and is now ready for presentation to the Consultative Group. In addition to the meetings mentioned above, three HPG meetings were organized over the course of the year. These focused on topics ranging from Food Safety, to the development of a Medium-Term Expenditure Framework in health, to policies to build the capacity of health staff at community and district levels. Other achievements relevant to the work of the HPG include: 8 Development of a detailed matrix of partner activities in the health sector, showing what individual partners support, in what location and planned expenditure over the medium term. This is the first time comprehensive information on donor support to the health sector has been brought together in a single framework. A review of how donor support to health and HIV will evolve as Vietnam reaches Middle-Income Country Status. 3. Support to the implementation of sectoral strategies and programmes The Joint Annual Health Review informs the annual planning and budgeting process in the health sector, as well as the next 5-Year Plan 2011­2015, which will also serve as a the foundation document in a sector programme. To this end, the JAHR supports the on-going evolution from input, norm-based to output-based, result-oriented planning and budgeting 4. Milestones for 2009 The Joint Annual Health Review has established a monitoring matrix to assess progress in the health sector, which covers health outcomes (key health indicators) and also reviews progress towards policy commitments made by government and donors. In 2009, the HPG and the relevant departments of MOH, with the support of partners, will look at how this monitoring matrix can evolve into a common monitoring framework that could be linked to development of a programme-based approach in the health sector. The ten milestones agreed in the Statement of Intent are listed below. Milestones 3-6 are scheduled to be completed in 2009. The ten milestones agreed in the Statement of Intent are listed below. Milestones 1-6 are scheduled to be completed in 2009 Milestones Completion Lead date 1 Matrix of donor activities produced on annual 1st Quarter WHO, then MOH basis, to an agreed format. First matrix to be 2009, then prepared by WHO, thereafter MOH annually 2 A study is carried out to assess the degree to June 2009 Partners which technical assistance in the health sector is harmonised and aligned. 3 Guidance issued on provision of budget support in September MOH (DPF1), with the health sector 2009 Ministry of Finance 4 Review of the approval, procurement and October 2009 MOH (DPF) with support disbursement procedures for the use of health aid from partners 5 Government approves the TOR for the HPG set December MOH (ICD2) + partners out in Annex 2, a dedicated funding mechanism 2009 for HPG secretariat is established and supported by interested partners. Procedures to formally link the Health Partnership Group and other health- related partnerships agreed. 6 Review of transparency, accuracy and timeliness December Partners 1 DPF is the Department of Planning and Finance 2 ICD is the Department for International Cooperation 9 of financial information provided by partners 2009 7 Finalisation of expenditure framework linked to August 2010 MOH (DPF), with the 5-Year Plan which documents all external and Ministry of Finance; input domestic revenues for health from partners 8 Completion of a viable 5-Year Plan with costs December MOH (DPF-led, involving estimated for the health sector, and associated 2010 all departments, monitoring framework provinces); input from partners 9 Assessment of the degree to which partner June 2010 Independent assessment, support is aligned with the 5-Year Plan and or part of JAHR 2010 associated annual plans 10 Joint Annual Reviews carried out, involving all On-going MOH (DPF)-led with levels of government, CSOs and donor partners, active participation of and disseminated. partners 10 ISG process: an annual update 2008 5 Key Areas for 2006-2010 · Facilitation of policy dialogue · Support coordination of foreign - funded programs and projects · Information collation and dissemination · Capacity building and management processes · Monitoring and evaluation Activities done in 2008 Key area 1: Facilitation of policy dialogue 1. 14th meeting of ISG Steering Board: held on 26th Feb. 2008 approving ISG performance analysis 2007, Work plan 2008 and reviewing the progress of MARD's implementation of 5- year Agriculture and Rural Development Plan. 2. Food Safety Collected information relating to food safety activities done in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development through a PAB questionnaire to develop a Matrix on food safety to (i) help to produce a foundation for coordination strengthen & information exchange among relevant stakeholders of fields as well as for MARD, (ii) identify gaps of food safety to let donors and private investors know where they can contribute effectively. . In coordination with FAO and WHO to facilitate the establishment of joint adhoc group on Food Safety. The objective of this Group is to coordinate future activities on Food safety among the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and international donors. In parallel with the preparation of the inter-ministry Adhoc Group on Food Safety, ISG is also facilitating the formulation of an informal ad-hoc group on food safety under the framework of the International Cooperation Network of MARD. The objective of the MARD's group is to support the Ministry to implement the Action Plan on Food Safety of the year 2008. 3. Provincial dialogues Initial efforts and consultations with some 4 core donors and partners such as IFAD, World Bank, FAO, INGO resource centre, FSSP - Partnership, Thua Thien Hue Rural Development project have been made to establish close coordination to promote province dialogues on policy issues. TOR for province policy dialogues network formulation drafted 4. Supporting the formulation of Rural Development Strategy Facilitated the working visit of Prof. Joachim ­ Director General of IFFRI, under the framework of the assistance given by the AusAID, to Vietnam to support Vietnam in the formulation of Rural Development Strategy in July. The Prof. Joachim's visit were a good opportunity to share with Vietnam lesson learnt about agricultural and rural development in the world. It is a good time for MARD and IPSARD to discuss with 11 IFPRI future concrete options for dilivery that Vietnam should consider in taking a long time vision forward in the ARD sector. Through discussion, the type of detailed preparation works that the country need to undertake in New Rural Development strategy was classified and shaped. Consultation meetings on the framework of the Rural Development Strategy and roadmap for formulation; A number of meetings held among IPSARD technical team with donors, international organizations to mobilize interest and support for related thematic studies ; A meeting of the ad-hoc group to update: (i) the progress of the proposal "Agriculture, Farmer, and Rural" (ii) the performance of the ad-hoc group was held in June. The composition of the group include representatives from MARD (Department of Cooperative Economics and Rural Development, International Cooperation Department, Planning Department, Department of Livestock, Department of Crops Production, Department of Agro-forest Commercial Processing and Salt Industry and IPSARD) and donors' communities (AusAID, SIDA, SDC, WB, IFAD, Oxfam UK, Oxfam Hong Kong, Helvetas, and SNV,...); Workshops and meetings on Scenarios for the Rural Development Strategy on 18-19 June, 2008 and a meeting to report the results to the ad-hoc group members on 23rd June, 2008 with technical support from World Bank . A workshop for consultation with international communities on the Proposal "Agriculture ­ Farmer - Rural" held in 12th June. The workshop is chaired by the MARD Minister and World Bank Manager. 5. Dialogue with ISG core donors ISG core donors meeting held on 13th March, 2008 for consultation to finalize the workplan 2008 with a special attention to budget issues (budget plan 2008 and cost norm) for more effective performance in the year 2008. A preparatory meeting among ISG core donors members on for ISG Plenary Meeting 2008 was held on 29th August 2008. Frequent discussions with ISG core donors for consultation on policy issues, cooperation possibility and others during the implementation of the Workplan 2008. 6. Sector's key programs Delivered questionnaires to update information on the sector's key programs. A matrix on the sector key programs in 2008 was made and will be shared widely in the MARD and with the international communities. 7. ISG Plenary Meeting The plenary 2008 was held on 18th Nov. 2008 with the theme "Actions Towards Sustainable and Comprehensive Development of Agriculture, Farmers and Rural areas." The overall objective of the Meeting is to improve the harmonization and alignment of international donors' and investors' cooperation and assistance policies for the comprehensive and sustainable agriculture and rural development of Vietnam. 8. Supporting the MARD to formulate the REDD-Plan A serrries of meetings and discussions with the interested donors to help coordinate all efforts done by national agencies and donors in this area and for the immediate purpose to assist MARD in formulating the REDD Plan. A First Technical Meeting was held on 7th Oct. 2008. The objectives of the meeting: (1) introducing the exercise of developing a National Program on REDD, (2) updating new initiatives related to climate change, (3) presenting the first draft on the establishment of a national working group for the formulation of the REDD frame work for Vietnam. 9. Conducted a study on the role of INGOs in the Vietnam's agriculture and rural development sector. 12 10. Supported actively the International Cooperation Department in organizing the 30th Meeting of the ASEAN Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry (AMAF) in Ha Noi, Viet Nam on 23 October and the 8th AMAF+3 Meeting. KEY AREA 2 ­ Support Coordination of Foreign ­ funded Programs and Projects 1. Support implementation of Hanoi Core Statement on aid effectiveness Facilitated the study "Documenting experiences with regard to the possible application of sector approaches in ARD in Vietnam: Are sector-partnerships effectively contributing to enhanced aid effectiveness?" . This joint MARD/Global Donor Platform for Rural Development process documentation exercise will contribute strategically to the efforts of MARD and its international partners to further enhance the effectiveness of ODA and national investments in ARD in Vietnam. Supported the working mission of the Study "Mutual Accountability "funded by The German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). This Study forms part of the preparatory process for the Accra High-Level Forum on Aid. Frequent sharing and updating information and publications regarding the HCS to all the members of the international cooperation network in the ARD sector. A poster on ISG's initiatives and efforts in supporting the implementation of Hanoi Core Statement on Aid Effectiveness was made to contribute to the Vietnam's information shown at the Accra High-Level Forum on Aid. Actively participated in the "independent mornitoring and evaluation of the implementation of HCS; Actively participated in the PGAE activities 2. Supporting sector partnerships ISG has been working actively with RWSS-P, NDM-P, FSSP-P, and PAHI in order to find the way to support them and cooperate in terms of information system and other potential aspects. So far, information sharing among ISG and partnerships has been strengthened and done regularly. The joint MARD/Global Donor Platform for Rural Development process documentation exercise would contribute to improved operation of partnerships and coordination between ISG and the partnerships. Involved in the joint 4-partnership workshop on non-water disaster management (including NDM-P, FSSP-P, PAHI, ISG) held on 27th May, 2008. 3. Coordination with the sector's foreign-funded projects/programs ISG has carried out a lot of discussions with the foreign-funded projects/programs such as POSMA project, STOFA project, PAR project, rural development related projects, etc. to seek for cooperation opportunities for joint-activity and information sharing. KEY AREA 3- Information Collation and Dissemination 1. Information System (MIS), publications Publications: ISG Newsletters (quarterly): 1 issue was published in May 2008 ISG Monthly Briefings (monthly): 5 issues have been published, disseminating updated information concerning international cooperation activities by GoV/MARD and donors ISG Brochure is disseminated widely. ISG website: ISG Website (regularly updated, weekly and at request): funtioning poorly due to failure of recruiting communication officer as of November 15 13 2. Supporting sector's information system. Support for the running of website for International Cooperation Department-MARD, which is now available at http://icd.mard.gov.vn MARD ODA database (regularly updated with information of new projects). This database has been integrated into the Database on the ICD website. Integrated database (including 5 components: ODA, FDI, legal/policy documents, MARD organization and structure, and consultancy pool): regularly updated. ISG in collaboration with MARD Office to publish a book introducing the international experts and foreigners who have great contributions to the sector and who were honored with the Medal by MARD Minister. Provides advise/comments to the development of the website of the Legislation Department. In coordination with the International Cooperation Department (ICD) to compose and publish a book introducing the function, tasks and organization structure of ICD and related legal documents. Collect all national target programs, Ministrial programs and made it available in a table with information on key contents and progress. KEY AREA 4- Capacity Building and Management Processes 1. Human resource development for MARD and ISG Secretariat Continued coordination with CECI to seek for a volunteer on communication to support the improvement of ISG's information tools and to develop policy dialogues at provincial level. Recruited a program officer and coordinator for International Cooperation Network to improve ISG Secretariat capacity. An oversea study-tour to China and Nepal for some staffs of ICD, ISG and other departments, province for learning experiences in ODA coordination & policy dialogue is to be held in Dec. 2008 The coordinator of the International Cooperation Network attended a training course on "Agriculture Project Management and Cooperation" from 15th ­ 29th Sept. 2008 in China. The program officer attended a seminar on "Existing Food Safety Regulatory and Management Systems" from 26th ­ 27th June, in Thailand. 2. International Cooperation Network A workshop to review the Network's performance in 2007 and develop the workplan 2008 was held on 16th January, 2008. Completion of recruiting Coordinator for the International Cooperation Department. A training course on diplomatic protocols for the Network members. The training course was attended by 68 members, with the lecturers from Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the former Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Vu Khoan. A training course "Vietnam's agriculture in the integration process" was held on 22nd and 23th August, 2008 in Do Son, Hai Phong. A training course on M& E of ODA projects for the officers of the International Cooperation Department is to be held on 21st ­ 22nd Nov. 2008. KEY AREA 5- Monitoring and Evaluation Participate in the SDC project for M&E system supporting management in ARD. ISG Mid-year report (+ financial statement) and Annual report completed. Auditing ISG finance for 2007 conducted in June 14 IS GE International SUPPORT GROUP FOR NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT MINISTRY OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT PARTNERSHIP NOTE TO THE CONSULTATIVE GROUP MEETING 2008 Hanoi, December 4-5, 2008 A. Introduction The International Support Group for Natural Resources and Environment (ISGE) managed by International Cooperation Department (ICD) of Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) serves as a mechanism to establish and enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the co-operation between MONRE and international donors and NGO's. From its re-activation (in 2003) to 2007, ISGE has actively contributed to coordination in support of Vietnam's natural resources management and environmental protection agenda. From 2008, ISGE has entered a new era when its objectives and organizational set up are modified to keep up with fast-changing needs of Vietnam's socio-economic development in general and of natural resources and environment (NRE) sector in particular. The overall objective of the ISGE in the period of 2008-2010 is to contribute to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of development assistance and other funding to the NRE sector in line with government policies and priorities through a partnership approach and to contribute actively to the implementation of the national priorities in the sector, in accordance with the principles and methods embodied in the Hanoi Core Statement on Aid Effectiveness. In addition the overall objective, ISGE is also to assist MONRE, other ministries, sectors and local authorities to attain GoV and MONRE plans, priorities and strategies geared towards sustainable management of the environment and natural resources. The specific objectives are: · To assist MONRE through facilitating policy dialogue on natural resources management and environmental protection among ministries, departments, businesses, NGOs and civil society; · To help in integrating the NRE issues into the plans and programs of all arms of government at the central and local levels; and to aim to allocate resources for sectoral programs and plans in the implementation of relevant environmental activities; · To advise MONRE on issues related to the development of relevant short and long term policies, development programs and other specific environmental issues in regards to NRE; · To help channel resources to the highest priority concerns, while minimizing overlap. The effort would be to increase the levels and diversify the resources of funding for environment; · To provide assistance in harmonizing government and donor practices and procedures including those relating to reporting and auditing requirements; · To strengthen comprehensively the management capacity of MONRE to ensure promotion of wide ranging and in-depth working linkages on the environment across sectors and between different levels of government; 15 · To promote active involvement of non-government organizations (NGOs), community groups and the private sector in environment programs; and · To provide a forum for all partners to share and exchange information to the benefit of integration and enhancement of environmental activities by facilitating, coordinating and disseminating information and lessons learnt to all relevant partners inside and outside of MONRE. B. Activities done in the 12 months of 2008 1. ISGE Plenary ISGE Plenary Meeting was held on March 5th 2008. Through this meeting, donors and line ministries have been informed about important programs of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) in the period of 2008-2010: (1) Action Program of MONRE in implementing Vietnam commitments under WTO; (2) Natural Resources and Environment Legislation Development Program; (3) National Target Program to respond to climate change. 2. Information exchange ISGE newsletters were issued and sent to related organizations and individuals. News on dialogue process and ODA-related activities have been constantly updated on ISGE website. 3. Consolidate supporting arrangements The Framework Arrangement for the International Support Group for Natural Resources and Environment was finalized and signed on July 1st, 2008 between MONRE and donors (the Embassy of Denmark, the Embassy of Sweden (representing SIDA) and the Embassy of Canada (represented by CIDA)). Therefore, in the period of 2008-2010, ISGE will further be instrumental in supporting the MONRE and the sector's policy development process. Following the Framework Arrangement, ISGE Overall Workplan 2008-2010 was developed and approved. Job profiles for every position in ISGE Secretariat (ISGE/S) revised and updated with competences required for each position. ISGE/S staff plan has been fully completed. 4. Monitoring and evaluation Auditing ISGE finance for the year 2007 was completed on April 7th, 2008. Auditing result were reported to ISGE Core donors and approved. 5. Policy dialogue on climate change Climate change adaptation is drawing much concern of Vietnamese government and other stake- holders. ISGE set up the Policy Dialogue Platform specifically on Climate Change to create a long-term dialogue forum on climate change related issues in Vietnam. The Policy Dialogue Platform on Climate Change (CCPDP) of ISGE was officially established on January 23, 2008. Under this Platform, a number of meetings/workshops have been organized to facilitate the development of the National Target Program combating with climate change. The final version of this program has been completed and submitted to the Prime Minister. 6. Policy dialogue on environmental protection During recent years, Vietnam's rapid development has somehow badly impacted environmental condition and human health. ISGE decided to support the development of a National Target Program with high feasibility and aims to solve current urgent environmental problems. For this purpose, a workshop on development of the "National Target Program on Environmental Protection for Community Health" was organized on September 17th, 2008. This workshop provided a good opportunity for the compiling team to receive advisories as well as technical and financial supports from ISGE partners and donors. 16 7. Policy dialogue on water resources Although the Prime Minister has approved the National Water Resources Strategy to 2020, and the MONRE has been assigned to perform State administration on water resources, Vietnam has been facing many challenges on the way to archive integrated water resources management and to ensure water supply for social-economic development. In this context, the ISGE proposes to establish the Policy Dialogue Platform on water resources (PPDW) charied by Department of Water Resources Management under MONRE to facilitate information sharing and to ensure a well-coordinated approach to Water Resources in Viet Nam. The PPDW will start its operation in mid December 2008. C. Support Sectoral/Partnership Activities - ISGE supported Department of International Cooperation (ICD) ­ MONRE in coordination of international cooperation programs/projects: collect and update information on MONRE's ODA programs/projects, and organize a number of workshops/conferences. - A matrix of Climate change Initiatives in Vietnam (developed by the World Bank in Vietnam, October 2008) has been incorporated into ISGE Website. - Head of ISGE/S allocated to a number of thematic groups and government's committees (i.e. Steering Committee for Technical Assistance Program "Maintaining economic growth and poverty reduction through the implementation of the accession commitments to the WTO" (or the Beyond WTO Program in short) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade; Working Group for Official Development Assistance under the Ministry of Planning and Investment; Working Group for supplying information concerning market economy status of Vietnam under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, etc.) D. Intended activities for the year 2009 A concrete Workplan of ISGE for the year 2009 has not yet been approved. However, the ISGE Overall Workplan 2008-2010 indicated general activities in 2009 as in the following table: Method of Verification Objectives Outputs Activities Cooperation / Indicators Responsibility 1. To assist 1.1 Policy Dialog 1.1.1. Collaborate and - Decision for - Involved MONRE through Platforms (PDPs) support establishment establishment of Departments/Instit facilitating policy on NRE issues and identification of PDPs, list of PDP utes of MONRE dialogue on natural established and compositions and representatives chair establishment resources activated to assist involved parties of and operation of management and MONRE in PDPs on Environmental PDPs, preparation environmental developing protection, Water of plans, reports, protection among policies on NRE resources management, TORs, in ministries, management and and NRE legislation collaboration with 17 departments, protection 1.1.2. Support and - TORs, workplans ISGE/S businesses, NGOs organize in collaboration of PDPs, reports and civil society with MONRE and relevant docs. Departments / institutes to chair PDP meetings for selection of priorities in each PDP 1.1.3. Organize - Meeting - ISGE/S chairs meetings, workshops Notes/Minutes, and/or supports and researches/studies Reports on coordination in identified and identifying PDPs agreed priorities of and in organizing PDPs workshops and meetings for 1.1.4. Prepare and - Reports on consultation with accomplish TORs, consultancy, donor community documents and workshops and and stakeholders; workplans of PDPs evaluation of PDPs ISGE/S contracts with international 1.1.5. Prepare and Workplans of PDPs and national present draft workplans consultants to submit to ISGE steering committee for approval and to the ISGE annual plenary meeting 1.1.6. Organize ISGE - Approved - ISGE/S annual plenary meetings Minutes/Reports of responsible for ISGE plenary plenary & steering meetings and meetings Steering Meetings 1.1.7. Organize and/or - Minutes, reports support to organize meetings and seminars for PDPa 1.1.8. Contract - Consultancy consultant to develop contracts procedure to carry out PDPs 1.1.9. Organize - Proposals on new - ISGE/S and workshops on PDPs and relevant establishment of PDPs assistance proposals departments/agenci on Environment es Protection, Water Resources Management, and NRE legislation. 1.1.10. Maintain the - Workshops, - ISGE/S and activities of PDP on studies, reports relevant Climate Change departments/agenci es 18 1.2. Reports on 1.2.1. Contract - Consultant - ISGE/S chairs highest priorities consultant to review contracts, reports organization and identified by current legal documents on priorities coordination PDPs prepared to and policies to identify identified by PDPs help orientation priorities of PDPs and enhancement of effectiveness 1.2.2. Organize meetings - Reports on - ISGE/S chairs and collaboration and discussions; and consultancy, organization and between prepare reports seminars, coordination programs and workshops and projects with researches regards to NRE 1.2.3. Consult with - Evaluation and - ISGE/S chairs stakeholders, complete comments on organization and and disseminate reports reports/docs. coordination and results 2. To help in 2.1. Top priorities 2.1.1. Re-assessment and - Re-assessment - ISGE/S integrating the NRE identified during identification of top report on priorities responsible for issues into the plans PDPs integrated priorities of NRE sector of NRE sector until organization of and programs of all into plans and in the period of 2008- 2010 workshops, arms of government programs of 2010 seminars at the central and NRE sector, both local levels; and to central and local 2.1.2. Identify - Draft - Involved aim to allocate levels method/procedure to procedures/method Departments/Instit resources for integration to integrate utes responsible for sectoral programs environmental priorities environmental PDP activities in and plans in the into programs and plans, priorities into collaboration with implementation of both central and local programs/projects ISGE to submit to relevant levels, in reference with MONRE priorities environmental outputs/procedure for identified in PDPs activities integration of for integration into environmental concerns plans and programs into planning and investment funded by UNDP to 2.1.4. Review and - Proposal on NRE - ISGE/S to anticipate priorities for priorities for the coordinate the next 5 years next 5 year period 3. To advise 3.1 Outcomes 3.1.1. Support - 07 draft Law - ISGE & involved MONRE on issues and results of preparation of 07 Laws projects Departments of related to the PDPs integrated on NRE chaired by MONRE development of into draft MONRE responsible relevant short and policies, short coordination in long term policies, term and long 3.1.2. Support MONRE - Consultation consultation with development term in development and meetings/workshop ministries and programs and other implementation of the s donors and specific project "Capacity environmental development for State issues in regards to management system on NR marine" and other projects pursuing Decision No. 80/2008/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister 19 3.1.3. Agreed outcomes - Priorities of PDPs reflected in identified in PDP to NRE sector plans integrated into NRE policies 3.1.4. Support - Draft legal texts of preparation of legal texts NRE sector of NRE sector 3.2 Programs and 3.2.1. Prepare specific - Project proposals - Involved action plans project proposals and and NTP on CC Departments/Instit developed based support implementation utes of MONRE in on short term and of the NTP on CC collaboration with long term ISGE responsible policies for completion of integrated with project proposals priorities and draft CC and identified during EP NTP PDPs 3.2.2. Support proposal - Draft NTP on - The VEPA of preparation and Environmental MONRE implementation of NTP Protection responsible for on Environmental preparing proposal Protection to submit to MONRE and subsequently MONRE submits to Gov for approval 3.2.3. Complete capacity - Implementation - ISGE/S strengthening plan of plan on capacity coordinates the NRE sector and building of NRE implementation of support implementation sector capacity building the plan program and other relevant programs 3.2.4. Support - Draft NTPs and preparation and implementation implementation of other plans NTPs 4. To help channel 4.1 Database (list 4.1.1. Periodically update - Regularly updated - ISGE/S resources to the of) of ODA information to ISGE ISGE website responsible for highest priority environment website implementation concerns, while programs and minimizing overlap. projects updated 4.1.2. Periodic publish - ISGE newsletters - ISGE/S The effort would be and disseminated ISGE newsletters responsible for to increase the levels within MONRE implementation and diversify the departments/unit resources of funding s, donor for environment communities and stakeholders 4.2 An agreement 4.2.1. Discuss and agree - Agreement signed - ISGE/S to on cooperation with PGAE on draft b/w ISGE & coordinate and between ISGE content of the PGAE for implement and PGAE agreement (EIA/SIA) EIA/SIA drafted and signed 4.2.2. Integrate comments and complete the agreement and sign 20 4.3 NRE 4.3.1. Support meetings - Report on - Involved priorities and discussions and priorities selected Departments of identified and preparation of reports of through PDP MONRE disseminated to priorities through PDPs meetings responsible in stakeholders collaboration with ISGE 4.4 ISGE annual 4.4.1. Organize annual - Signed ISGE - ISGE/S to plenary meetings, ISGE meetings, and plenary and steering coordinate and steering meetings forums for information meeting Minutes, implement and relevant and lesson sharing reports and plans forums to exchange information of programs and projects supporting to environmental sector organized with participation of partners, donors and stakeholders 5. To strengthen 5.1 MONRE staff 5.1.1. Develop a TNA - TNA report and - ISGE/S to comprehensively the capacity and a detailed capacity proposal on training coordinate in management strengthened in strengthening plan to plan collaboration with capacity of MONRE wide ranging and MONRE staff based on Dept of Personnel to ensure promotion in-dept working the TNA and in and Organization of of wide ranging and linkages on the reference with document MONRE in-depth working environment "NRE Capacity Building linkages on the across and and Legislation' environment across between different prepared by ISGE in sectors and between levels of gov 2005 different levels of agencies through the government training 5.1.2. Review capacity - ISGE/S to building need for coordinate in implementation of NTP collaboration with on EP and CC and other Dept of Personnel priorities; Prepare and Organization of training plans to meet MONRE the demand 5.1.3. Conduct training - Conducted courses training courses to MONRE staff 5.1.4. Monitor and evaluate training results 5.2 Capacity of 5.2.1. Organize - Legislation docs,, - ISGE/S MONRE staff workshops and seminars strategies and plans coordinates in enhanced to prepare legal collaboration with through documents, plans, involved formulation policies and strategies Departments of process of legal MONRE 21 documents, 5.2.2. Pilot - An issued legal policies, demonstration of document (Degree strategies and compilation of a legal or Circular) by plans document of NRE MONRE sector 6. To promote active 6.1 A procedure 6.1.1. Organize meetings - reports - ISGE/S involvement of to facilitate and workshops with coordinates in NGOs, community involvement of participation of collaboration with groups and the NGOs, stakeholders in involved private sector in community formulation of the Departments of environment groups and procedure MONRE, donor programs private sector in community and environment 6.1.2. Agree on the - Draft stakeholders programs procedure and activate procedure/Guidelin developed involvement e for participation of community groups, private sector and NGO in environmental programs 6.2 NGOs, 6.2.1. NGOs, - Proposals for - ISGE/S community community groups and participation in coordinates in groups and private sector produce NRE programs collaboration with private sector proposals to take part in involved facilitated to and comments to Departments of involve in environment programs MONRE, donor environment community and programs stakeholders 7. To provide a 7.1 Workshops 7.1.1. Organize - Workshop, - ISGE/S to forum for all and forums to workshops and forums seminar and coordinate and partners to share exchange to share information and research reports implement and exchange information and lesson learned in relation information to the lesson learned to environment activities benefit of organized with participation of integration and partners inside and enhancement of outside of MONRE environmental activities by 7.2 ISGE 7.2.1. Maintain and - ISGE website - ISGE/S to facilitating, websites update information and coordinate and coordinating and regularly updated database of environment implement disseminating with activities projects/programs information and and relevant lessons learnt to all news of programs relevant partners and projects 7.3 Relevant legal 7.3.1. Print out and - A filling docs. ISGE and documents, organize filling system of system positioned ICD/MONRE to reports, research relevant legal in ISGE coordinate results documents, reports and implemented research results within ISGE implemented within framework ISGE framework for developed as stakeholders' reference database for and access stakeholders' access 22 ACRONYMS: - EIA: Environmental Impact Assessment - GOV: The Government - ICD: Department of International Cooperation - ISGE/S: ISGE Secretariat - MONRE: Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment - NGOs: Non-governmental Organizations - NRE: Natural Resources and Environment - NTP: National Target Program - PDP: Policy Dialogue Platform - PGAE: Partnership Group on Aid Effectiveness - SEA Strategic Environmental Assessment - TNA: Training Need Analysis - VEPA: Vietnam Environmental Protection Administration International Support Group for Natural Resources and Environment Room 215, 83 Nguyen Chi Thanh, Hanoi Tel: 04-37735510; Fax: 04-37735509 Email: isgemonre@fpt.vn; Website: www.isge.monre.gov.vn 23 FOREST SECTOR SUPPORT PARTNERSHIP (FSSP) Report for the second half of 2008 The Forest Sector Support Partnership (FSSP or the Forestry Partnership) is a broad framework for collaboration between the Government of Vietnam and all stakeholders, who are interested in the forest sector in Vietnam. The FSSP Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) was signed in November 2001, and runs through 2010. In 2006, the Forestry Partnership agreed to support implementation of the Vietnam Forestry Development Strategy (VFDS, 2006-2020), which was approved by the Prime Minister in February 2007. FSSP provides a valuable tool for the Government, other national partners, and international partners to exchange information and views on strategic sector issues. The Partnership serves as a channel for coordinating dialogues and technical reviews of important issues, such as the 2004 revision of the Forest Protection and Development Law, other legal documents, the forest sector 5-year plan (2006-2010), and the Vietnam Forestry Development Strategy. The Partnership conducts this dialogue through meetings of its Partnership Forum, Partnership Steering Committee, Technical/Executive Committee, Regional Forestry Networks, and more informal exchanges, including "virtual" or online dialogue, i.e. policy and technical review feedback from international partners via email. This report is prepared by the FSSP Coordination Office (FSSP CO), serving as the secretariat for the Forestry Partnership and the day-to-day management unit of the Trust Fund for Forests (TFF), which is supported by several FSSP partners. The report provides an update on major forest sector works and Forest Sector Support Partnership activities during the second half of 2008 and some key activities planned for the first half of 2009. Implementation of the Sector Strategy. The Partnership supports the implementation of the Vietnam Forestry Development Strategy. The implementation process is organized according to the five major programs of the Strategy: · Program 1: Sustainable Forest Management and Development; · Program 2: Forest Protection, Biodiversity Conservation, and Delivery of Environmental Services; · Program 3: Forest Product Processing and Trade; · Program 4: Research, Education, Training, and Extension; and · Program 5: Renovating Forestry Institutions, Policy, Planning and Monitoring Implementation of the Vietnam Forestry Development Strategy over the last six months of 2008 This part highlights recent key developments in the forest sector under each program, especially those supported by the Partnership. Program 1: Sustainable Forest Management and Development This program focuses on supporting sustainable forest management, of both natural forests and forest plantations, with a major emphasis on production forestry and production of forest seedlings. It also includes support to forest land allocation, community forestry, and non-timber forest products. MARD's Department of Forestry (DoF) is the focal point for this program. 24 To implement the National Action Program against Desertification, DoF has been designing Action Plans and the list of prioritized projects. DoF has so far proposed more than 50 project and 11 donors have expressed interest in supporting the program. Several FSSP's partners including CARE, IUCN, FFI and the Government of Netherlands have expressed great interest in supporting the program. With TFF's support, FSSP and the Forest Science Institute of Vietnam have organized a conference on Vietnam mangrove forest restoration and development for climate change mitigation and adaptation on November 5 ­ 6, 2008. During the conference, the overview of the ecology system recovery and development of Vietnam mangrove forest was presented; related information and experience have been exchanged. The key outcome of the conference is the discussion and comments by participants on solutions for the implementation of the Mangrove forest restoration and development for the period of 2008-2015 by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), in the context of global climate change and the increasing need to raise awareness on recovery and development of ecosystem of mangrove forest to minimize and adapt to climate change. On the 23th of June 2008, the Joint Circular No. 02/2008/TTLT-BKH-NN-TC was issued by MARD, Ministry of Science and Technology, and Ministry of Finance, to guide the implementation of the Prime Minister's Decision No 147/2007/Q -TTg dated 10 September 2007 on policies to develop production forest. The 5 Million Hectare Reforestation Programme (5MHRP, also known as Project 661) is the national target program for the forestry sector. The Program, which is mostly funded by government budget, promotes both production forest and improved management of protection and special-used forests. The Announcement No 192/TB-VPCP on 4 August 2008 on the conclusion made by Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai at the review meeting on the Master Plan of three categorized forests and the implementation of 5MHRP, has recognized the importance of the project implementation as well as the responsibility of various ministries and agencies. The Announcement has also highlighted the necessity to reorganize the National Steering Committee of 5MHRP and to strengthen the coordination between ministries, central branches in order to achieve the project's objectives. Due to high inflation and price hike since the beginning of 2008, MARD has proposed the Prime Minister to increase state investment on plantation of protection and special-used forests based on request by local authorities and reality check. The proposal received support from related ministries and branches. Following the Prime Minister's guiding in Announcements No. 200/TB-VPCP issued on 8 August 2008, No. 266/TB-VPCP on 23 September 2008 and Official Dispatch No. 6791/VPCP- KTN on 10 October 2008 of the Government Office, MARD will finalise a report on the outcome of the review of the master plan for three categories of forest according to the instruction N. 38/2005/CT-TTg on 5 December 2005. The report will be sent to the Government for submission to the National Assembly. The estimated results of project implementation in 2008: - Protection contract of the special and protection forest: 2,330,202 ha. - Zoning for restoration: 650,386 ha. - New forest plantation: 201,000 ha (including 39,000 ha protection and special-used forest, and 162,000 ha production forest). - Total expenditure in 2008 accounts for VND 1,820 bln, including VND 820 bln from the state budget. Program 2: Forest Protection, Biodiversity Conservation, and Delivery of Environmental Services; 25 This program focuses on supporting forest protection and conservation of biological diversity, and thus has a major emphasis on protection and special-used forests. It also supports ongoing work relating to Payment for Environmental Services (PES). MARD's Department of Forest Protection is the focal point for this program. On 20 June 2008, MARD issued the Decree No. 74/2008/Q -BNN on the List of wild animals and plants according to the Annex of Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. This Decree replaced MARD's Decree No.54/2006/Q -BNN on 5 July 2006. On 5 August 2008 MARD issued the Decree No. 2370 Q /BNN-KL approving the proposal on investment on building and improving infrastructure of Vietnam special-used forest system for the period of 2008 ­ 2020. The objectives of the Proposal are to complete the infrastructure, to establish a system to manage effectively 2.2 million ha of forest and forest land planed for special - used forest in the country; to manage and use sustainably the existing special - used forest; and to increase the forested land area to 42 - 43% in 2010 and 47% in 2020. The pilot Payment for Environmental Services (PES) in Dong Nai and Da river basin is underway and will contribute to improving policy framework on PES. To implement PM's Decision No. 380/Q -TTg on 10 April 2008, the Lam Dong People's Committee issued Decision No. 1574/Q -UB on 11 June 2008 to pilot PES in the Province. Lam Dong Province has been applying indirect PES. The rate of payment for water regulation and supply to Hydropower plants is VND 20/kwh of power merchandise; to Ho Chi Minh and Bien Hoa city Water Supply companies is VND 40/ m3 water merchandise. Program 3: Forest Product Processing and Trade This program focuses on promotion of the processing and marketing of timber and non-timber forest products. This program supports many private sector initiatives, from small-scale to large- scale enterprises. MARD's Agro-forestry Product Processing and Salt Industry Department is the focal point for this program. FSSP, in collaboration with International Cooperation Department of MARD and IUCN, organized a workshop on Changing International Markets for Timber Products: How Can Vietnam's Forest Industry Respond? in October 2008. The workshop attracted many international NGOs and wood processing enterprises participation. At the workshop, information on the changes of international wood market, challenges and opportunities has been presented to enterprises through innovations such as EU FLEGT Action Plan. Enterprises also had opportunity to share experience on how to adapt to these changes. Program 4: Research, Education, Training and Extension (RETE). This program focuses on forestry research, education and training for those working in the forestry sector, and forestry extension. While it considers each of these elements separately, the program also aims to promote linkages among research, education, training, and extension, to provide responsive and demand-driven support to those managing Vietnam's forests and forest land. MARD's Department for Science and Technology is the focal point for this program. With regard to research activities, Science, Technology and Environment Department of MARD and related partners have identified and selected scientific and technological topics for 2009 according to priorities of Vietnam Forestry Development Strategy. As a result, topics on bio- technology application to select and create forest seeding plant, researching of conservation, development and usage of environmental values of forest and non-timber forest products have been chosen. Research on forest processing technology and forest products trade has been put in the plan of 2009. Besides, capacity building for research institutions has been implementing. With regard to forest extension, key projects have been put into practice. Statute to combine education and training with scientific research and application has been carried out. The National 26 Center of Agricultural Extension has been designing a plan for agricultural extension development up to 2015. Program 5: Renovating Forestry Institutions, Policy, Planning and Monitoring. This program focuses on overall reform and modernization of the forest sector institutions, updating of the policy and legal framework, and improvement of planning and monitoring functions. MARD's Department of Forestry is the focal point for this program. The forest sector is working on development of comprehensive forest sector information systems and an integrated information technology (IT) portal. Work on this issue was authorized by the Minister on the basis of the Decision 3427 in November 2006. Some initial support has been provided by the Partnership, most notably through support to the development of selected modules under the Forest Sector Monitoring and Information Systems (FOMIS), such as the forest sector monitoring indicators and database, and the forestry ODA database (see further discussion below). Partnership Secretariat (FSSP Coordination Office). The functions of the Partnership secretariat, or FSSP Coordination Office, are organized according to 4 major result areas: (1) coordination activities; (2) communications and information activities; (3) functioning, or day-to- day management, of the Trust Fund for Forests; and (4) management of the FSSP Coordination Office. Main activities implemented by the Partnership and FSSP CO in the latter half of 2008 Coordination activities · Technical Executive Committee (TEC): o The 38th meeting of TEC of FSSP was organized on 27 August 2008. The meeting focused on reviewing FSSP's activities in the first half of 2008 and the action plan for the second half of the year. The issue of forest and climate change, especially the issue of "reducing emissions from forest destroying and deterioration ­ REDD" has been raised at the meeting. The next meeting is expected to be held in December 2008 to ratify the Action Plan and Budget for 2009. · Six Regional Forestry Networks: o RFN Meetings in the second half of 2008: with support from the FSSP CO, six RFN meetings were organized in August 2008 (the Northeast, Northwest, the Northern and Southern of the Central Part, Central Highland and the Southern Part). At these meetings, instead of making an annual plan, RFNs have built a Plan for the period of 2008 - 2010 with special activities on local forestry and contributions to implement the Strategy. In addition, RFNs have shared experiences on sector issues which have been interested by members. o FSSP CO's support has focused on Tay Nguyen and the Northern of Central Part RFNs with the participation of FLITCH (Forests for Livelihood Improvement in the Central Highlands) and PPFP (Pro-poor Forestry project in North Central Agro-Ecological Zone) projects. The two projects have been expected to serve a leading role in supporting activities of the two RFNs. · Support the 5 Coordination Sub-committees for 5 Vietnam Forest Development Strategy (VFDS) Programs: with the support from FSSP CO, Coordination Sub- Committees organized mid-year meetings in late July 2008 to update, evaluate and examine activities of priority in each program. This second round of meetings was opened to all interested partners to strengthen the coordination and resource mobilization for implementation of activities. With active participation of partners, 27 several activities have been agreed. The agreement has promoted better cooperation and exchange among participants. · Other activities coordination: the Partnership has put effort into coordination and information-sharing with a wide range of other initiatives, ministries, departments, partnership groups and experts. o Support Vietnamese Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) in accessing to National Forestry Program (NFP) grants through FAO. Recently, three proposals have received USD 118,000 from NFP. Five organizations have responded to the call for proposal in 2008 and have applied for the grant, which will be implemented in 2009. The Steering Committee of NFP and FAO are evaluating these applications. o Provide inputs for the Planning and Assessing Mission from the Embassy of Finland and DoF on a new project on Communication and Information Technology in Forestry Sector (CIT). Communication and information activities · Forest Sector Monitoring and Information Systems (FOMIS). o An open-accessed database has been built to manage the system of index and analyzed data. Web - GIS applied software has been built to upload data, reports and maps to the website. o 2006 and 2007 data has been being collected and updated to the sector - supervising index system. o The database for forestry legal documents is being developed with web interface. It will be the place for storing and sharing legal documents of the forest sector with bilingual interfaces and documents. o FSSP CO has been working with the DoF in the implementation of the project "Forest Sector IT application and development to 2010", which is approved by the Minister of MARD. · Communication: The FSSP CO continues to promote information sharing through its routine activities, such as its website, and briefing for a number of visitors about Partnership and sector activities. o The FSSP Newsletter volume 20 - 21 focused on "Forest and Climate Change" was prepared and distributed to partners and related departments and provinces. The next volume, which will be published in December 2008, will focus on the hot topic "Sustainable forest management and forest certification". o Information on Forest Sector and FSSP activities were disseminated via collaboration with partners and mass media, i.e. VTV, VOV, newspapers. o FSSP website is maintained with updated FSSP and Trust Fund for Forest (TFF) activities. The upgrade of FSSP website has been completed. The improved version of the FSSP website has been running. Trust Fund for Forests (TFF) o Board of Directors: The 6th meeting of BOD and the meeting of TFF Projects Review has been organized in September to discuss and approve the action plan and adjusted budget, as well as to review TFF's funded project activities. o Projects' scene assessment: TFF has carried out project scene assessment of 6 TFF's funded projects. o The proposal of organizing a conference on mangrove forest of the Vietnam Forest Scientific Institute has been approved by TFF. o Training on monitoring and evaluation of projects has been carried out. Main activities to be implemented by the Partnership and FSSP CO in early 2009 28 Coordination activities · Partnership Meetings o Annual meeting of Forest Partnerships will be held in January 2009. o FSSP Forum will be organized in May 2009; and o TEC Meetings will be organized regularly to discuss sector and partnership issues. · Support 5 Coordination Sub-Committees of Vietnam Forest Development Strategy (VFDS) Programs to organize meetings to review priorities and resources, including the Government budget and current ODA support for each program. · Support Regional Forestry Network Meetings focusing on evaluating the implementation of the Vietnam Forestry Development 2006 ­ 2020 · Establishing two special subject missions and supporting their operation. Communication and information activities In 2009, the development of the Forest Sector Monitoring and Information System (FOMIS) will be adjusted to be suitable for information technology application of the sector. FOMIS will be developing and not coincide to the sector information technology project. Improved functions on data integration, deployment and analyze through such tools as graphs, especially maps will be built. ODA database of forest sector will be updated and shared. Besides, database of FDI on forest will also be built and collected. FFSP CO will continue to support and participate in implementing the sector information technology project. Moreover, forest partnerships will be sharing daily information through the website and Newsletters. Trust Fund for Forests · From 2009, TFF will organize activities in 5 areas: (1) Strategic Planning, (2) Funding / Donor Relations, (3) Capacity and Instruments Development, (4) Fund Operation / Project Cycle Management, (5) Tactical Planning. · In 2009, MARD and donors will do an assesment to TFF and develop a roadmap to combine TFF with Fund for forest conservation and development which was found by the Decision No. 05/2008/N -CP. Some Possible Success Indicators for the first half of 2009 · Continuation of implementation of the Vietnam Forestry Development Strategy (2006- 2020). · Organizing the Annual review meeting of Forest partnership successfully. · A FSSP Forum will be organized successfully. · Greater FSSP support to decentralization of activities. · Two task force teams to be established and operated. · Sustainable forest management and forest credit with experiences and update information will be distributed to readers. · Database of ODA and FDI support on forest sector will be finalized and uploaded to the website of FSSP. · Information on key activities of sector and partnership will be disseminated. · The Trust Fund for Forests management will be strengthened and aligned with MARD's administration system. TFF will support strategic priorities of forest sector (as identified in the Vietnam Forestry Development Strategy (VFDS), the sector's 5-year Plan, and the sector's Annual Action Plan of 2008). · The Forest Sector Monitoring and Information Systems (FOMIS) will be further developed at national level, i.e., for monitoring implementation of VFDS and 5-year plan, preparing reports on international environmental agreements, etc. For further information, contact the FSSP Coordination Office, 3rd Floor, A8 Building, No. 10 Nguyen Cong Hoan Street, Hanoi, Vietnam. Telephone: (84-4) 3762 9412 Email: fssp@hn.vnn.vn Website: www.vietnamforestry.org.vn 29 NATURAL DISASTER MITIGATION PARTNERSHIP Suite 407, Building A9, MARD, No.2 Ngoc Ha, Ba Dinh, Hanoi, Vietnam Tel: (84-4) 733 6658, Fax: (84-4) 733 6641, Email: ndmp@ccfsc.org.vn, Website: www.ccfsc.org.vn/ndm-p Progress Note for Consultative Group Meeting December 2008 A. BACKGROUND The Natural Disaster Mitigation Partnership (NDMP) was initiated following the historical floods in seven provinces of central Vietnam in 1999. The coincidence between the flooding and the conduct of a Government of Vietnam-Donor Consultative Group Meeting (CG Meeting) created a momentum among Government of Vietnam, Donors and NGOs towards pursuing disaster reduction rather than disaster response. The NDMP Preparatory Phase (or Phase I) covered interventions in central Vietnam and was implemented from 2002 to 2003. In its second 2.5 year phase initiated in July 2006, NDMP, as a Government-donor forum, aims to realize its overall objective which is: "To support the achievement of national goals and objectives through a coordinated, strategic, sector-wide approach to natural disaster mitigation in Vietnam." Further to this, NDMP has four key specific objectives: 1. To manage and share information for improved coordination and awareness raising in natural disaster management, 2. To advise the Government and facilitate dialogue on legislation, policies, and strategies on natural disaster management, 3. To facilitate capacities building and strengthening for the application of integrated approaches to natural disaster management and for implementation of the NDMP, and 4. To support the coordination of resource allocation to achieve the efficient use of resources in natural disaster management (including facilitating the development and funding of priority disaster management projects). At its core NDMP consists of a Steering Committee (SC) and a Secretariat with a number of associated working groups and other bodies. The SC guides NDMP management with members selected according to the Partnership's Memorandum of Agreement and includes representatives from National (MARD, MOF, MONRE, MPI, MOT, MOC, MOLISA), and Provincial (Nam Dinh, Quang Ngai, and An Giang) Government bodies, and Donors. NDMP funding comes from five key donors: UNDP, AusAID, SIDA, the Royal Netherlands Embassy and the Embassy of Luxembourg. The Government of Vietnam also supports the Partnership through the allocation of office space, resources and some staff to the Secretariat. B. KEY DEVELOPMENTS Since it was commenced in October 2006, there have been a number of key developments in the field of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) that have had a direct affect on NDMP. These include: 30 · The adoption of the Law on Dykes by the 11th National Assembly of Vietnam in November 2006 which was put into effect in 1st July 2007. · The approval of the National Strategy for Natural Disaster Prevention, Response and Mitigation to 2020 in November 2007. · Development and finalization of Ministerial and provincial action plans for implementation of the National Strategy for Natural Disaster Prevention, Response and Mitigation to 2020 by November 2008. · The major disasters such as storms and floods happened from 2006 to 2008 (Storms of Xangsane, Durian, Kammuri, Hagupit etc). C. UP TO DATE OUTCOMES There have been a number of significant outcomes of Natural Disaster Mitigation Partnership that contribute to achieve the 4 specific objectives of NDMP respectively as follows: 1. Management and sharing of information for improved coordination and awareness raising in disaster management · The NDMP Website has been established and is regularly updated with related information on disaster mitigation and management (www.ccfsc.org.vn/ndm-p). In the Mid-term review of NDMP in July 2008, the Website of NDMP had been evaluated as the most successful information sharing tool and was recommended to strengthen as a "one stop shop" for information sharing on DM in Vietnam. Since June 2007, there have been more than 1,200,000 people accessing the Website of NDMP for DM information. · In August, the northern mountainous provinces of Vietnam were hit by severe flashflood and flooding caused by Typhoon Kammuri (Storm No.4) with 133 people dead, 34 people missing and 91 people injured and total losses of approximately USD 115 million. Under the mandate of information sharing for disaster mitigation, NDMP played an active role in coordination of response activities by government and non- government agencies. The flood and storm situations were updated daily on the NDMP website with official data and information of damage and response provided by standing office of CCFSC. To support the coordination of response activities in affected province, a matrix was used with information updated daily on response activities provided by all partners of NDMP. Based on the information provided in the matrix, donors and implementing agencies were able to make better informed decisions in supporting affected people in a timely and coordinated manner. In addition, NDMP also participated in progress meetings following the rapid assessment reports of Storm No.4 and flood situation in 3 provinces of Lao Cai, Yen Bai and Phu Tho conducted by DMWG. NDMP also provided information on severe flood and inundation in Hanoi and other northern provinces in November 2008. · Monthly newsletters covering information on disaster mitigation activities of were developed each month, printed and distributed to 64 provinces/cities and around 100 agencies. The electronic version was also developed and circulated to stakeholders by email mailing list. · Following the recommendations from Mid-term review report and information system survey, the plan for upgrading NDMP's information systems was drafted to strengthen information sharing through NDMP. · Made preparations to support the campaign of advocacy on disaster mitigation and child protection which was initiated by MOLISA. The campaign started in October 2008 with many activities organized along the coastline of Vietnam from Quang Ninh to Kien Giang to raise awareness of DM and environmental protection focusing on children. NDMP has signed the agreement with organizers of this campaign to fund for activities of organizing a meeting in Phu Yen province and building up a website of this campaign. 31 · In supporting DDMFSC in information sharing, NDMP was involved in several meetings held by DDMFSC/DMC with different partners such as delegations from Myanmar and Thailand; project working teams of JICA, ADB and APDC etc. · To support DMWG and strengthen the role of NDMP in this mechanism, NDMP has been working to revise the TOR of this working group in which NDMP's to play more active role in the future. Moreover, NDMP has also been involved in supporting a study into the adoption of the cluster approach in Vietnam. · Following Storms No. 6 and 7, a matrix for relief aid and needs in the 4 most affected provinces of Bac Giang, Quang Ninh, Lang Son and Son La was also updated and posteded on NDMP's website for resource coordination and information sharing purposes. · Two JANI support staff have been recruited by NDMP to improve the information sharing system and especially to strengthen online Community Base Disaster Risk Management responsitory. · Supported CCFSC to organize successfully International day for Disaster Mitigation on the 8/10/2008 with topic "Hospitals safe from disasters". Guests who are representatives of Ministries (Health Ministry, Construction Ministry etc.),, international organizations and donors, NGOs, PCFSC from Thua Thien Hue to the north and reporters participated in this occasion. After the ceremony, representatives of these provinces has joined a discussion on action plan for provinces and Ministries and industries to implement Prevention, Response and mitigation national Strategy to 2020 (separate report). · Participated in regular and irregular meetings of DMWG, JANI, CCWG and DDMFSC, WB, UNDP etc. Particularly, international expert (funded by UNDP) of NDMP joined international and national workshops to share NDMP experience in Disaster mitigation and climate change. 2. Facilitate dialogues in policies, strategies and legislation on natural disaster mitigation · As the disaster intensity and frequency may be increasing due to the adverse impacts of climate change, it is necessary to identify the appropriate mechanisms for integration and coordination of natural disaster risk management and climate change adaptation issues. This study is on progress of collecting information from different levels of Government to provinces in order to list out necessary proposals in Vietnam. There are also some discussions with stakeholders to collect suggestions for report. · In supporting DDMFSC to collect provincial and ministerial action plans to implement the National Strategy for Natural Disaster Prevention, Response and Mitigation to 2020, NDMP has worked together with DMC to contact focal points in provinces and ministries. Up to date (reporting period), 28 provinces and 3 ministries have submitted their action plans meanwhile the others are not yet complete. · Supported CCFSC to organize successfully two forums (the northern forum on 8 October in Hanoi and the southern forum on 28 October in Binh Thuan), created a chance for officers who are directly in charge of developing provincial action plans to implement Prevention, Response and Mitigation strategy to 2020 to discuss their advantage and difficulty as well as lessons leant in developing action plan. · In June 2008, the Inter-agency Working Group (IAWG) meeting was organized in MARD to discuss about the mechanism of information sharing of NDMP and actions to improve the system. Another IAWG meeting was conducted in October 2008 to discuss on the possibility of establishing a Policy Working Group for supporting the development of Disaster management Law in Vietnam. In this meeting, the study on future of NDMP (beyond phase II) was also presented and gotten agreement from all participants. 32 3. Facilitate development of capacity for application of integrated approaches in natural disaster management and for the NDMP implementation · NDMP in cooperation with ADPC organized a workshop in Da Nang City on 15 to 17 of July 2008. The workshop focused sharing lessons learnt from the "Program for Hydro-Meteorological Disaster Mitigation in Secondary Cities in Asia (PROMISE)" funded by USAID. Participants from different countries including Indonesia, Sri-lanka, Pakistan and Vietnam attended and presented at this workshop. · NDMP has identified its role in supporting the sea-dyke study of MARD through 2 regional workshops and an Environmental Impact Assessment. A TOR which clarified the involvement of NDMP in this study has been prepared. A part of the sea-dyke study (focusing on supporting the environmental impact assessment and consultation workshops) has been carried out. · NDMP has been involved in facilitating several meetings between DDMFSC and other ministries, UNDP, NGOs and ASEAN secretariat's technical advisor etc. · With financial support from NDMP, DDMFSC staff worked closely with the World Bank NDRMP to develop IDRM plans in pilot provinces of Ha Tinh, Quang Tri and Quang Nam in August 2008. · A workshop was held in Quang Ngai from the 16 to 17 September 2008 organised by NDMP and the Quang Ngai PPC. The objective of the workshop was to share the results and lessons learnt from the Quang Ngai NDM project funded by AusAid. Participants from PCFSC of 12 provinces (Nghe An to Binh Thuan) attended this workshop. · National Director and Manager of NDMP of NDMP attended the workshop on "flood proofing for poor households in Mekong delta" in An Giang (funded by UNDP). The briefing report of this workshop was shared through NDMP's newsletter. · NDMP was involved in meetings between DDMFSC and DIPECHO as well as the WB NDRMP review missions. · Provided comments on the report on the proposed Australia-Indonesia Initiative for the Regional Center for Disaster Reduction and on report of Hyogo framework implementation review by ASEAN technical advisor. · Followed up the process of supporting the development of provincial action plan for implementation of national strategy on DM by IDRM project of WB. 4. Coordination of resource allocation and efficient use of resources in natural disaster management · The Matrix of disaster mitigation intervention projects/programs has been in the process of being upgraded. The demonstration of the software design was presented to NDMP staff for agreement. Up to date, the matrix which is designed for web based exploitation and integrated GIS application had been completed and was installed in NDMP website by middle of September 2008. DM project information is being collected and updated in the matrix for better resources coordination in Vietnam. · Provide information for resource coordination of relief aid for victims of storm No.4, No.6 in Northern provinces and No.7 in Southern provinces of Vietnam. · Worked closely with PACCOM, WB, ADB, UNDP for resources coordination. Management Issues · The fourth meeting of the NDMP Steering Committee was help in Hanoi on 30 July 2008. In this meeting, the steering committee members and donors of NDMP approved the progress report of NDMP for the first 6 month period of 2008 and projected work- plan for remaining period of NDMP operation. A neutral budget extension of NDMP for 6 months (January to June 2009) was also approved in the meeting. A meeting 33 minutes was developed and circulated. All agreements and decisions in the meeting have been identified with follow up actions. · A detailed Log-frame for NDMP up to June 2009 was drafted with specific expected outcomes with indicators and means of verification. · A new information officer was recruited in July 2008 by NDMP to improve the work of information management and sharing through the website and newsletter as well as other tools. · An International Expert supported by UNDP was recruited and started working in August 2008. · M&E framework for NDMP and the secretariat was finalized and is being implemented · A sixth-month non-cost extension of NDMP has been approved by the Government of Vietnam and funding donors of NDMP. D. PLANS FOR THE FURTURE The Mid-term Review of NDMP was conducted in July 2008 with some specific recommendations on how to improve performance of NDMP in the future as well as on the way the NDMP should focus on. As the work-plan for remaining period of NDMP (up to June 2009) has been approved by Steering Committee, it is expected that over coming months, the NDMP will continue to support the Central Committee for Flood and Storm Control (CCFSC) and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), including: · The continuation and improvement of information sharing on DM as "one stop shop" through 2 main tools of Website and Newsletter. · Supporting the coordination of resource allocation through consultation and harmonization processes, especially with great support from new designed matrix on DM project/programme intervention. · Continued support the development of provincial and action plans for the implementation of national strategy for natural disaster prevention, response and mitigation to 2020. · Supporting MARD and other agencies on the issues of climate change. Focusing on mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation into National Development. · Supporting the procedures of formulation of Law on Disaster Management, especially the establishment of Policy Working Group. · Contribution to on-going institutional capacity building and facilitation of other policy dialogue in DM through support MARD and other CCFSC in need assessment 34 RURAL WATER SUPPLY AMD SANITATION PARTNERSHIP Partnership Note for CG Meeting 2008 A. BACKGROUND Following Decision No. 519 ­ TTg ­ HTQT issued by the Prime Minister on 3 April 2006, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the establishment of the RWSSP was signed on May 15 by the Minister of MARD and 14 international partners. By Decision 1423, the Minister of MARD subsequently on May 16 established the RWSSP Coordination Unit as an independent unit in MARD, associated with the International Cooperation Department. During the first two years operation, four new partners have applied for the membership of RWSSP, leading the total members of RWSSP to 18 members. The purpose the RWSSP is to create a collaborative mechanism for improved effectiveness of resource use in RWSS through coordination and harmonization of support to GoV policies, the National Target Programme for RWSS (NTP) and other programmes. This will contribute to nation-wide application of the National RWSS Strategy and to the Partnership goal of "reducing rural poverty and improved living conditions of rural people through universal, sustained and affordable access to RWSS services". The Partnership Programme Framework for the first 5 year period initially emphasizes the following priority intervention areas: a) strengthening of sector planning, monitoring and institutional capacity, b) focus on sanitation, c) provincial capacities and participatory processes, d) scaling-up of innovations and e) private sector involvement. However, the RWSSP has been focusing on development of sector monitoring and evaluation and evaluation indicator set, updated information and experience sharing on PPP.... and promotion of sanitation for the first 2 years. B. PROGRESS SINCE SUBMISSION OF LAST PARTNERSHIP NOTE (DEC. 2008, FOR EOYCG) Since the establishment of the RWSSP Coordination Unit, the key achievements during 2007 and 2008 of operation include: B1. RWSS sector M&E indicator set · Based on the results of the sector M&E pilot program in 14 provinces with initially 39 indicators undertaken by Cerwass and supported by Unicef, the RWSSP CU in collaboration with NTP SO/WRD and with the support of the Danida funded international consultant have finalized the TOR and Roadmap (approved by Mard) for development of an M&E system for RWSS sector. · In order to develop the RWSS sector M&E system, following issuing of the Mard Minister's Decision No. 182/QD-BNN-TL dated 21 January 2007 to establish the inter-ministerial Technical Working Group (TWG) under Partnership Steering Committee (PSC) and led by the WRD leader, with membership comprising of representatives from MoH, MoET, MoNRE, MARD, MPI - GSO. The TWG started operation immediately on establishment with the facilitation of the RWSSP CU. After additional field surveys to provinces carried out by the national consultants with results presented at central and provincial workshops, the RWSSP CU and NTP SO/WRD with the support of the TWG and Danida/Ausaid funded international consultants have finalized 6 versions of the RWSS indicator set report with 14 indicators (8 sector level indicators and 6 program level indicators). Version 6th was approved 35 by MARD Minister at the Decision No. 51/2008/Q -BNN dated 14 April, 2008 to promulgate RWSS Sector M&E system nationwide application and followed by the decision No. 1775/Q -BNN-TL dated 12 June 2008 to delegate tasks of implementation to National center for RWSS (Ncerwass). · The RWSSP CU has been facilitating the organization of 3 launching workshops nationwide, printing and disseminating the M&E indicator set to relevant national and international partners (English and Vietnamese) · And now NCERWASS is finalizing the guiding documents for all provinces to implement the M&E with the support from RWSSP, NTPSO and relevant donors. B2. Initiate TORs for sector research priorities and National RWSS Strategy review and update Sector research priorities · In implementing 2007 work plan, with support from WSP and Danida International consultant, RWSSP CU completed the ToR on "Consulting Service to support definition of the sector RWSS research priorities and Guiding on the establishment of Scientific Committee" with wider participation of stakeholders and accepted by WRD. · The WB/WSP has sent a letter of commitment to support NTPII SO/WRD to carry out this activity through Consulting Firm to be hired by WSP. Leaders of WRD has sent their confirmation on receiving the support from WSP and accepted the ToR prepared by CU. · Recently, NTPII SO made framework for using the donor research fund for RWSS NTPII called "Operationalisation of the Research Funds for RWSS NTPII" (based on Donor fund allocated for research) with proposal on RWSS NTPII Research Panel and identification of some research activities of narrow focus. This document was circulated by the CU to relevant stakeholders for comments. If Research Panel set up, RWSSP CU will support in facilitating its operation and plays role in information sharing of research studies. National RWSS Strategy review and update · To assist CPO/NCerwass in implementing "Review and Update NRWSS Strategy" assigned by Mard, RWSSP CU with in-kind support from WB and WB/WSP had completed the ToR for "Consulting Service to review and update NRWSS Strategy up-to 2020" integrating all comments of relevant stakeholders working in RWSS sector. The final draft ToR was accepted by WB and forwarded to CPO for implementation in October 2007 as required by WB. · The key task of the CU in RWSSP 2008 Work Plan is continue to support CPO by collaborating with the Consulting Team recruited by the CPO in facilitation of workshops/meetings for consolidating comments and information sharing. It's hope that in the late of a second quarter of 2008, after accepting by WB a short list of potential firms, the Consulting Firm recruited and CU will continue it's roles. B3. Policy dialogue · As planned in 2008 CU Work Plan, with the support of national consultants, RWSSP CU has been carrying out the activity "Collection of latest legal documents on RWSS sector". This documentation in Vietnamese has been printed and uploaded on RWSSP's website for reference by RWSS community in Vietnam. The English version will be available in 2009. · Two "hot issues" in RWSS of most concerned by the relevant stakeholder will be identified and discussed at the forum/workshop organized by RWSSP CU for information sharing. · This activity is planed to complete by the end of Nov./early Dec. 2008 for information sharing amongst RWSS community. B4. Sanitation promotion U3SAP 36 · The proposal for development of the Unified Sanitation Sector Strategy and Action Plan was endorsed by the Office of the Government at the letter Ref No.: 7695/VPCP-KTN dated 10 November 2008. The Ministry of Construction is delegated to be a leading agency in development of the U3SAP and responsible for reporting to the Prime Minister for consideration and approval. The main role of RWSSP CU relating to this activity is update and sharing information among RWSS community. "Standard design of school latrines" · The Minister of Education and Training (MoET) issued Decision No.1486 / Q -BGDDT dated 31 March 2008 to promulgate the "Standard design of latrines applied for nursery bases, primary and secondary schools" for nationwide application. To put the" latrine standard design" into practice, the RWSSP CU in collaboration with the Department of Student Affair of MoET, and Water, Environment and Sanitation Program (WES) of Unicef organised "Launching workshop" at central level for introducing the "latrines standard design" and information sharing of best practices done by Thua Thien Hue Preventive Medicine Centre and Son La Centre for clean water and environmental sanitation in 22 July, 2008 in Hanoi. About 60 participants from various ministries, branches, international organizations and INGOs attended the workshop. During August and September NCERWASS and WES/UNICEF organize 2 workshops in Tuyen Quang and HCMC to introduce the standard latrine designs for 64 PCERWASS. The main role of RWSSP CU relating to this activity is update and sharing information, experiences and lesson learnt among RWSS community on the application/adoption of new WES school standard designs for the better achievement of the set objectives of RWSS NTP on WES coverage of school and kindergarten in Vietnam. International Year of Sanitation 2008 promotion To promote activities relating to International Year of Sanitation 2008, RWSSP CU is actively involved in the below mentioned activities: · Cooperated with the Department of Sciences, Technology and Environment of the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) and Vietnam Urban Forum of the Ministry of Construction (VUF/MoC) and WB/WSP organized two-day workshop on "Action Planning Meeting for the International Year of Sanitation 2008 in Vietnam" in Ha Long City just after the East Asia Ministerial conference on sanitation (EASAN) took place in Beppu of Japan. More than 50 participants from various ministries and government organizations attended the workshop. · Report on "Action planning Meeting for the International year of Sanitation 2008 in Vietnam" completed and MPI sent the Report to all relevant stakeholders in May, 2008. · RWSSP is actively involved in SAWAP (Sanitation and Water supply for Mekong region) led by WB/WSP where it's member are Vietnam, Laos, Combodia and two southern provinces of China (Yanan and Quangxi). The RWSSP CU also sent it staff to participate in the SAWAP Cross-boundary Evaluation and Planning Meeting held in Laos PRD from 22 to 24 April 2008. · RWSSP CU participated in the workshops by RWSSP Partners such as "Introduction of the Report on National data Survey of Rural Sanitation Status and Impact of International Sanitation Year 2008" organized by MoH in March 2008 and the activities linking with National Week on water supply and environmental sanitation by Unicef and Cerwass, regional workshop for Northeast Region of SNV, Decentralization Water Treatment system (DEWATS) of Borda etc... Cost-efficient technical solutions for water supply and sanitation · As planned in 2008 CU Work Plan, with the support of national consultants, RWSSP CU has been carrying out the activity "Prepare and disseminate catalogue of cost-efficient technical solutions for water supply and sanitation" which will be completed and presented at a workshop on "Cost-efficient Technical solutions for water supply and Sanitation" for discussion and information sharing amongst RWSS community by early December 2008. 37 And by the end of the year, the book/manual of "Cost-efficient Technical solutions for water supply and Sanitation" will be finalized for printing and nationwide distribution. B5. Promoting private sector participation · The RWSSP CU 2008 with the support of national consultant input carried out the activity "Collect and identify some best models/enterprises of private sector involved in RWSS sector" during August and September 2008. A workshop on "Private sector involvement in RWSS" was organized at the end of October for information and experiences sharing. The workshop proceeding will be finalized and printed for dissemination widely in the end of the year. The public private partnership model is new but promising and very interested by RWSS community in Vietnam so RWSSP will open more forums on this theme in the coming years. · The issue of post-invested O & M of RWSS facilities is most concerned issue of NTPII SO and almost Pcerwass. The nature is that if there is a lack of high attention to O&M or low priority in O&M issue will strongly impact on effectiveness of system utilization and sustainability which leading to waste of investment. RWSSP CU in collaboration with NTPII SO will organise workshop on O&M for lessons-learned and information sharing where a number of Pcerwass will be invited for presentation of best practice on O&M in the 2009 work plan. B6. RWSSP CU daily operation activities · In general, the daily operation activities of the Coordination Unit have been carried out timely and effectively including development of annual work plan, fund mobilization, support to the Partnership Steering Committee in regular Meetings/workshops, collaboration with other partnerships under MARD (ISG, NDMP, FSSP, MSCP, NTPII SO), maintaining of cooperation and collaboration with national and international partners in updating RWSSP monthly news brief and website.... · The monthly news brief with size of 4 ­ 5 A4 pages is regularly maintained, one issue per month, with volume of 600 printed copies (in English and Vietnamese with 300 copies each). Since the establishment, 26 issues have been published (October 2008). Basically, the content of the news brief is rich and short, was highly appreciated by RWSSP partners as it is an useful source providing the updated RWSS information and on-going events all of national and international partners in RWSS such as seminars, workshops, investment... · The website of RWSSP is a good and effective channel of updating and sharing information for all national and international partners. C. SUPPORT TOWARDS IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SEDP 2006 - 2010 AND SECTORAL STRATEGIES AND PROGRAMMES · RWSS sector M&E indicator set: This document has been approved, launched, printed for circulation and rollout nationwide. · RWSS Sector Reference Document (Directory): UNICEF, Plan International and the VUFO-INGO WES working group with support from the Partnership developed this document, which has been circulated widely to RWSS community in Vietnam and considered a very useful document. · Documentation of latest legal documents on RWSS sector": This documentation in Vietnamese has been printed for circulation and uploaded on RWSSP's website for reference by RWSS community in Vietnam. · Unified Sanitation Sector Strategy and Action Plan (U3SAP): The proposal for development of the Unified Sanitation Sector Strategy and Action Plan was endorsed by the Office of the Government at the letter Ref No.: 7695/VPCP-KTN dated 10 November 2008. The RWSSP will consult Ministry of Construction delegated by the Gov to prepare the sanitation strategy, the Water and Sanitation Programme (WSP) and the team responsible for 38 preparing this process to define the role of the RWSSP in the preparation of the strategy (apart from the usual role of information sharing). · Prioritization of sector research needs and establishment of RWSS Scientific Committee: NTPII SO made framework for using the donor research fund for RWSS NTPII called "Operationalisation of the Research Funds for RWSS NTPII" (based on Donor fund allocated for research) with proposal on RWSS NTPII Research Panel and identification of some research activities of narrow focus. This document was circulated by the CU to relevant stakeholders for comments. If Research Panel set up, RWSSP CU will support in facilitating its operation and plays role in information sharing of research studies. · Monthly News Brief and website: Twenty six RWSSP News Briefs have been issued and website updated informing partners on progress with respect to the establishment of the Partnership as well as recent sector developments. D. PLANNED ACTION IN SUPPORT OF ALIGNMENT OF DONOR SUPPORT TO SECTORAL STRATEGIES AND SEDP The Annual Work Plan for 2009-2010 to be pursued by the RWSSP until December 2010 (subject to PSC endorsement): 1. Support to harmonization and alignment of sector M&E 2. Prioritization and coordination of sector research 3. Support/comments to preparation of implementation guidelines for the new National Target Programme for RWSS and alignment of donor regulations to these guidelines 4. Review of the National RWSS Strategy and support to establishment of a national and strategic action planning framework for implementation of the Strategy 5. Support to preparation of the Unified Sanitation Strategy and Action Plan 6. Coordination of preparation of a catalogue of cost-effective technical solutions for sanitation 7. Establishment of technical sanitation working group to promote sanitation in rural areas. 8. Establishment of forum on enhanced private sector involvement and OM& in RWSS 9. Establishment of monthly news brief and website to update and share latest document and information on RWSS sector. The Partnership will furthermore support consultations among partners on key issues of broad concern for sector stakeholders, including broadening application of budget support mechanisms in RWSS (based on initial learning generated from the new Targeted Programme Budget Support Programme for the NTP II supported by Ausaid, Danida and the Netherlands). E. MILESTONES AND CRITICAL ISSUES FOR 2009- 2010 The Partnership during its inception phase has showed its efficient operation in the existing context (MoU and resources) major role in information sharing and coordination mechanism for "collaborative action" such as RWSS sector M&E indicator set development. However, to satisfy further expectations among partners for working more efficiently, the following factors are critical for achieving the desired level of consolidation, efficiency and value-added: · Partner engagement: The Partnership is a coordination mechanism; it depends on individual national and international partners to finance and implement agreed activities in a collaborative fashion. · Operational resources: Effective coordination requires capacity and resources to steer, coordinate and guide agreed activities and policy dialogue processes. It is a critical achievement in this context that the (relatively modest) operational budget for the 2 year inception phase has been financed. However, more than 60% of the budget is financed by a single international partner, who provides this support as part of a general effort to build the capacity of MARD to introduce and manage sector-approaches, including sub-sector partnership mechanisms. Long-term viability of RWSSP operations requires contributions from a broader range of partners, including in particular international partners with a direct stake in RWSS. 39 · Capacity to support collaborative processes: Building understanding for collaborative action among national as well as international stakeholders requires attention to "process" and gradual nurturing of collaborative behavior. While the RWSSP Coordination Unit, comprising 4 contracted national staff, is well positioned to provide this support, MARD acknowledges that medium-term international advisory support is required during the inception phase to build the required operational "process" capacity of the Coordination Unit. It is critical for the Partnerships ability to demonstrate its value added that support towards provision of this input is secured for 2009-2010. · Securing engagement of national RWSS sub-sector stakeholders: It was initially decided that the RWSSP during the 2-year inception phase would be embedded in the MARD International Cooperation Department, with a view to transfer the Partnership to the department within MARD holding the state management responsibility for RWSS . The Report of inception phase review recommended that to secure sub-sector level ownership to the RWSSP as a cooperation mechanism and sub-sector level engagement in RWSSP activities, it is critical for the RWSS to build strong operational linkages with national RWSS sector level agencies at the central but not transfer to the department within MARD holding the state management responsibility for RWSS. For further information, contact the RWSSP Coordination Unit, 3rd Floor, A8 Building, No. 10 Nguyen Cong Hoan Street, Hanoi, Vietnam. Telephone: (84-4) 37711420 Email: pcu@rwssp.org.vn Website: www.rwssp.org.vn 40 FINANCIAL SECTOR PARTNERSHIP November 28, 2008 The Government-donor financial sector working group was established in 1999 to discuss a proposed banking reform program developed by State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) with an aim to support the implementation of the program and to coordinate donor support for it. Since that time, the working group has expanded beyond the banking reform and now covers a wider range of financial sector issues, including those in capital market development, policy bank reform, non-banking financial institutions, deposit insurance, etc.. Among the authorities, representatives of the Ministry of Finance (MOF), the State Securities Commission (SSC) and other relevant institutions as well as the SBV participate in the working group meetings. The working group is informal but serves as an effective forum in which the Government and the donors can periodically share updates and views on latest financial sector developments, ongoing and planned technical assistances and projects, and coordinate various donor assistance activities. The working group meetings also serve as a forum to identify assistance needs and seek donors' support for those. Strong Government Ownership Implementation of the Government's financial sector reform program continues with strong donor support as evidenced by the number of related assistance projects as well as the amount of financial support provided by the donor group. The working group has been meeting a few times a year, and the most recent meeting was held on November 28, 2008. In this meeting, SBV updated the donors on key challenges that the Vietnamese economy is currently faced with such as inflation, global financial turmoil and economic slowdown, and on ways in which the SBV has been and will be coping with them. Other topics discussed included the reorganization of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) and contribution of the donors within the sector and coordination among them. The meeting was hosted by the SBV and the World Bank, with the participation of approximately 15 most active donors in the sector. SBV Updates of Monetary Policies for Economic Stabilization in 2008 The SBV's monetary policy representative provided an update on the macroeconomic conditions and the monetary policy measures in 2008 as well and the economic prospects and policy directions. 2008 is the first year Vietnam experiences an economic growth rate below 7.5% in the recent 5-year period, and it seems to rank second only to China in the East Asian region. However, the inflation stands at a worrisome level (reaching the peak of 28% y.o.y in August 2008). The skyrocketing inflation in the first half of 2008 was caused by several factors. Firstly, Vietnam faced "import inflation" when prices of international commodities increased, e.g., oil: 10.7% (2007: 46%), rice: 5.2% (2007: 145%), steel: 27% (2007: 60%), fertilizer: 7.2% (2007: 64%) which led to the record imports of 137% of GDP (2007: 80%) for this 6-month period. The government had to increase domestic prices of the key commodities it had been controlling, e.g. gas: 11.5% (2007: 23.8%), coal: 20-70% (2007: 20%), steel: 38% (2007: 74%) while the electricity price being held steady (2007: 7.6%). Secondly, the lagging impacts of expanding money supply due to capital inflows continued to fuel the inflation. Thirdly, and the expansionary fiscal policies in the past years caused it as well as a massive increase of imports. Vietnam's aggressive public sector investments have contributed to reducing the investment efficiency, reflected in the increasing ICOR (1996-2000: 3.7; 2000-2005: 4.6; 2006: 4.95 and 2007: 5.52) which compares high against those of other countries in the region. Finally, the domestic supply shock due to natural calamities, high inflation expectation and speculation made the situation worse. The situation started to stabilize since the third quarter when world commodity prices decreased, e.g. oil prices decreased by 161%, fertilizer 62%, largely due to economic recession. 41 Domestic market prices responded accordingly, and at the same time, the domestic demand significantly slowed down. Contractionary monetary and fiscal policies started to take effect when credit growth was curbed at 18.63% for the first 9 months of the year (credit growth was 30.91% for the same period in 2007) and budget deficit was only 1.7% as compared with 4.5% in 2007. The 8 actions in government stabilization package were considered to be effective in reducing monthly inflation to zero in the last months of the year, making the expected annual inflation less than 22%. The SBV's monetary policy actions were also briefed. As for the 2nd half of the year, the base rate was continuously reduced (from 14%, to 13%, 12% and currently 11%); discount rate and refinancing rate were also reduced accordingly. The commercial banks were allowed to redeem the SBV's compulsory bills of VND 21 trillion or use them for refinancing transactions. The SBV at the same time increased interest rate paid for required reserves (from 1.2%, to 3.6%, 5% and currently 10%) while reducing these required reserves from 11% to 10% and 8% currently). All these measures meant to help the banks reduce the cost of fund, which in turn lessens the lending rate burdens for businesses. The SBV also encouraged the banks to concentrate credits on priority sectors, such as agriculture and export products, while being able to roll over the loans for businesses directly affected by the world financial crisis according to Decision 783/2005/QD-NHNN. The exchange rate band was also widened from 2% to 3% to provide more flexibility to the banks in fixing the commercial exchange rates. Looking forward, the government and the SBV still give top priority to inflation curbing by flexibly conducting tight monetary policies and guard against adverse effects from world financial crisis and recession. The government aims to maintain overall economic stability and achieve reasonable economic growth. The SBV is specifically required to: (1) conduct open market operations, interest rate and other monetary tools flexibly to secure liquidity supports for commercial banks; (2) urge the commercial banks to concentrate on credits to production, SMEs, feasible projects, agriculture and rural areas, import and export of preferred commodities; (3) closely monitor the balance of payments, conduct exchange rate management flexibly based on market demands, encourage exports and discourage imports; (4) direct the banks to apply Directive 05/2008/CT-NHNN on the prudential measures to guard against external shocks due to world financial crisis and recession; and (5) cooperate with the other ministries in information sharing with the public. SBV reorganization based on Decree 96 The SBV presented on the on-going reorganization of central bank based on the recently promulgated Decree 96 under which the SBV is composed of 24 departments and institutions (of which 19 are in the headquarters with the main function of supporting the governor in monetary policy activities, and the remaining five are administrative institutions). Compared to expired Decree 52, this new Decree provides for: (1) the authority to represent State ownership in the state-owned commercial banks; (2) the authority to propose or determine the salary mechanism for SBV staff; (3) provides for the division of SBV departments into four blocks and the creation of a banking supervisory authority within the SBV (by merging four departments of SBV, i.e., Inspection Dept., Banks & Non-banks Dept., Cooperative Credit Institutions Dept., and Anti-Money Laundering Unit). This agency shall start its operation once the Ministry of Home Affairs passes its personnel structure and the government approves it. 42 There are also two new departments being established, namely, Statistics & Forecasting Dept. and Awards & Promotion Dept. Donor Support for the Reform Agenda The donors shared information regarding their past, current and future activities. Comprehensive information regarding donor activities is provided in Financial Sector Assistance Matrix (as attached). It is periodically updated by CIDA of Canada with inputs from other donors and published through the World Bank's website so that each donor can learn what other donors are doing. It is meant to help donors avoid duplications and enhance the coordination and synergy. Following are current and future activities of donors active in the financial sector: The World Bank (WB) Board recently approved the Financial Sector Modernization and Information Management Systems (FSMIMS) which supports the restructuring and capacity building of the SBV with its data management. Payments Systems and Bank Modernization Project II (PSBM 2) is being completed, and the inter-bank payment system (IBPS) is now rolled out to reach all banks and their key branches. Rural Finance Project is providing a line of credits to banks to support rural business development as well as capacity building of the banks. The WB is also preparing two new projects. One is Financial Market Infrastructure Development (FMID), which is to support the State Securities Commission and SCIC. The other is tentatively titled as Policy Bank Reform Project, and is intended to support the reform of the policy-based finance in Vietnam. Concurrently, the WB has also been implementing various TA projects based on its IDF grant and FIRST Initiative financing to support the law drafting process at the SBV, Deposit Insurance of Vietnam, reform of Credit Information Center, application of accounting standards at commercial banks, Vietnam Security Depository (VSD) reform, insurance supervision and strategy, People's Credit Funds operation, etc. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is working with the SBV and the banking industry to establish a private credit information bureau and a retail payments clearing and card switching center. It is also preparing TAs for Vietnam Bond Forum to support the development of the bond market and for Hanoi Stock Trading Center to better organize the OTC market. It has also been supporting the Bank Training Center (BTC) in providing training for commercial banks. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is currently disbursing sub-program 1 of Financial Sector Program loan III to support credit, money and bond markets. The disbursement of sub-program 2 under the project will be for non-bank financial institutions; currently, the ADB is also providing technical assistance to these institutions in operation and risk management. The ADB helped several microfinance institutions to formalize their business. Recently, the ADB extended USD25 million to Sacombank for SME loans and leasing activities. In the future, the ADB expects to provide further supports in monetary framework and capacity building. Anti-money laundering is the area of interest to the ADB in the near future. Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) of Germany provides extensive supports to the SBV in legal and regulatory framework and bank training. Regarding the former, it is supporting the SBV's effort to draft new SBV Law and Credit Institutions Law. It is also supporting SBV's capacity building in HR management, bank prudential supervision. It is supporting the Bank Training Center (BTC), Banking Academy and Banking University. In particular, its TA is focusing on the issues of macroeconomic forecasting and banks' internal control/audit and risk management piloting with Eximbank, Vietcombank and Central Credit Fund. GTZ is now also supporting the State Securities Commission (SSC). KfW is providing a credit line for SME finance and cofinancing ADB's FSPL III with AFD of France. It is also providing TA on leasing jointly with ADB and AFD with an aim to diversify the sources of access to finance for SMEs. 43 The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) reported the departure of a resident advisor for SBV and the arrival of two new resident advisors focusing on the central bank modernization, issue & vault operation, and offsite supervision of banks. JBIC, which is now merged with JICA is providing a line of credit for SMEs. It is also supporting the capacity building of Vietnam Development Bank (VDB). On the other hand, the Ministry of Finance of Japan is supporting the feasibility study of the reform of Vietnam Bank for Social Policy (VBSP)... The US Agency for International Development (USAID) and its Star Program focused their supports on regulatory framework and legal reforms with respect to the SBV Law and Credit Institutions Law. The Star also intends to provide supports to the newly-established Statistics and Forecasting Department. The Luxembourg Development Agency (Lux Development) is now providing a comprehensive assistance to the State Securities Commission (SSC) to support securities market development. As part of it, SECO is supporting a feasibility study of upgrading of supervisory ICT systems such as market surveillance system, e-disclosure system, etc. in coordination with World Bank's FMID project which is expected to finance the implementation of such systems. CIDA of Canada has been providing a large-scale support for the supervisory capacity building of the SBV and HR management in coordination with World Bank's FSMIMS project. In the supervisory capacity building, it is supporting the SBV to develop methodology for risk- based supervision and create supervisory manuals. It is also supporting SBV's banking training center particularly in internal control and audit. CIDA also participates in the donor support for the SBV's effort to draft SBV Law, Credit Institutions Law, Deposit Insurance Law and Bank Supervision Law. AFD of France has been supporting SME and the financial sector, and one such program is cofinanced with ADB and KfW through both policy dialog and budget support for the Government. It also supports infrastructures and rural development. AFD provides financing either to banks and financial institutions or via sectoral budget support (financial sector reform, SME development. The aim is to scale up financing for SMEs. Financing also helps banks and financial institutions ­ including microfinance institutions ­ modernize their management and adapt to international norms, e.g., compliance with prudential rules, social and environmental protection, anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism. AFD's on-going projects in the financial sector include support to Vietnam Bank of Agriculture (VBARD), Mekong Housing Bank (MHB), People's Credit Funds (PCF), HCMC Investment Fund (HIFU). In all cases, credit lines are coupled with grant support mostly for TA or strengthening capacities. Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) is providing TA for the SBV for policy advice and TA for the implementation of financial reforms and HR policy of SBV. It has been implementing a series of bank restructuring workshops jointly with SBV. It is also seeking to support the training center of the SSC which provides training not only for SSC staff but for securities industry professionals. It has also been supporting the Bank Training Center (BTC), Banking Academy and Banking University, which provide training for commercial banks. In particular, SECO is developing a training program for directors of state-owned commercial banks (SOCBs) jointly with the Vietnam Bankers' Association. It is providing capacity building TA for Mekong Housing Bank (MHB). Next Steps for the Working Group SBV again requested donors' collective effort to provide more coordinated assistance as it (particularly International Cooperation Department) continues to struggle in managing the 44 assistance provided separately by each donor. Donors active in the financial sector tend to be large and are concerned about losing their visibility and reporting to their home country authority if their resources are pooled to provide collective assistance. The Donor group will meet again in the 2nd quarter of 2009 to address a broader range of topics in the financial sector. In the meantime, the donors will be asked if they have any specific areas of concern or questions which they would like to be addressed for inclusion in the meeting agenda. The comprehensive matrix covering the technical assistance and lending support provided by all donors on the Government's financial sector reform agenda will be updated with completed projects moved to a separate section of the Matrix. The Financial Sector Assistance Matrix continues to be organized by beneficiary institution and then by function for ease of navigation, with active links to the appropriate contacts for each project. It will continue to be posted on the World Bank Vietnam Country Office web site (www.worldbank.org.vn). 45 THE PARTNERSHIP GROUP FOR SME PROMOTION AND PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT (SMEPG) Updated activities 2008 1. Progress in SME/PSD promotion activities by Government ASMED is drafting a new Decree to replace Decree 90 on SME development and is in the process of asking for comments from ministries, agencies, localities and business associations. In addition, ASMED is drafting a review report on implementation of Prime Minister's Instruction No. 22/2007/CT-TTg on Development of Private Enterprises. Also, it is developing a review report on implementation of the Government-funded Comprehensive Support Program on Human Resource Training. These two reports are to be submitted to the Prime Minister by the end of 2008. On 29 July 2008, ASMED finalized and submitted for approval the draft of Joint Circular No. 05/2008/TTLT/BKH-BTC-BCA which provides a coordination mechanism for offices of business registration, tax code issuance, and seal engraving for enterprises established and operating by the Enterprise Law. Thanks to this new Circular, market entry has been greatly simplified and the time needed for all three procedures has been much reduced. ASMED is working on a new circular on guidance for business names and another new circular revising and supplementing the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI)'s Circular No. 03/2006/TT-BKH dated 19 October 2006 which provides guidance on application files, order and process for business registration. ASMED is also working on a review report on implementation of Instruction No. 59/2007/NQ-CP on solutions for overcoming bottlenecks in construction and some administrative reforms for enterprises. ASMED has conducted regular training courses for SMEs on business start-up, business administration, technical management, and marketing. It has also conducted field visits to many provinces to match up Vietnamese and foreign enterprises etc. ASMED participated in APEC (in Peru) and ASEAN SME Working Group meetings (in Singapore and Laos). ASMED and MPI leaders participated in the APEC SME Ministerial Meeting in Peru and the Asian Corporate Conference in China. ASMED has finalized and submitted for approval the draft of the MPI's Annual Report on SMEs in Vietnam 2008 to be submitted to the Prime Minister. Two donor projects have been approved: the ADB-funded Preparatory Technical Assistance for SME Development Program Loan 2, and the Norway-funded Technical Assistance for Business Registration Reform. 2. Progress in SME/PSD promotion activities by donor Since there has been no SMEPG meeting in the last six months, however, this section has been compiled from written responses from a number of related organizations/projects. Now in its fourth year, the Danida Business Sector Program Support has picked up momentum. A number of activities to improve the business environment (component 1) were carried out in the four BSPS provinces of Ha Tay, Lam Dong, Khanh Hoa and Nghe An, including public private sector dialogues on hot topics and work to reduce administrative barriers, including the introduction of One-Stop-Shops. In regard to the improvement of labor conditions (component 2), the program continued to support the MoLISA, the VGCL and VCCI 46 in their endeavors to improve occupational health and safety in small enterprises. Moreover, the program for working with HIV/AIDS in the work place has seen a high level of activity, including many new peer educators that are now active, for example in working against stigmatization. Under the Global Competitiveness Fund (component 3), many new projects were initiated, with the majority working with embedded business development services, such as quality improvement, certification and export services. In the area of commercial dispute resolution (component 4), the work continued with capacity building for both the Supreme Peoples' Court and the Vietnam International Arbitration Centre (under VCCI). In regard to support given to the Central Institute for Economic Management (component 5), the SME Survey 2007 was completed and work on the Household Survey 2008 is ongoing. GTZ is working with various national partners on SME Policy and Business Environment. This year, GTZ has contributed to the implementation of the 5-Year SME Development Plan 2006- 2010 under the coordination of ASMED and Prime Minister's Instruction No. 22/2007/CT-TTg dated 26 October 2007 on Private Sector Development. It has provided support to various national partners on the Bankruptcy Law, the Decree on Legal Support to Enterprises, and the implementation of the Enterprise Law and Investment Law, and promoted the official adoption of regulatory impact assessment. GTZ has also developed a guidebook on pubic private dialogue (PPD) and supported VCCI to improve the framework conditions for the operation of business associations. Within the framework of Local Economic Development, GTZ has implemented a number of activities aimed at strengthening the local business environment, including: setting up BusinessPortal, a computer system product for online and computerized business registration in 6 provinces, and working to have BusinessPortal expanded to more than 10 provinces by the end of 2008 (see more on www.businessportal.com.vn); strengthening policy dialogue in 4 provinces; and supporting investment promotion activities. GTZ has promoted the formalization of household businesses into officially registered enterprises, delivered training courses for enterprises, and contributed to strengthening the capacity of provincial business associations. GTZ is promoting the value chain concept and methodology nationwide through facilitator value chain trainings and cooperation with Hanoi Agricultural University. Currently, GTZ is working on a number of value chains for avocado, coffee, rattan, pangasius, longan and vegetables. It also facilitates and implements Public Private Partnership projects with international companies in connection with some of the value chains. The last field of GTZ's work involves supporting the market for advanced technical services such as failure analysis and preventive maintenance. This includes strengthening the capacity of service providers of advanced technical services (COMFA, SITES II) through training, consulting services, development of business plans and marketing. In Vietnam, IFC Advisory Services are implemented in partnership with and funded by MPDF, a private sector development initiative whose donors are Australia, Canada, Finland, IFC, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. Over the past year, at provincial level, IFC has continued to support Bac Ninh, Binh Dinh and Hai Phong provinces in implementing the Single Access Point (SAP) for business registration procedures. The pilot business registration campaign in Bac Ninh is now being rolled-out as a nationwide campaign encouraging households to register and operate their businesses in accordance with the Enterprise Law. The campaign communicates the benefits of formalization and the new, simplified business start-up procedures. It will include radio and television promotional material, distribution of "How To" booklets targeting household groups, and a number of articles in various media sources. IFC is also assisting the provincial governments of Bac Ninh and Thua Thien Hue (the latter in conjunction with EU VPSSP) with land administration reform. A process mapping of all existing access-to-land procedures that each investor must go through was completed in each province. This exercise involved interviews with 47 the relevant government authorities and a representative sample of investors. Stakeholder workshops were organized in the two provinces in August to disseminate the findings of the process mapping and collect suggestions for reforms. In response to a request from the General Department of Taxation (GDT), IFC is planning to implement a tax simplification project aimed at reducing the time and cost of tax compliance faced by taxpayers (especially small businesses), and reducing administrative costs faced by tax authorities. It will also help improve taxpayer education through capacity development activities and an integrated communication/outreach strategy that encourages voluntary compliance from small business taxpayers. At national level, the Vietnam Business Forum (VBF) continued its valuable role as facilitator for private sector development in Vietnam by providing inputs and recommendations on a number of important laws and regulations. Noteworthy efforts have been made on the Law on Corporate Income Tax, the Law on Value Added Tax (VAT), the Revised Law on Credit Institutions, and the circular on detailed guidelines for build-operate-transfer infrastructure projects. Furthermore, there has been marked progress in ease of doing business in trade, removal of impractical regulations on VAT, licensing in banking and education, and flexibility of foreign exchange mechanism management. All these areas have been directly influenced by the VBF and VBF- related working groups. IFC/ILO in Better Work: IFC and the International Labour Organization (ILO) recently launched Better Work Vietnam ­ a voluntary, industry-based project that combines independent assessment of labor practices with advisory and training services. The goal of the project is to support cooperation between labor and management to improve workplace conditions, productivity, and compliance with international labor standards. Benefits to manufacturers should come from improved communication with buyers on labor standards, reduced costs from elimination of multiple audits and multiple improvement programs, and access to local and affordable advisory and training services. The project also expects to improve industry performance by promoting more active engagement and collaboration among stakeholder groups through the Buyers' Forum and the Project Advisory Committee. During this last year of the MPI/EU Vietnam Private Sector Support Program (VPSSP), the focus was on implementation of activities addressing priority bottlenecks identified during earlier diagnostic work. Technical assistance and training activities to support improvements in the provincial-level enabling environment and the supply of business development services continued to be implemented in the three original pilot provinces (Hai Phong, Da Nang, and Can Tho), and were extended to three additional provinces (Hoa Binh, Hue, and Long An). The VPSSP supported business incubators in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are now operational. Lessons learned from project activities have been documented. The Final Program Evaluation Mission was fielded in November 2008. Most VPSSP activities have now been completed and the Program will be officially closed from 31 December 2008. SNV has participated with other development agencies in updating the tool book on value analysis under the framework of the Making Markets Work for the Poor (M4P) project supported by ADB-DFID. Under the Small Holder Cash Crop Sector program of SNV Vietnam, SNV is supporting local stakeholders in strengthening the competitiveness of tea and cardamom value chains in Northwest regions and cassava in North Central regions. Depending on the major opportunities and constraints identified for each selected value chain, SNV's aims in its support to contribute to improving the enabling environment for selected value chains while strengthening the capacity of producer groups for better supply of material or processed products, strengthening market access for producer groups and local enterprises, and linking trading companies with producer groups. 48 In the second half of 2008, SNV began to introduce the concept of inclusive business as an approach to promote private firms to engage with low-income populations for more sustainable profits and income for the poor. This approach has been developed and achieved success beyond expectation in Latin America by SNV and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. In Vietnam, SNV will promote inclusive business in cooperation with VCCI and IUCN. SNV is conducting private sector mapping of 559 private enterprises to identify enterprises that are working or have potential to work with major markets. Within the framework of its policy advocacy portfolio, UNDP will shortly launch a project aimed at catalyzing the business community in Vietnam's role towards greater corporate social responsibility through the Global Compact Principles. This project will start in December 2008 and last for three years. The project has a budget of USD2,500,000, and will be implemented by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI). The specific objective of the project is to encourage adoption of socially and environmentally responsible business behavior among enterprises operating in Vietnam. Also, UNDP is supporting the Task Force on Implementation of the Enterprise Law and the Investment Law, which has the objective of improving effectiveness of the implementation and monitoring of the two laws through capacity building in reviewing technical private sector regulatory documents, public awareness campaigns and organizational/managerial skills building. The project has provided support for development of a training manual on the two laws and their implementation guidelines, and has conducted pilot training courses for disadvantaged enterprises (defined as small and medium-sized enterprises operating in poor/extremely difficult areas, rural areas, and/or headed by women/ethnic people). The training manual is now available and is currently being tested through several pilot courses. UNDP support to the Task Force will last until 2010. Within the framework of the project "Assistance to Establish the National and Provincial SME Support Infrastructure" UNIDO and ASMED organized a workshop to review the implementation progress of the 5-year Development Plan. With the help of several national and international consultants, research has been conducted on the progress achieved in the implementation of the SME Development Plan and on the revisions of Decree 90. A study on SME access to finance has been finalized by a team of national and international consultants, and the results presented during a national workshop in May 2008. There has also been continued capacity building for ASMED staff, including study tours in Malaysia, Austria and Italy. The ASMED Business Portal functionalities and data have been updated (including revisions of all business licenses). At the provincial level, four First-Stop-Shop (FSS) points are now fully operational, in the provinces of Thai Nguyen, Lao Cai, Binh Thuan and Quang Ninh. Finally, the project "Technical Assistance to Business Registration Reform", financed by the Government of Norway and UNIDO, was launched on 2 November 2008, while a new Cluster Development will start in early 2009, upon receipt of funds from the Italian Government. The USAID/VNCI project is on track to complete its activities during the fifth year of operation through 30 December 2008, and will initiate Phase II, a 4.5-year project with the approval of the Government. VNCI is working closely with OOG to support the Prime Minister's Master Plan to simplify administrative procedures in state management from 2007 to 2010 in 21 ministries and 63 provinces. USAID/VNCI is also coordinating other donor involvement in this reform at the request of OOG. In addition, VNCI is working with MPI and other agencies to improve financing and development of infrastructure. The PCI 2008 will be launched on 11 December 2008 in Hanoi and 12 December 2008 in HCMC to present the latest rankings and policy and regulatory implications for the business environment in 64 provinces. VNCI has completed activities in three provinces ­ Hai Duong, Tien Giang and Tay Ninh ­ as pilot activities to improve the business environment. The VCCI/ILO PRISED project is under national execution with ILO providing technical assistance. VCCI has continued most of the activities initiated in phase 1, with various kinds of 49 BDS training being delivered. A policy training manual has been developed and an MoU signed with the Ho Chi Minh Political Academy to train not only local authorities in project provinces but also authorities in other provinces. The training manual on managing small business associations has been finalized and is being used in training in project provinces. A social marketing campaign has been designed and executed in one province. The aim of the campaign is to promote safe working practices in SMEs. PRISED is currently developing an infotainment (information through entertainment) television program targeting SMEs at provincial level. A training manual for Public Private Partnership is expected to be finalized early next year. ILO implements a range of other activities related to SME development, women entrepreneurship and other income-generating activities for vulnerable groups (youth, disabled, poor households) with its partners VCCI, VCA, VGCL and MoLISA. 3. Joint initiatives among donors In the past few months, the sub-groups of the SMEPG have not been active, but donors have still coordinated and co-organized activities. The list below highlights some of these initiatives: National Policy Reform · VNCI Coordination between DANIDA and IFC on administrative reform activities with Office of Government and provinces. · VNCI Conference on Draft National Strategy for Combating and Preventing Corruption, with many donors participating. · GTZ, VCCI and the Vietnam Competitiveness Initiative (VNCI): implementation of in- depth diagnostic of the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) in four provinces, followed by diagnostic workshop and action plan development. · VNCI and GTZ cooperation for the PCI on lessons learned and applications for improving the business environment. · GTZ cooperation with DANIDA to introduce BusinessPortal in DANIDA provinces and with EU VPSSP to introduce BusinessPortal in Hai Phong. · GTZ and IFC in partnership with the Task Force for the Implementation of the Enterprise Law and the Investment Law and Vietnam Tax Consultancy Association have been implementing a nationwide information campaign on formalization of household businesses into registered enterprises. · EU VPSSP and IFC are assisting the provincial government of Thua Thien Hue with land administration reform. · The national workshop on regulatory reform has been postponed pending readiness by OOG to work with provinces and ministries to address issues under the Prime Minister's Master Plan, or Project 30. LED · GTZ organized an LED experience exchange workshop in September, with UNIDO, VNCI and ASMED in attendance. The event was intended to facilitate exchange between all of the provinces involved in the GTZ project on LED progress. Other themes of the workshop were provincial Public Private Dialogue, strengthening of local stakeholder capacity and business registration. BDS/sectoral approach · A national seminar on "Provincial experiences in promotion of SMEs in supply and value chains" was organized in March by GTZ and EU VPSSP, with other donors also being invited. · Networking between GTZ, EU VPSSP, DANIDA Global Competitiveness Facility for Vietnamese Enterprises, SNV, Helvetas, FAO, ADB/M4P, Oxfam and others to exchange information and experiences in value chain development. Sustainable business practice 50 See IFC/ILO Better Work 4. National SME Week The first National SME Week was organized by VCCI in November. SMEPG's involvement in the SME Week involved: (i) ASMED's Permanent Vice Minister delivering the keynote speech in the first session; (ii) ASMED-UNIDO, ILO, GTZ, SNV and PRISED sponsoring the event; (iii) representatives of ASMED-UNIDO, ILO and SNV holding plenary presentations; (iv) ILO chairing the session on Local Economic Development, in which provincial partners of the ASMED-GTZ project and the PRISED project gave presentations; and (v) ILO, PRISED had their own booths. ASMED-UNIDO had one booth to show ASMED, UNIDO, GTZ and VNCI publications 51 TRANSPORT PARTNERSHIP GROUP Dec 2008 1. Partnership Assessment 1.1. The status of the partnership group Since its establishment in July 2000, the partnership group has consolidated information and experience on projects and programs in the transport sector in order to encourage alignment of support and improvement of aid effectiveness. The partnership group is currently moving toward a forum of active discussion on sector issues and in joint policy formulation. Besides the follow- up discussion on "MOT and VRA's restructuring, "Road and Bridge Maintenance Management", "Traffic Safety" and "Expressway Development Strategy", "Price adjustment" and some information sharing on the progress of "VITRANSS 2", "Road Site Station Master Plan" and "Study on Railway Quality Standard" were shared in the 17th transport partnership group meeting. 1.2. The structure of the partnership group For the past years, MOT and JBIC jointly chaired the partnership group meetings with participants from MOT-affiliated organizations and donors involved in the sector, such as ADB, AusAID, DfID, JICA and WB. Following the merger of JICA and JBIC, new JICA starts to play co-chair role of the partnership group meeting. The partnership group meetings are held every half a year. Besides the regular meetings, the partnership group has organized working groups on specific issues, which promote more active discussion and coordination. 2. Achievement of the partnership group in the last 6 months of 2008 2.1. The 17th Transport Partnership Group Meeting The 17th transport partnership group meeting was held on November 25th, 2008. The meeting mainly focused on the five issues as follows; (i) "MOT restructuring" to follow up the direction of MOT reform, (ii) "Capacity building for VRA" to follow up VRA's institutional restructuring including PMU's merger and share the overall progress of establishment of sustainable road and bridge maintenance and management system and the study on road maintenance system supported by JICA, (iii) "Traffic Safety" to report the current progress of preparation of Master Plan and the project activities supported by donors, and (v) "Expressway Development Strategy" to share the MOT's plan for expressway development. In addition, JICA made a brief explanation on experience in dealing with price adjustment, the progress of VITRANSS2, Railway Technical Standard, and Roadside Station Master Plan. 2.2. The progress of the partnership group and support for implementation of the new SEDP (1) MOT Restructuring In the 17th transport partnership group meeting, MOT shared the progress of the institutional reform within MOT and the related institutions. In accordance with the Decree 51/2008/ND- CP on MOT's function, task, authority and organization structure was signed by Prime Minister on 22nd April 2008, MOT established three new departments: 1) Department of Transport Infrastructure, 2) Department of Environment and 3) Department of Traffic Safety, and VRA transformed into a general department. The related decision on function and task of the Department of Transport Infrastructure was issued by MOT Minister in September 2008. The decisions for other new departments and agencies will be issued in December 2008. In response to this new framework, 10 departments take responsibilities and play roles as the Minister's advising agency in each field. Regarding quality control management, while Department of Transport Infrastructure will be responsible for quality control for all process of constructions already put into operation, TCQM will mainly take supervisory responsibility during implementation of construction work. PMU85 and PMU Thang Long remain under MOT for 52 accomplishing on-going projects of which MOT is the investment owner. PMU My Thuan and PMU 1 are being transformed into the One-Member State Limited Company as pilot cases. In response to approval of the Road Fund by National Assembly in November 2008, the detail content of Road Fund will be discussed and elaborated by MOT-affiliated agencies. The partnership group reconfirmed the necessity of close information sharing and capacity building for newly established departments and new VRA, the donors also expressed their willingness to support further development of and consultations on MOT's reform. (2) Capacity Building for VRA In accordance with Decree 51/2008/ND-CP, VRA was upgraded to a General Road Administration (GRA). On May 6th 2008, MOT issued its Decision to transfer PMU18, PMU5, PMU9 and PMU Bien Dong to GRA. In response to the above-mentioned Decision, the new PMU 2 was established by merger between former PMU 2 under VRA and PMU 18. PMU 5 and PMU Bien Dong were consolidated into PMU 6. PMU 7 was newly established through the merging former PMU7 under VRA and PMU9. The draft official decision on functions of GRA including establishment of new departments under GRA has been elaborated and being carefully examined by the government stakeholders for submission to the Prime Minister's Office in December 2008. ADB showed its willingness to support GRA's restructuring. VRA shared the current progress of establishment of sustainable road and bridge maintenance and management by using HDM4, ROSY and VBMS. JICA shared outline of the study whose outputs are 1) recommendation of suitable road maintenance software(s) to be applied at central and regional levels, and 2) road map for establishment of sustainable road and bridge maintenance system in Vietnam. In the 17th meeting, VRA pointed out inconsistencies among the existing road maintenance database software(s) and stressed the necessity to align the existing systems in line with the recommendation by JICA's SAPI-2 study. In response to the recommendation of SAPI-2, VRA will make effort to facilitate authorization process of the selected software(s) for road and bridge management and to strengthen linkage between maintenance planning and its budgeting system for securing appropriate maintenance budget. Furthermore, VRA stressed the importance of concrete legal framework for enhancing VRA's leadership as a project owner. The partnership group members reminded that MOT and VRA should secure the effectiveness and efficiency of ODA project implementation in order to avoid duplications and unnecessary transactions. In addition, it was confirmed that MOT and VRA also will keep efforts to keep close coordination with MOF so that appropriate amount of budget for maintenance and new investment would be secured. (3) Traffic Safety In the 17th meeting, JICA shared contents of the draft final report of the study for Traffic Safety Master Plan in Vietnam, which has been conducted since August 2007. JICA study team made several recommendations: 1) early approval of National Traffic Safety Master Plan, 2) organizational improvement of NTSC i.e. upgrading its status under the Deputy Prime Minister's control and 3) involvement of private/public sector for traffic safety culture development. TSPMU shared the current progress of the implementing projects on Traffic Safety supported by World Bank and JICA. In the meeting, TSPMU reminded the importance of 1) strengthening of NTSC's institutional capacity, 2) adequate deployment of full-time staff to NTSC for smooth project implementation, and 3)capacity building of newly established Department of Traffic Safety under MOT'. The partnership group confirmed the necessity of early approval of National Traffic Safety Master Plan based on suggestions from JICA's development study. (4) Expressway Development Strategy In the 17th meeting, MOT shared their comprehensive plans for development of expressway at nationwide. MOT plans to operate 18 expressway construction projects that are urgently in need of completion by 2015 (North: 7 projects, Central: 3 projects, South: 8 projects). MOT has been seeking the effective mobilization of several investment resources not only ODA funds but domestic and private commercial funds, especially for the Ninh Binh-Thanh Hoa section, the Dau Giay-Phan Thiet section, the Ben Luc-Long Thanh section, and a part of the Da Nang- 53 Quang Ngai section. The Master Plan for Expressway Development has been under approval process by Prime Minister since April 2008, defines the strategy of having the total network of 5,753 km of expressway nation wide, and developing 2,639km of expressway by 2020. Regarding demarcation between the related agencies on expressway i.e. VEC (Vietnam Expressway Corporation) and VRA, MOT shows its intension to elaborate suitable expressway development and maintenance framework based on the experiences of neighboring countries with special attention to ownership and asset management of expressway. AusAID showed their intention for assistance to construct Vam Cong Bridge. MOT and the related donors reconfirmed the importance of feedbacks from VITRANSS 2 for their enhancing prioritization. The partnership group confirmed the necessity of alignment of donors' supports to MOT's expressway development plan in order to avoid aid duplication and inconsistency for comprehensive development of expressway in Vietnam. Actions for the next 6 months at mile stones for 2008 (1) MOT's restructuring MOT keeps effort to carry forward administration reform in sustainable and appropriate way so that MOT and the related institutions will improve public investment and ODA management system, including procurement, quality control, financial management and asset management in a balanced manner. The partnership group members will continue to cooperate with each other to elaborate necessary actions contributing to MOT's reform. (2) VRA Capacity Building VRA will make efforts to play a leading role so that all of the processes for project planning, implementation and maintenance under VRA will be carried out smoothly. In order to secure appropriate amount of budget for maintenance and new investment, MOT and VRA will keep efforts to keep close coordination with MOF. Donors will support the effort to be made by MOT and VRA. VRA will make efforts to facilitate authorization process of the selected database(s) for road and bridge management and to strengthen linkage between maintenance planning and its budgeting system to secure appropriate amount of budget for maintenance. Donors keep supporting in VRA for necessary capacity building. (3) Traffic Safety NTSC and TSPMU will make effort to facilitate approval process of National Traffic Safety Master Plan based on suggestions from JICA's development study. NTSC and TSPMU will keep efforts to enhance its coordinating and leading role in the field of traffic safety in order to align and mobilize diversified stakeholders' resources as well as donors' supports. Donors will support this effort in close coordination each other. (4) Expressway Development Strategy MOT will play a key role to align several resources in order to maximize effectiveness of investment and resources from the government, public and private enterprises and donors. MOT and donors will keep efforts to keep dialogues each other and to elaborate a "comprehensive express highway development plan" The partnership group members will continue to share feedbacks from VITRANSS 2 54 TRANSPORT SECTOR ASSISTANCE PROJECTS IN VIETNAM TRANSPORT PARTNERSHIP GROUP PROJECT DONOR STATUS DURATION CONTACT Road Improvement ADB Completed 1993-2001 Sai Gon Port ADB Completed 1994-2001 Second Road Improvement ADB Completed 1997-2003 Third Road Improvement (including Implementation of Sector ADB Completed 1998-2005 pvallely@adb.org ; ldthang@adb.org Development Policy - ISDP component) GMS: HCMC-Phnom Penh Highway ADB Completed 1998-2005 pvallely@adb.org; ldthang@adb.org GMS: East-West Corridor ADB Completed 2000-2006 pvallely@adb.org; ldthang@adb.org Provincial Roads Improvement ADB Ongoing 2001-2008 pvallely@adb.org.; ldthang@adb.org Central Region Transport Network ADB Ongoing 2005-2010 pvallely@adb.org; ldthang@adb.org GMS: Ha Noi - Lao Cai Railway ADB/AFD Ongoing 2006-2010 pvallely@adb.org; pbroch@adb.org ldthang@adb.org; salomons@groupe-afd.org megueullec@groupe-afd.org, sylvain.biard@missioneco.org Kunming-Haiphong Transport Corridor: Noi Bai-Lao Cai ADB Ongoing Investment 2007-2008 pvallely@adb.org Expressway (Engineering Loan) Loans ytanaka@adb.org ldthang@adb.org Noi Bai-Lao Cai Expressway (Investment Loan) Ongoing 2008-2012 GMS: Southern Coastal Corridor ADB/EDCF Implementation 2007-2011 pvallely@adb.org (Korea)/AusAi ldthang@adb.org d Ho Chi Minh­ Long Thanh ­ Dau Giay Expressway ADB/JICA Engineering Loan pvallely@adb.org Engineering Loan Ongoing ldthang@adb.org Investment Loan under Firm 2008 Preparation Stage Ho Chi Minh City Metro Rail (Engineering Loan) ADB Preparation Stage Firm 2008 hjenny@adb.org pvallely@adb.org; ldthang@adb.org Ho Chi Minh City Metro Rail (Investment Loan) Preparation Stage Firm 2009 Expressway Preparation Facility (Engineering Loan) ADB Preparation Stage Firm 2008 ytanaka@adb.org; pvallely@adb.org ldthang@adb.org 55 HCMC Second Ring Road ADB Preparation Stage Firm 2009 pvallely@adb.org; ldthang@adb.org Central Mekong Delta Transport Connectivity (two bridges ADB Preparation Stage Firm 2009 pbroch@adb.org; pvallely@adb.org over Tien and Hau rivers) ldthang@adb.org Ben Luc ­ Long Thanh Expressway ADB/JICA Preparation Stage Firm 2009 ytanaka@adb.org; pvallely@adb.org ldthang@adb.org Transport Infrastructure in Northern Mountainous Provinces ADB Preparation Stage Firm 2010 pvallely@adb.org; ldthang@adb.org Second Northern GMS Transport Network ADB Preparation Stage Firm 2009 pvallely@adb.org; ldthang@adb.org GMS: Ha Noi ­ Lang Son Expressway ADB Preparation Stage Firm 2010 ytanaka@adb.org ldthang@adb.org pvallely@adb.org Ha Long ­ Mong Cai Expressway ADB Preparation Stage Firm 2011 ytanaka@adb.org pvallely@adb.org; ldthang@adb.org HCMC Outer Ring Road ADB Conceptual 2011 pvallely@adb.org; ldthang@adb.org GMS: Second East-West Corridor ADB Conceptual pvallely@adb.org; ldthang@adb.org Provincial Transport Development ADB Conceptual pvallely@adb.org; ldthang@adb.org Railways Rehabilitation II ADB Conceptual pvallely@adb.org; ldthang@adb.org Ha Noi Urban Transport ADB/ Conceptual pvallely@adb.org; ldthang@adb.org GMS: Southern Coastal Corridor, Phase 2 ADB Conceptual pvallely@adb.org; ldthang@adb.org Ha Noi Metro Rail ADB/AFD Conceptual hjenny@adb.org; pvallely@adb.org ldthang@adb.org Review of Rural Road Strategy DFID Completed May 2005 ­ April 2006 Simon Lucas s-lucas@dfid.gov.uk Transport sector co-ordination DFID/JICA Completed November 2004 - Yoshifumi Omura, (SEDP inputs and other co-ord. support) March 2006 JICA:Omura.Yoshifumi@jica.go.jp Simon Lucas: s-lucas@dfid.gov.uk Bridge Inspection and Repair Project Finland/ Ongoing 2003-2006 thaiduckhai@cftd-group.com FINNVERA Mauri.Mottonen@finnroad.fi F/S on rehabilitation of Long Bien bridge France (MoF) Completed 2004 sylvain.biard@missioneco.org F/S on tramway line France (MoF) Completed 2004 sylvain.biard@missioneco.org F/S on pilot rail urban transportation line France (MoF) Completed 2005 sylvain.biard@missioneco.org 56 Modernization of the signaling and telecommunications system France (MoF) Completed sylvain.biard@missioneco.org of the Hanoi - Vinh railway (phase 1) Modernization of the signaling and telecommunications system France (MoF) Ongoing sylvain.biard@missioneco.org of the Hanoi - Vinh railway (phase 2) Procurement of equipments for the repairing of locomotives France (MoF) Completed sylvain.biard@missioneco.org Rehabilitation of 4 railway tunnels at Hai Van Pass France (MoF) Completed sylvain.biard@missioneco.org Procurement of equipments for the maintenance of the rail France (MoF) Ongoing sylvain.biard@missioneco.org track between Hanoi and Vinh Hanoi Pilot Metro Line Nhon - Hanoi Railway Station France Ongoing 2007-2010 sylvain.biard@missioneco.org (MoF/AFD/ megueullec@groupe-afd.org FFEM) salomons@groupe-afd.org Vietnam Railways Project GTZ Ongoing 2001- 2006 Nguyen Van Tau gtzvr@hn.vnn.vn Hanoi ­ Ho Chi Minh City Railways Bridge Rehabilitation JICA Completed 1994 - 2005 Yoshifumi Omura, JICA Project Omura.Yoshifumi@jica.go.jp National Highway No.1 Bridge Rehabilitation Project JICA Completed 1994 - 1999 Ai Miura, JICA Miura.Ai@jica.go.jp National Highway No. 5 Improvement Project JICA Completed 1994 - 2004 Ai Miura, JICA Miura.Ai@jica.go.jp National Highway No. 1 Bridge Rehabilitation Project JICA Completed 1996 - 2005 Ai Miura, JICA Miura.Ai@jica.go.jp Hai Van Tunnel Construction Project JICA Completed 1997 - 2007 Ai Miura, JICA Miura.Ai@jica.go.jp National Highway No. 10 Improvement Project JICA Completed 1998 - 2007 Ai Miura, JICA Miura.Ai@jica.go.jp Second National Highway No. 1 Bridge Rehabilitation Project JICA Completed 1999 - 2006 Ai Miura, JICA Miura.Ai@jica.go.jp Da Nang Port Improvement Project JICA Completed 1999 - 2006 Yoshifumi Omura, JICA Omura.Yoshifumi@jica.go.jp Coastal Communication System Project in Southern Vietnam JICA Completed 2000 - 2007 Mamoru Sakai, JICA Sakai.Mamoru@JICA.go.jp Binh Bridge Construction Project JICA Completed 2000 - 2007 Ai Miura, JICA Miura.Ai@jica.go.jp Bai Chay Bridge Construction Project JICA Completed 2001 - 2008 Ai Miura, JICA Miura.Ai@jica.go.jp Cai Lan Port Expansion Project JICA Ongoing 1996 - 2008 Yoshifumi Omura, JICA Omura.Yoshifumi@jica.go.jp Hanoi Urban Infrastructure Development Project JICA Ongoing 1997 - 2008 Taro Katsurai, JICA 57 Katsurai.Taro@JICA.go.jp National Highway No. 18 Improvement Project JICA Ongoing 1998 - 2008 Ai Miura, JICA Miura.Ai@jica.go.jp Rural Development and Living Standard Improvement Project JICA Ongoing 1999 - 2006 Nguyen Thi Van Anh, JICA III (Rural Road) NguyenThiVanAnh.VT@jica.go.jp Transport Infrastructure Development Project in Hanoi JICA Ongoing 1999 - 2009 Taro Katsurai, JICA Katsurai.Taro@jica.go.jp Hai Phong Port Rehabilitation Project (Phase II) JICA Ongoing 2000 ­ 2008 Yoshifumi Omura, JICA Omura.Yoshifumi@jica.go.jp Sai Gon East-West Highway Construction Project JICA Ongoing 2000 - 2010 Yoshifumi Omura, JICA Omura.Yoshifumi@jica.go.jp Red River (Thanh Tri) Bridge Construction Project JICA Ongoing 2000 - 2010 Ai Miura, JICA Miura.Ai@jica.go.jp Can Tho Bridge Construction Project JICA Ongoing 2001 - 2009 Ai Miura, JICA Miura.Ai@jica.go.jp National Highway No. 1 Bypass Road Construction Project JICA Ongoing 2001 - 2009 Ai Miura, JICA Miura.Ai@jica.go.jp Tan Son Nhat International Airport Terminal Construction JICA Ongoing 2002 - 2008 Yoshifumi Omura, JICA Project Omura.Yoshifumi@jica.go.jp Small-Scale Pro Poor Infrastructure Development Project JICA Ongoing 2003 - 2009 Nguyen Thi Van Anh, JICA (Rural Road) NguyenThiVanAnh.VT@jica.go.jp Third National Highway No. 1 Bridge Rehabilitation Project JICA Ongoing 2003 - 2009 Ai Miura, JICA Miura.Ai@jica.go.jp Transport Sector Loan for National Road Network JICA Ongoing 2004 - 2010 Ai Miura, JICA Miura.Ai@jica.go.jp Improvement Hanoi ­ Ho Chi Minh City Railway Line Bridges Safety JICA Ongoing 2004 - 2009 Yoshifumi Omura, JICA Improvement Project Omura.Yoshifumi@jica.go.jp Cai Mep-Thi Vai International Port Construction Project JICA Ongoing 2004 - 2012 Yoshifumi Omura, JICA Omura.Yoshifumi@jica.go.jp New National Highway No.3 and Regional Road Network JICA Ongoing 2005 - 2011 Ai Miura, JICA Miura.Ai@jica.go.jp Project Nhat Than Bridge Construction Project JICA Ongoing 2006 - 2010 Ai Miura, JICA Miura.Ai@jica.go.jp Small-Scale Pro Poor Infrastructure Development Project (II) JICA Ongoing 2006 - 2010 Nguyen Thi Van Anh, JICA (Rural Road) NguyenThiVanAnh.VT@jica.go.jp Northern Vietnam National Roads Traffic Safety Improvement JICA Ongoing 2007 - 2012 Ai Miura, JICA Miura.Ai@jica.go.jp Project 58 North-South Expressway Construction Project HCM-Long JICA Ongoing 2007 - 2017 Yoshifumi Omura, JICA Thanh-Dau Giay Omura.Yoshifumi@jica.go.jp Hanoi Ring Road No. 3 Construction Project JICA Under preparation 2008 - 2013 Ai Miura, JICA Miura.Ai@jica.go.jp The Study on Urban Transport Master Plan and Feasibility JICA Completed 2002-2004 PhanBinh.VT@jica.go.jp Study in Ho Chi Minh Metropolitan Area (HOUTRANS) lethithuhang@jica.org.vn Detailed Design Study of CAI MEP-THI VAI International JICA Completed 2004-2006 Kobayashi.Kenichi@jica.go.jp Terminals lethithuhang@jica.org.vn The Project on the Improvement of Port Management System JICA Ongoing 2005-2009 Kobayashi.Kenichi@jica.go.jp lethithuhang@jica.org.vn The Project for Traffic Safety Human Resource Development JICA Ongoing 2006-2009 Kobayashi.Kenichi@jica.go.jp in Hanoi (TRAHUD) lethithuhang@jica.org.vn The Study for Traffic Safety Master Plan JICA Ongoing 2007-2008 Kobayashi.Kenichi@jica.go.jp lethithuhang@jica.org.vn The Study for Roadside Stations Master Plan JICA Ongoing 2006-2008 BinhPhan.vt@jica.go.jp lethithuhang@jica.org.vn The Comprehensive Urban Development Programme in Hanoi JICA Completed 2004-2007 Kobayashi.Kenichi@jica.go.jp Capital City (HAIDEP) lethithuhang@jica.org.vn The Study on the National Transport Development Strategy JICA Under preparation 2007-2008 BinhPhan.vt@jica.go.jp (VITRANSS2) lethithuhang@jica.org.vn The Project for Reconstruction of Bridges in the Central Area ­ GOJ/JICA Pending 2003-2006 Hayashi.Masayuki@jica.go.jp Phase 2 lethithuhang@jica.org.vn Project for Reconstruction of Bridges in the Northern GOJ/JICA Pending 2005-2008 Hayashi.Masayuki@jica.go.jp Mountenious Provinces lethithuhang@jica.org.vn Project for strengthening training capabilities for Road JICA Completed 2001-2006 Kobayashi.Kenichi@jica.go.jp Construction Workers in Transport Technical and Professional lethithuhang@jica.org.vn School No.1 Building Railway Technical Standard Set JICA Under Preparation 2007-? PhanBinh.VT@jica.go.jp lethithuhang@jica.org.vn Advisor on Railway Planning and Management JICA Under Preparation 2007-2008 PhanBinh.VT@jica.go.jp lethithuhang@jica.org.vn Feasibility Study on Urban Railway System of Hanoi KfW completed 1999-2000 Mr. Richter, Mr. Nguyen Van Minh office@kfwvn.com Supply of Modern Railway Cranes KfW Ongoing 2000-2003 Mr. Richter, Mr. Nguyen Van Minh office@kfwvn.com 59 Workshop Programme Danang KfW Ongoing 1999 - 2005 Mr. Richter, Mr. Nguyen Van Minh office@kfwvn.com Main Line Locomotives KfW Ongoing 2001-2007 Mr. Richter, Mr. Nguyen Van Minh office@kfwvn.com Hopper Suction Dredger KfW Ongoing 2000-2005 Mr. Richter, Mr. Nguyen Van Minh office@kfwvn.com Vietnam Railway Control Center KfW Ongoing 2007-2010 Mr. Richter, Mr. Nguyen Van Minh office@kfwvn.com Urban Transport Improvement Project WB Completed 11/1998-6/2005 Shomik Mehndirattasmehndiratta@worldbank.org Inland Waterways and Port Rehabilitation Project WB Completed 03/1998-04/2006 Simon Ellis sellis1@worldbank.org Rural Transport Project WB Completed 1996 ­ 2000 Phuong Thi Minh Tran ptran1@worldbank.org Second Rural Transport Project WB Completed 2000 ­ 06/2006 Phuong Thi Minh Tran ptran1@worldbank.org Highway Rehabilitation Project WB Completed 1993 ­ 2001 Dung Anh Hoang dhoang1@worldbank.org Second Highway Rehabilitation Project WB Completed 1997 - 2005 Dung Anh Hoang dhoang1@worldbank.org Multi-Modal Transport Regulatory Review (PPIAF) WB Completed 5/2005-1/2006 Baher El-Hifnawi melhifnawi@worldbank.org Study on Consolidation and Development of bus System in WB Completed 6/2005-1/2006 Shomik Mehndiratta HCMC (PPIAF) smehndiratta@worldbank.org Rural Road Surfacing Research WB/DFID/ Completed 05/2003 ­ 03/2009 Jasper Cook jaspcook@btinternet.com SEACAP Expressway Development (Da Nang ­ Quang Ngai) Project WB Under preparation 04/2010 ­ 04/2016 Simon Ellis sellis1@worldbank.org Phuong Thi Minh Tran ptran1@worldbank.org Hai Phong Urban Transport Project WB Under preparation 2010 - 2015 Reindert Westra rwestra@worldbank.org Cuong Duc Dang cdang@worldbank.org Van Anh Thi Tran vtran@worldbank.org Mekong Transport and Flood Protection Project WB Ongoing 10/2001-12/2010 Maria Margarita Nunez mnunez@worldbank.org Dung Anh Hoang dhoang1@worldbank.org Mekong Transport and Flood Protection Project ­ Additional WB Ongoing 11/2007-12/2010 Dung Anh Hoang dhoang1@worldbank.org Financing Road Network Improvement Project WB Ongoing 10/2004- 12/2009 Phuong Thi Minh Tran ptran1@worldbank.org 60 Road Network Improvement Project ­ Additional Financing WB Under preparation 2009 - 2012 Phuong Thi Minh Tran ptran1@worldbank.org Road Safety Project WB Ongoing 03/2006-12/2009 Van Anh Thi Tran vtran@worldbank.org Hanoi Urban Transport Development Project WB Ongoing 03/2008-12/2013 Reindert Westra rwestra@worldbank.org Cuong Duc Dang cdang@worldbank.org Van Anh Thi Tran vtran@worldbank.org GEF - Hanoi Urban Transport Development Project WB On-going 03/2008-12/2013 Reindert Westra rwestra@worldbank.org Cuong Duc Dang cdang@worldbank.org Van Anh Thi Tran vtran@worldbank.org Mekong Transport Infrastructure Development project WB Ongoing 05/2007-12/2013 Simon Ellis sellis1@worldbank.org Dung Anh Hoang dhoang1@worldbank.org Northern Delta Transport Development Project WB Ongoing 06/2008-06/2014 Baher El-Hifnawi melhifnawi@worldbank.org Dung Anh Hoang dhoang1@worldbank.org Third Rural Transport Project WB/DFID Ongoing 09/2007 ­ 12/2011 Phuong Thi Minh Tran ptran1@worldbank.org Simon Ellis sellis1@worldbank.org Ngo Thi Quynh Hoa nq-hoa@dfid.gov.uk Third Rural Transport Project ­ Additional Financing WB/DFID Under preparation 07/2009 ­ 07/2012 Phuong Thi Minh Tran ptran1@worldbank.org Simon Ellis sellis1@worldbank.org 61 LEGAL REFORM PARTNERSHIP MAIN CONTENTS AND NEW POINTS OF DECREE NO. 78/2008/ND-CP ON MANAGEMENT OF LEGAL COOPERATION WITH FOREIGN PARTNERS On 17 July 2008, the Government issued Decree No. 78/2008/ND-CP on Management of Legal Cooperation with Foreign partners (Decree 78/CP). This document replaced Decree No. 103/1998/ND-CP dated 26 December 1998 on Management of Legal Cooperation with Foreign partners. The issuance of Decree 78/CP has contributed to creating a comprehensive and feasible legal framework for the state management of international legal cooperation. This paper will try to give a brief introduction to main contents of Decree 78/CP, particularly focuses on the new points of this Decree in comparison with the previous Decree No. 103. The purpose of this article is to help concerned agencies to better understand the legal provisions pertaining to the management and implementation of legal cooperation activities with foreign partners, contributing to enhancing the efficiency of this kind of cooperation and effectiveness of the management of public resources - one of the key tasks of the Government. In addition to the general introduction about structure and main contents of the Decree, this paper will consist of 7 parts, introducing and analyzing 7 main contents of the Decree 1) Scope of the Decree, principles, contents and forms of legal cooperation with foreign partners; 2) mobilization and coordination of legal cooperation programs and projects; 3) evaluation of legal cooperation programs and projects; 4) procedures for submitting and implementing cooperation programs and projects; 5) monitoring and evaluation of cooperation programs and projects; 6) reporting of the status of implementation of legal cooperation programs and projects and; 7) the state management of legal cooperation with foreign partners. 1. General introduction Decree No. 78 has been drafted by inheriting a number of still appropriate provisions on management of legal cooperation with foreign partners in Decree 103/CP and Decree 131/2006/ND-CP dated 9 November 2006, which replaced Decree 17/2001/ND-CP dated 4 May 2001 on Management and Use of Official Development Assistance (Decree 131/CP). Decree 78/CP can help overcome the weaknesses found in Decree 103/CP and added a number of new provisions reflecting modern principles and approaches in management and receipt of aid from foreign partners, especial official development assistance (ODA) such as: centralism, democracy; publicity, transparency; task assignment; delegation of power; combination of rights and responsibilities; reinforcing reactivity and initiatives combining with effective inspection and check; harmonized procedures, etc. Decree remarks a substantive progress compared to the previous framework documents concerning the invitation, management and implementation of legal cooperation activities. More over, this Decree regulates in a relatively comprehensive manner the state management of all stages in the use of international assistance funds for legal cooperation activities, from campaign for and implementation to monitoring and evaluation of cooperation programs and projects, as well as clearly defines functions, duties and rights of the agencies involved in the management and implementation of legal cooperation programs and projects, including focal agencies, general agencies, line units and beneficiaries of those cooperation programs and projects. Another strong point of Decree 78/CP is its consistence with other legal normative documents concerning the management and use international assistance, especially Decree 131 on Management and Use of Official Development Assistance. With respect to its structure, the Decree composes of 5 chapters with 28 articles. Chapter II of the old Decree (formation of, application for and implementation of legal cooperation programs and plans with foreign partners) was separated and changed into the three new chapters, namely Chapter II (Campaign for and Coordination of Cooperation Programs and Projects); Chapter III (Evaluation of Cooperation Programs and Projects), and Chapter IV (Procedures for Submitting and 62 Implementing Cooperation Programs and Projects). This change in the structure was to concretize provisions on campaigning and seeking for partners; process and contents of the evaluation; competence to approve programs and projects, creating favorable conditions for line agencies in forming and applying for approval of programs and projects. In addition, the new Decree has been added Chapter V (Monitoring and Evaluation of Cooperation Programs and Projects) to make more detail the provisions on the monitoring and evaluation responsibility; reporting; inspection and check; systemization of the provisions concerning the state management contained in Chapter I and Chapter IV of Decree 103/CP. 2. Scope of the Decree, principles, contents and forms of legal cooperation with foreign partners Chapter I "General Provisions" defines the scope of regulation and subjects of application of the Decree; principles of legal cooperation with foreign partners; contents and forms of cooperation. One of the new features of Decree 78/CP in comparison with Decree 103/CP is the expansion of the former's scope of regulation. The old Decree only regulated legal cooperation activities of central bodies, leaving this type of cooperation carried out by provincial authorities unregulated. However, according to legal provisions in force, provincial authorities also have the power to issue legal normative documents and organize the implementation of laws and regulations. Given the current limited resources in localities, assistance and support from foreign partners are necessary to carry out this task successfully. Moreover, even in relation to central agencies, Decree 103/CP did not regulate legal cooperation activities of some state agencies, such as the bodies of the National Assembly, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuracy. Until now, the Ministry of Justice is still performing the task of coordinating and monitoring international legal cooperation programs and projects implemented by the above said agencies. The designation of a single focal point (the Ministry of Justice) to be in charge of uniform management of all legal cooperation activities would therefore be necessary, like Decree 131/CP assigned the Ministry of Planning and Investment to uniformly administer all ODA using programs and projects. Given the practice as mentioned above, the scope of Decree 78/CP was extended to cover legal cooperation activities of provincial people's committees, bodies of the National Assembly, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuracy. Specifically, the new Decree shall apply to cooperation in legal matters of ministries, ministerial-level bodies and bodies attached to the Government, central organs of socio-political organizations, social organizations, socio-professional organizations, people's committees of the provinces and cities under central administration (hereafter referred to as "line agencies")1 with foreign governments, international inter-governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations. Units belonging to those line agencies who wish to carry out legal cooperation with foreign partners may do so only through their line agencies.2 The principles of legal cooperation with foreign partners set out in Decree 103/CP have been inherited and further developed in Chapter I of the new Decree, according to which legal cooperation with foreign partners must be carried out on the basis of maintaining the national independence, sovereignty, security, social order and safety, complying with the Constitution and laws, preserving the nation's traditions and customs, ensuring efficiency and effectiveness and avoiding duplication and overlapping; contents of cooperation programs and projects must be based 1 Under Decree No. 103, ministries, ministerial-level bodies, bodies attached to the Government and provincial people's committees were commonly called as "Vietnamese agencies and organizations". They are, however, called as "line agencies" under Decree 78/CP because this expression is officially used in Decree 131/2006/ND-CP. Moreover, the phrase "line agencies" could help define more clearly who are responsible for the management of cooperation programs and projects (line agency, project owner or project management unit...) 2 The Decree does not regulate legal cooperation with foreign enterprises or individuals. Legal cooperation between Vietnamese line agencies and foreign enterprises and individuals is not of the state nature, but carries private nature. Should this cooperation is in a close association with assistance in monies or in kind, Decision No. 64/2001/QD-TTg dated 26 April 2001 for Promulgation of Regulation on Management and Use of Foreign Non-Governmental Aid shall apply 63 on the socio-economic development policies and strategies adopted by the Party and the State and the Vietnam Legal System Development Strategy, the Judicial Reform Strategy, Legislative Agenda of the National Assembly, level of priority of the cooperation matter given the line agencies and foreign partners. In addition to comply with other requirements by the Decree, the formation and permission of signing and implementation of cooperation programs and projects must comply with existing provisions concerning the management and use of foreign non-governmental assistance and other relevant legal normative documents. Contents of legal cooperation are envisaged in Article 2 of the Decree, which includes technical assistance in 1) drafting, evaluation and post-check of legal normative documents; 2) organizing for the implementation of enacted legal normative documents and international treaties to which Vietnam is a party; supervising the implementation laws and regulations; 3) strengthening the capacity of law drafting agencies, investigating, prosecuting, adjudicating and judgments executing bodies, civil affairs and judicial-supporting agencies; 4) graduate and post-graduate legal training, refreshing courses for officials involved in drafting of legal normative documents, judges, court's examiners, court's secretaries, procurators, investigators, executors, examiners of judgments execution agencies, legal aid assistants, criminal judgments executors; arbitrators, public notaries, registrars, lawyers and other member of the legal profession; 5) dissemination of legal information, legal education and legal aid, in addition to other type of legal cooperation activities stipulated by law. Also, Chapter I "General Provisions" provides flexibly for various forms of legal cooperation, including the conclusion and implementation of international treaties, cooperation programs and projects with foreign partners; holding academic conferences, workshops, seminars, legal training workshops with the participation or sponsor by foreign agencies or organizations; organization of study tours, exchange of experience in the legal field; exchange of legal documents, including text books, teaching materials, texts of legal acts and other law books; and sending specialists to give advice on legal cooperation contents, etc. 3. Campaign for and coordination of legal cooperation programs and projects The Ministry of Justice's role in coordinating legal cooperation activities is prominent in the new Decree, particularly through chairing and coordinating with the Ministry of Planning and Investment to hold annual legal assistance coordination meetings. In addition, the coordination task of the Ministry of Justice is recognized in its coordination with line agencies to arrange the negotiation with foreign partners to move financial commitments to other more appropriate areas, should the areas committed by those partners have been supported by other donors or those commitments do not reflect the level of cooperation priority. These new stipulations came from Article 6 (Organization of Agency-Based Coordination Meeting) of Decree 131. This meeting will be held following an annual meeting of the consultation group of donors for Vietnam where specific issues relating to legal and judicial cooperation shall be discussed thoroughly in order to avoid any duplication and overlapping in cooperation programs and projects maximize the efficiency of provided aid. The coordination of international legal cooperation activities is carried out by the Ministry of Justice on the basis of ODA programs and projects within the list of needs for financial assistance approved by the Prime Minister and the list of programs and projects requiring foreign non-governmental assistance or financial commitments by other foreign donors, based on the following criteria: 1) level of priority of the matter requiring cooperation; 2) managerial experience and ability to receive and use assistance; and 3) there is no duplication of cooperation activities. Chapter 2 was added to the new Decree to provide for campaigning for cooperation programs and projects. According to this Chapter, bases for campaigning for legal cooperation programs and projects are socio-economic development strategies; orientation for mobilizing and using ODA; legal system development strategy; judicial reform strategy; legislative agenda of the National Assembly; existing legal provisions on management and use of ODA and foreign non-governmental aid. A line 64 agency who has the need for legal cooperation with a foreign partner is required to coordinate closely with the Ministry of Justice and other concerned agencies to define contents of cooperation in the form of a legal cooperation program or project. In addition, if a line agency has the need for legal cooperation but has not found a foreign partner for this purpose, the agency may request the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Planning and Investment or the Committee for Foreign Non- Governmental Organizations Affairs to assist in seeking for an appropriate foreign partner. 4. Evaluation of legal cooperation programs and projects Chapter II of Decree 87/CP provides in detail for principles, responsibility, right, contents and procedure for evaluating of legal cooperation programs and projects. Basically, the principles, right and procedure for making the evaluation are consistent with existing legal provisions on the evaluation of legal normative documents and international treaties prescribed in the Regulation on Evaluation of Draft Legal Normative Documents Promulgated together with Decision No. 280/1999/QD-BTP dated 27 September 1999 and the Regulation on Evaluation of International Treaties Promulgated together with Decision No. 06/2006/QD-BTP dated 24 July 2006 of the Minister of Justice. However, Contents of the evaluation of legal cooperation programs and projects with foreign partners are different from the contents of evaluation of domestic legal normative documents and of international treaties. Article 7 of Decree 78/CP provides for the contents a legal cooperation program or project that must be evaluated, namely: 1) necessity of the program or project; 2) relevance of the cooperation objectives, contents and form and expected results of the program or project to the legal cooperation contents stipulated by the Decree and to the level of priority of the cooperation program or project, and functions and tasks of the line agency; 3) constitutionality and legality and level of conformity of the program or project with Vietnamese laws and regulations; conformity of the program or project with the international treaties to which Vietnam is a party; 4) induplication of that program or project with other programs and projects; 5) feasibility of the program or project; capacity and professional ability and cooperation experience of the foreign partner agency or organization; 6) social and economic efficiency of the program or project once implemented; possible adverse impact of the program or project; and 7) documentary language and drafting technique. Other provisions concerning the procedure for conducting the evaluation of legal cooperation programs and projects, such as submission and receipt of an evaluation file, establishment of an evaluation council, is stipulated clearly in Articles 11, 12 and 13 of the Decree. 5. Procedure for submitting and implementing cooperation programs and projects The procedure for submitting and implementing cooperation programs and projects are set out in Articles 14 to 17, Chapter IV of the Decree. In principle, the submission to the competent authority for approval of a program or project must comply with the procedure prescribed by laws and regulations on management and use of official development assistance and foreign non- governmental aid. Article 14 of the Decree concerning the procedure for submitting legal cooperation programs and projects again emphasizes the Ministry of Justice's role in conducting evaluation by providing for responsibility of line agencies to obtain evaluation opinions of the Ministry of Justice on those programs and projects that must be approved by the Prime Minister before they could be submitted to the Prime Minister for approval. In addition, for those programs and projects, which must be approved by line agencies, these agencies are required to receive comments of the Ministry of Justice before the programs and projects could be approved. The provisions on implementation of cooperation programs and projects in the new Decree are basically similar to those contained in Decree No. 103. One of the requirements for ensuring uniformity and effectiveness of the management of legal cooperation activities is the provision: "in the implementation process, the line agency must regularly coordinate closely with the Ministry of 65 Justice, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Finance and the Committee for Foreign Non-Governmental Organization Affairs, on the matters that are within the managerial competence of each agency". A line agency may implement or permit the implementation of a program or project only after the signed agreement became legally binding. Any amendment or addition to, or adjustment of a legal cooperation program or project must be made in accordance with the legal provisions on the management and use of official development assistance and the management and use of foreign non-governmental aid. The evaluation and submission to the competent authority for approval are mandatory requirements for all programs and projects whose objectives have been changed and for projects whose amendment, addition or adjustment has resulted in changes in the contents of the concluded international treaty. The suspension, temporary discontinuance or cancellation of a legal program, plan or project between a line agency and a foreign partner shall be decided by the competent authority according to the laws and regulations on conclusion, accession and implementation of international treaties, the legal provisions on the management and use of official development assistance and foreign non- governmental aid. 6. Monitoring and evaluation of cooperation programs and projects The provisions concerning the responsibility to monitor, evaluate, report, conduct inspection and check and to carry out systemization of the provisions regarding the state management in Chapter I and Chapter IV of Decree 103/CP have been systemized and designed much more adequately in Chapter V of Decree 78/CP. The responsibility to monitor and evaluate a legal cooperation program or project, is first of all, lies on the project or program management units, the owner of a program or project and the line agency. Specifically, the project or program management unit shall have the responsibility to regularly monitor and evaluate the program or project; the owner of the program or project is in charge of steering, urging and assisting the program or project management unit in monitoring and evaluating the program or project; the line agency shall take the lead in making plans and coordinate with relevant bodies to conduct or hire specialists to assess impact of the program or project. These are new provisions compared to those contained in Decree 131/CP. In addition to the responsibility of the owner of a program or project and of the line agency, the role of the Ministry of Justice in legal cooperation is stressed more clearly by the new Decree by conferring upon the Ministry the responsibility to 1) take the lead in and coordinate with concerned ministries and agencies to monitor and evaluate the capacity to manage and implement legal cooperation programs and projects with foreign partners; 2) take the lead in working out regular statistical figures regarding the receipt and implementation of legal cooperation programs and projects with foreign partners; coordinate with relevant agencies to establish and operate an information system for the purpose of monitoring and evaluating programs and projects, facilitating the exchange of information from and effective utilization of this system. 7. Reporting about status of implementation of legal cooperation programs and projects The reporting about the status of implementation of legal cooperation programs and projects is stipulated in a more flexible way Decree 131/2006/ND-CP in comparison to the previous stipulation in Decree 103/CP regarding reporting about the status of implementation of ODA programs and projects. For ODA programs and projects, reports must be sent to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Finance and other relevant agencies on monthly, annual, middle-term and final bases (Article 36). In legal cooperation, however, only six-month and annual reports are required to be sent to the Ministry of Justice. Specifically, the line agency is required to send six- month and annual reports to the Ministry of Justice about the status of implementation legal cooperation activities with foreign partners and to anticipate the implementation of following cooperation programs and projects according to a standardized form issued by the Ministry; the 66 Ministry of Justice has the responsibility to summarize the status of, analyze and evaluate legal cooperation activities with foreign partners and to send periodic reports to the Prime Minister. Another new point of Decree 78/CP compared to Decree 103/CP is the provision concerning inspection and check of the implementation of legal cooperation programs and projects. Under Decree 78/CP, the Ministry of Justice is responsible to the Government for checking the implementation of legal cooperation programs and projects by the line agencies. This Decree also allows the Ministry of Justice to, if necessary, set up an inter-agency checking team to check the implementation of a program or project. In conducting a check, the Ministry of Justice and the inter- agency checking team have the right to request the agency implementing a program or project to improve this work; if any violation of law concerning the implementation of a cooperation program, plan or project is detected during a check, the Ministry of Justice and the inter-agency checking team shall propose the Prime Minister to deal with according to the provisions of law. 8. The state management of legal cooperation activities with foreign partners The contents of the state management of legal cooperation activities with foreign partners are defined clearly in the final Chapter Decree 78/CP, according to which the Government shall uniformly manage all legal cooperation activities with foreign partners; the Ministry of Justice is to assist the Government in carrying out the uniform management of legal cooperation activities with foreign partners; ministries, ministerial-level bodies, and bodies attached to the Government shall carry out the state management of cooperation programs, plans and projects in accordance with the provisions of law and have the responsibility to coordinate with the Ministry of Justice in managing legal cooperation with foreign partners according to the provisions of Decree 78/CP. Specifically, in carrying out the uniform management of legal cooperation activities with foreign partners, the Ministry of Justice has the following tasks and powers: 1. To draft and submit to the state competent authorities for issuing or issue at its own authority legal normative documents concerning legal cooperation with foreign partners. 2. To formulate and submit to the Government for approval policies on legal cooperation with foreign partners. 3. Summary and coordinate in defining contents of legal cooperation programs, plans and projects with foreign partners. 4. To evaluate contents of legal cooperation programs, plans and projects, including amendment of, addition to, or extension of those cooperation programs, plans and projects. 5. To issue standardized forms of reports about the status of implementation legal cooperation activities with foreign partners. 6. To coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Public Security, the Committee for Foreign Non- Governmental Organizations Affairs and concerned ministries and agencies to monitor, check and evaluate the implementation of contents of legal cooperation programs, plans and projects with foreign partners. 7. To provide guidelines for, urge and check to ensure that the line agencies referred to in Article 1 of this Decree implement cooperation activities in compliance with the provisions of this Decree; if any violation is detected, to propose the Prime Minister to take appropriate measures to deal with the violation. 8. To make preliminary and final summations, statistics, evaluation and to report to the Prime Minister on the status of implementation of legal cooperation programs, plans and projects with foreign partners. To effectively implement Decree 78/CP and cusses fully carry out the state management in the legal area, in coming time, the Ministry of Justice should issue a series of implementation guiding documents, including a Circular for guiding the implementation of the Decree, a Regulation on Evaluation of Legal Cooperation Programs and Projects, forms of reports on the status of implementation of legal cooperation programs and projects, etc. In addition, capacity building and strengthening, including the organization of training on the said above legal normative documents, 67 provision of information about and skills to formulate and manage projects on a regular and professional basis to officials of central and local agencies, who will be involved in the implementation of legal cooperation activities, would be essential. A comprehensively developed system of international legal cooperation management institutions plus a body of officials well-trained in the international cooperation field would be essential to ensure the efficient and effective management of legal cooperation programs and projects with foreign partners, contributing to effective management of public resources ­ one of the key tasks of the Government now. 68 MAPPING OF INTERNATIONAL AID TO THE LEGAL/ JUDICIAL AREA ANALYSIS5 Introduction The terms of reference for this report note that "[d]uring the past decades, the international community has assisted Vietnam in establishing and improving its legal system. However, the effectiveness and efficiency of such assistance has been limited due to the fact that Vietnam has only recently had an overall strategy for the development of its legal system, and has particularly lacked a common co-ordination framework for international assistance." Vietnam has taken a number of steps to address these issues, including the drafting of Legal Needs Assessment led and chaired by the Ministry of Justice in 2001 and 2002 with representatives from the Supreme People's Court, Supreme People's Procuracy, Office of the National Assembly, Office of the Government, Office of the President, Ministry of Planning and Investment, Internal Affairs Commission of the Party, and assisted in part by a consortium of nine multilateral and bilateral development agencies and international legal advisors.6 That effort results in the Final Draft Report for the Development of Vietnam's Legal System to the Year 2010, including, as the Terms of Reference point out, "a proposed framework for international legal cooperation." In recent years, as the Terms of Reference make clear, "[t]he most important event that may be considered as a great result of such efforts is that the Politburo of the Communist Party of Vietnam passed Resolution No. 48-NQ/TW on Strategy for Development and Improvement of the Vietnam Legal System up to 2010 and Vision up to 2020 (LSDS) on 24 May 2005, and passed Resolution No. 49-NQ/TW on Judicial Reform Strategy (JRS) on 02 June 2005. These documents, together with Directive 900/UBTVQH11 of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, adopted on 21 March 2007, are significant achievements of both the LNA and Project VIE/02/015 and are having a positive impact on the directions to further develop Vietnam's legal system and assisting in the building of the socialist oriented rule-of-law state of the people, by the people and for the people." Resolutions 48 and Resolution 49 and Directive 900 are the key documents for Vietnam's strategic development of the legal and judicial system, and the basepoint for coordinating work on foreign assistance in this sector. The Ministry of Justice has "the duty to coordinate and manage all international aid in the legal and judicial area in order to facilitate national efforts in the implementation of legal and judicial reform," as the Terms of Reference make clear. It has done so through its ongoing work, through an annual report to the Prime Minister reviewing international aid in this area, through preparation of a report assessing international aid in the legal and judicial arena during the process of preparing the Legal Needs Assessment. Of these coordination and informat methods, the annual report to the Prime Minister is the most important, but, as the Terms of Reference make clear, it "is not as comprehensive and up to date as it should be because the information is rather limited, not collected on an on-going basis and the information is provided mainly from government agencies. Moreover, there is sometimes inconsistency and incorrect data in the information collected." Both the Ministry of Justice and international donors "want to strengthen coordination and prioritization in the legal/judicial areas, and strengthening the MOJ's coordination function on 5 The Analysis is prepared by Mark Sidel, Professor of Law, Faculty Scholar and Lauridsen Research Scholar of Iowa, Consultant, Ministry of Justice and UNDP, Project VIE/02/015 "Assistance for the Implementation of Vietnam's Legal System Development Strategy to 2010" 6 These included the Asian Development Bank, Australian Overseas Aid (Aus-Aid), DANIDA, the Government of France, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), UNDP, and the World Bank, as listed in the Terms of Reference. 69 international cooperation will be an effective mechanism and tool for updating information as well as to facilitating the forecast of needs and priorities on international aid for LSDS and JRS implementation." Tasks of this Report The object of this component of the VIE/02/015 project, as indicated in the Terms of Reference, is to "review and complete the mapping of past and on-going donor support of legal system development (projects/programmes within the legal and judicial field); to assess the evolution in coordination and harmonization of donors support of legal system development; to identify the areas of improvements and remaining challenges and to eventually suggest recommendations; to create a technical mechanism to update and sustain the mapping in an ongoing basis with active participation of not only Vietnamese agencies but also international donors; [and] to improve both the Government's and the Donors' abilities to establish priorities in supporting legal/judicial activities."7 Within those tasks, the object of this Report is to "to update the mapping that was done to identify which bilateral and UN donors are engaged with the Ministry of Justice and other Vietnamese agencies and organisation in the legal and judicial area, the nature of the projects and identification of both international and national implementers." Other tasks include "produc[ing] an updated mapping of all international aid in the legal and judicial area to the date the report is submitted, with a mechanism in place for formal updating of the information; whenever available, information on the individual plans developed by the agencies and ministries shall also be included." It is planned that the results of the final report will be presented to the Biannual Conference and Legal Partnership Forum conducted by Project VIE/02/015 in the fall of 2008. In specific terms, the Terms of Reference require that the mapping consultant (and thus this portion of the Report), provide "a brief report (approximately five pages) of the work undertaken plus a matrix/table that identifies the following: a) Updating/ mapping current status of aid activities, including coordination, in the legal and judicial area, with each activity linked to references to the LSDS, the JRS, and Directive 900, where applicable. When available, the individual plans of the individual agencies or ministries shall be included. b) Description of the scope of the work being conducted. c) Assessment of what has been done by the Ministry of Justice (achievements/ challenges) d) Suggestion of feasible strategy of effective aid coordination. The methodology involved includes "(a) Documentation review (desk study) and preliminary consultations with UNDP; b) Meeting with the MOJ, other Vietnamese legal and judicial agencies and organisations, and key donor agencies; c) Analysis of the information collected and preparation of a first draft of the report; d) Debriefing, information validation, and preparation of the final version of the report; e) Presentation of the report findings at the meetings."8 Analysis: Donor Legal Assistance to Vietnam This section is divided into two parts: the first reviews donor assistance to the legal and judicial sector in Vietnam from the beginnings of those efforts in about 1990 to around 2005. The first section is not new analysis: it updates analysis that was originally published in my volume Law and Society in Vietnam (Cambridge University Press, 2007), but which has not been widely distributed in the donor community and may be of use. The second and more important section outlines current donor legal assistance to Vietnam and consists of both a narrative analysis and the matrix table required by the Terms of Reference. The matrix table, Matrix of International Aid to Legal and Judicial Affairs in Vietnam, is attached to this Report. 7 Terms of Reference; minor punctuation changes made. 8 Terms of Reference (minor punctuation changes made). 70 Donor Legal Assistance to Vietnam: 1990 ­ 20059 Since the early 1990s foreign assistance amounting to tens of millions of dollars has poured into Vietnam's legal sector to support legal reform. There can be little doubt of the well-meaning nature of this support: donors, both official and nongovernmental, have welcomed Vietnam's commitment to strengthening its legal system with enthusiastic and generous support aimed at enhancing the authority and capacity of law and legal institutions. And that support has continued to flow in during an era first of growth in aid for legal reform in transitional economies, and then of growing skepticism in many parts of the world about the utility and effects of legal assistance. Perhaps only the transformation of the socialist world that could have truly breathed new life into the corpse of the "law and development" agenda of the 1950s and 1960s, ushering in a new generation of donor activity in law and development and the mushrooming of donor legal support since about 1990. This process began in China in the 1980s with extensive assistance to the legal and judicial fields there. By the 1990s, of course, this new generation of donor support for legal reform had expanded far beyond China and indeed beyond the formerly socialist world. The earlier criticism of "law and development" faded away; the reform and renovation of the socialist states was considered a fully legitimate donor project in the 1990s. Donor Support for Legal and Judicial Development, 1990 - 1995 Donor legal support in Vietnam began on a small scale in the late 1980s. Beginning in the early 1990s, donor legal support to Vietnam was focused on economic law and on the legal institutions most directly connected to a marketizing economy. Multilateral donors led the way, especially UNDP, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank, along with a few bilateral donors like Swedish SIDA and Australian overseas aid. Those early efforts focused squarely on the institutional arrangements for a market economy ­ the redrafting of banking, investment, labor and other economic law, and retraining of government lawyers and young and middle-aged officials on key elements of the market economy and aspects of international integration. The Asian Development Bank retrained Vietnamese lawyers; the World Bank provided advice on economic law redrafting and overseas training; AusAid supported training for government legal officers in Melbourne and in Vietnam; and other donors supported a range of similar activities.10 In this initial stage of donor assistance, the focus was on economic law, and there was relatively little work on institutional strengthening beyond the economic law sphere, with the exception being some capacity building activities for the Ministry of Justice. This reflected both Vietnamese priorities and a consensus among the donors ­ not only in Vietnam but far beyond ­ in the late 1980s and throughout most of the 1990s that relied on the strengthening of institutions and economic law to help produce growth, more equality, and alleviate poverty. 9 This section is adapted from Sidel, Law and Society in Vietnam (Cambridge University Press, 2007). For other useful analyses of donor legal assistance to Vietnam in the 1990-2005 timeframe, see (among other sources that could be cited), Per Bergling, Theory and reality in legal co-operation - the case of Vietnam, in Per Sevastik (ed.), Legal assistance to developing countries: Swedish perspectives on rule of law (Kluwer Law International, 1997); Nguyen Hong Nang, Manufacturing civil society from outside: Donor intervention and aid ­ The case of Vietnam (Institute of Social Studies (Amsterdam), 1994); Carol Rose, The `new' law and development movement in the post-Cold War era: A Vietnam case study, 32 Law and Society Review 93-136 (1998). 10See, among other sources, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 2000. Matrix of legal assistance activities 2000. Hanoi: UNDP (http://www.undp.org.vn). 71 One set of initial activities went beyond economic law and its formulation ­ a series of activities conducted by UNDP and several other donors intended to support capacity building and strengthening of the Ministry of Justice as the government's point body for legislative redrafting, legal planning, and law reform. In a broadening transition from narrow support for economic law reforms to initial support for institutional strengthening, the transitional bridge was institutional strengthening for the Ministry of Justice. Donor economic law activities continued with a wide range of ministries and other government bodies. But the first UNDP activities with the Ministry also began in 1992, when a foreign legal advisor was first posted to the Ministry's headquarters, then on Cat Linh Street in Hanoi. Activities gradually intensified to that point that a professional, full-time legal advisor working on a portfolio of activities was posted in 1995. The activities included a mixture of capacity building for the Ministry, legal drafting, and training for other institutions ­ the latter two elements still focused substantially on economic law. In this period Sweden also initiated fairly large-scale activities intended to "improve[e] the mechanisms for law-making and legal training; introduce[e] new and supposedly better structures for economic dispute resolution and bankruptcy; ... enhance[e] the institutional capacity of the Ministry of Justice [and] ... assist in the drafting of specific pieces of legislation or to facilitate a swift integration of Vietnam into regional and international bodies."11 At the same time a fairly modest series of activities intended to strengthen the two core law faculties in Hanoi and the then-two core law faculties in Ho Chi Minh City were initiated by several bilateral donors as well, particularly France, Sweden, and Japan. A few examples suffice to indicate this new prong of activity: Sweden's expanding program based at Umea included strengthening activities for several Vietnamese law faculties; the French government supported the establishment of the Maison du Droit at the Hanoi Law College and its training programs in Vietnam and in France, as well as provision of French law materials and other activities; Japan and the Asia Foundation separately supported conferences with and research by the Institute of State and Law in the then-National Center for the Social Sciences and Humanities (now VASS).12 Thus the first five or six years of donor legal assistance to Vietnam focused first on specific elements of the economic law and legislation agenda, and then gradually expanding to capacity building within the Ministry of Justice as an institutional development strategy for which both donors and the government could readily agree, as well as some initial efforts to help build capacity for law teaching and legal research in the main law faculties and the then-sole significant legal research institute. Donor Support for Legal and Judicial Development, 1995 ­ 2001 A second stage of donor support activity emerged beginning in 1995 and 1996, when UNDP, Denmark and other donors began substantial institutional capacity building efforts in three other legal institutions that had long been largely closed to all but the most formal discussions with foreigners. These were the Office of the National Assembly, the Supreme People's Court, and the Supreme People's Procuracy. The donors' (particularly UNDP's) capacity building and institutional strengthening efforts within the Ministry of Justice had proven both successful and were not perceived as particularly inconsistent with the goals of the Party. With that experience in mind the Party and state agreed to add those three other institutions ­ legislature, court, and procuracy ­ to the mix for donor-supported institutional strengthening, at a time when the enhancement of legislative, judicial and prosecutorial expertise was very much on the political agenda.13 11 Umea Project in Brief (2000) (http://www.jus.umu.se/Vietnam/frame.htm). 12 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Matrix of legal assistance activities 2000 (UNDP (Hanoi), 2000) (http://www.undp.org.vn); Umea Project in Brief (2000) (http://www.jus.umu.se/Vietnam/ frame.htm). 13 These three projects at the Office of the National Assembly, Supreme People's Court, and Supreme People's Procuracy were VIE/95/016 (Technical Assistance to the Office of the National Assembly); VIE/95/017 (Strengthening the Judicial Capacity in Vietnam); and VIE/95/018 (Strengthening the Public Procuratorial Capacity in 72 Thus by the mid 1990s, the widening array of donor activity in legal reform encompassed continuing work on elements of the economic law agenda with dozens of state institutions, largely at the central level; continued capacity building efforts for the Ministry of Justice as the government's focal point for legislative development and legal reform; and new activities intended to build capacity in three other key institutions ­ the National Assembly, the judiciary, and the powerful state prosecutor's office. In this stage UNDP was a key operational actor. Several bilateral donors provided support for UNDP projects with the Ministry of Justice, National Assembly, Supreme Court and Supreme Procuracy, while others began to work on the legal field on their own. But the UNDP work with the Ministry, National Assembly, Court and Procuracy were arguably the weightiest activities in donor legal assistance during this period. These projects conducted a myriad of activities: training and other capacity building, both within Vietnam and abroad; provision of equipment; provision of advice in legal drafting and comparative legislative perspectives; linking these Vietnamese institutions to their counterparts around Southeast Asia, East Asia and beyond; and a range of other activities. They also sought, with mixed success, to link these central institutions more effectively to their provincial and local branches, and more effectively to each other. Other bilateral donors supported institutional strengthening on their own as well ­ AusAid, Canadian CIDA, DANIDA and SIDA with the National Assembly; DANIDA, JICA and France on training with the Supreme People's Court; Japan's JICA on training for Supreme People's Procuracy staff; and a wide range of donors, including Germany's GTZ, Japan's JICA, Swedish SIDA, UNDP with the key legal institution still most widely available for work with the foreign donor community ­ the Ministry of Justice. Some of the institutional strengthening work increasingly moved down to local levels: Norway's NOVIB and other donors supported the training of judges in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, for example, and other donors worked in other localities.14 Left largely out of this picture was a key institution that played a growing role in the formulation of legal policy ­ the Internal Affairs Commission of the Vietnamese Communist Party (Ban Noi chinh). Until 2002 and 2003, not any foreign donors begin working in earnest with the Internal Affairs Commission. Though UNDP and the work with the Ministry, National Assembly, Court and Procuracy dominated donor legal assistance efforts in the mid and late 1990s, a plethora of other, sometimes smaller activities developed as well. The Swedish projects remained at a fairly large scale, gradually expanding in scope toward institutional strengthening and moving away from work on particular pieces of economic legislation. And cooperation in law drafting remained an important part of this agenda. France, JICA and UNDP worked on the Civil Code; each also worked on the Civil Procedure Code and the Criminal Procedure Code, along with DANIDA. A host of donors worked with Vietnamese partners on the Enterprise Law and its implementing documents. The list of donor engagement with law drafting and redrafting is a long list, generally involving work with one of the central legal institutions or a particular ministry tasked to draft a specific law, and this work constitutes an important but often under-recognized component of the donor legal assistance agenda in the mid and late 1990s.15 Other bilateral activities at this stage were usually of a relatively small scale and carefully maintained at an institutional level, where they could be controlled and monitored effectively. Thus AusAid supported work by the Centre for Asian and Pacific Law at the University of Sydney with the Ho Chi Minh National Political Academy (Party School) on international law Vietnam). I was honored to serve as the team leader and lead drafter for each of these projects, which were among the first large scale institutional development projects supported by donors in Vietnam 14 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Matrix of legal assistance activities 2000 (UNDP (Hanoi), 2000) (http://www.undp.org.vn). 15 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Matrix of legal assistance activities 2000 (UNDP (Hanoi), 2000) (http://www.undp.org.vn). 73 and human rights issues; Netherlands supported retraining of faculty at Can Tho University that included some law teachers; the Ford Foundation supported training in international law at the Foreign Ministry's Institute for International Relations and some initial activities on human rights research and translation in the Ministry and the Party School; Canada supported comparative law work at the Ministry of Justice's Legal Research Institute; France expanded its training activities to include a three year graduate program for Hanoi Law University staff; JICA supported government lawyer retraining as well; and Sweden supported an expanded program of human rights training and study visits through the Ho Chi Minh National Political Academy.16 In summary, the initial forms of donor assistance to Vietnam focused on economic law, and on institution building of legislative, judicial, procuratorial and legal training institutions, largely at the central level. Standard forms of donor legal assistance generally support the types of law and state that the receiving state and the donors want. In Vietnam, the receiving state and arguably, donors, funded economic law improvements that helped to reduce poverty. The Turn Toward Implementation, Enforcement, Legal Aid, Access to Justice, and Rights By the mid 1990s it was already clear to many donors that Vietnam's busy activity and significant progress in drafting legislation and regulations was unmatched by implementation and enforcement of law at each jurisdictional level. The issue for donors was how to access and work on those crucially important arenas of "implementation," "enforcement," and "access to justice." Some key institutions were largely off limits, including the then-Ministry of Interior and other police and security forces, although a few organizations, the Ford Foundation among them, were able to do some training and familiarization work with the Ministry of Interior in the mid-1990s. Several governments also worked with the Ministry of Interior on drug control and other police matters. Donor strategies for working on "implementation," "enforcement," and "access to justice" took several forms: Some of the significant focus on institution building and capacity development in the Ministry of Justice, National Assembly, judiciary and procuracy began to shift toward the implementation and enforcement of law by those institutions. Other line agencies were brought into the picture. A new focus on legal information systems emerged, an area important both to implementation and enforcement and to access to justice. Thus several donors began work on training and drafting for civil judgment enforcement with the Ministry of Justice and other agencies; DANIDA began a pilot project on customs and tax collection with the customs and tax authorities; and Germany's GTZ began work on implementation and enforcement of enterprise, cooperative, investment, budget, audit and banking law with relevant government agencies. It was in this stage that donors first turned significant programmatic attention to corruption, including SIDA studies and other activities with the Ministry of Justice and the State Inspectorate, and Switzerland with the State Inspectorate as well. Other implementation and enforcement programs were developed as well. The Asian Development Bank, whose legal staff had long promoted the prioritization of secured transactions, began work with the Ministry of Justice on a securitization register. Canada, Japan, Sweden and UNDP began extensive programs of work on the registration of land and housing and the implementation of land legislation. UNDP worked on streamlining implementation of company legislation. In the relatively clear political economy of donor legal assistance to Vietnam, donors were encouraged to work on legal implementation and enforcement because those were now priorities for Vietnam's legal institutions as well ­ but the donors worked on those issues with and through Vietnam's central legal institutions, whose interests in focusing on 16 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Matrix of legal assistance activities 2000 (UNDP (Hanoi), 2000) (http://www.undp.org.vn). 74 important national needs and on attracting important donor funds merged effectively in the work on "implementation" and "enforcement."17 An exceptionally busy agenda of work on legal information systems emerged as well, involving multiple, sometimes overlapping efforts by the ADB, DANIDA, JICA, SIDA, and UNDP. These efforts involved provision of computers and other equipment to the Ministry of Justice and other central legal institutions; linking central and provincial legal agencies; gathering legal documents and expanding access to them through CD-Roms and databases. But by the late 1990s fissures were developing in the donor consensus on legal assistance to Vietnam. Donors had spent much of a decade working first on economic law and then on institutional strengthening, amidst a widening and worrying sense that inequality was rising in Vietnam and that poor peasants, urban dwellers, and domestic and overseas laborers could not access justice and assert rights. In the late 1990s the NGO and donor community in Vietnam began thinking more explicitly about accessx to justice, rights and social justice in their work. Rights issues began to arise with more frequency at annual donor meetings and more frequent NGO gatherings in Hanoi, going beyond implementation and enforcement discussions. The World Bank's focus under James Wolfensohn on reducing poverty and consulting with domestic people's organizations and international NGOs brought rights issues more to the fore in its discussions on Vietnam projects, influencing the Asian Development Bank and others. Foreign NGOs began working more directly with laborers in Ho Chi Minh City. On behalf of a range of foreign NGOs, Oxfam commissioned a planning paper in 1999 on how a rights-based legal perspective could be brought into NGO activities in Vietnam.18 And, perhaps most visibly, the Vietnamese government undertook the establishment of a legal aid system to provide legal counsel to citizens who could not afford lawyers, and rapidly gained support from a wide array of bilateral and nongovernmental donors. It is not surprising that legal aid led the way toward a new focus on "access to justice." The Vietnamese Party and government could come to terms with foreign donors on the problem of "access to justice" through legal aid run by the state far more easily than focusing directly on rights; Vietnam itself recognized, to its credit, that in a rapidly marketizing society citizens needed legal expertise and that millions of Vietnamese could not afford legal assistance. Legal aid also involved providing access to law and legal remedies rather than a more challenging focus on asserting rights, and legal aid had a natural institutional and political base in a key legal institution already fully authorized to receive and coordinate donor legal assistance ­ the Ministry of Justice. With a focus on legal aid, all of that coalesced into a concern for "access to justice," a concern that manifested itself in the late 1990s most immediately in the establishment of legal aid as a governmental activity within and coordinated by the Ministry of Justice and local justice bureaus. For bilateral donors and NGOs, legal aid was also a natural entry point into access to justice and rights issues in a highly controlled donor environment. For bilateral donors and NGOs, legal aid gave them work on access to justice while recognizing that that was as far as the Party and government were willing to go at that stage. DANIDA, NOVIB, SIDA, UNDP and others became rapid and at times significant supporters of the initial legal aid programmes developed by the Ministry of Justice through its National Legal Aid Agency.19 A second important area within the broad arena of "access to justice" ­ also acceptable to the government and largely implemented through central legal institutions ­ was work on disseminating legal information and legal literacy. ADB, Canadian CIDA, Denmark's DANIDA, 17 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Matrix of legal assistance activities 2000 (UNDP (Hanoi), 2000) (http://www.undp.org.vn). 18 Mark Sidel, Social justice and poverty programming in Vietnam (Hanoi: Oxfam Hong Kong, 1999). 19 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Matrix of legal assistance activities 2000 (UNDP (Hanoi), 2000) (http://www.undp.org.vn). 75 Swedish SIDA and other donors were all involved in studies, pilot projects, publications and other activities intended to bring law to the people.20 The weak Vietnamese Lawyers Association (VLA) and the complex Vietnamese bar had been unable to attract much donor interest through most of the early and mid 1990s. But in the mid and late 1990s the increasing concern for implementation and enforcement, and for access to justice, and a recognition that the role of lawyers would need to grow in Vietnamese society led several donors to increase their work on capacity building for and linkage with the Vietnamese bar. The ADB included the bar in its retraining programs; Canadian CIDA supported training and workshop linkages between the Canadian Bar Association and the VLA; DANIDA began a small program with the VLA; Japan's JICA included bar lawyers in its training programs and helped with revising the Law on Lawyers, among others.21 Donor Support for Legal and Judicial Development, 2001 ­ 2005: Wide Diversity in Work, along with Focus on the Legal Needs Assessment (2001-2002), Legal Harmonization, Institutional Capacity, and Other Themes Another, again expanded phase of donor legal assistance began in 2001-2003, when the Vietnamese government invited UNDP and other donors to provide assistance to the first major planning and strategy development effort in the doi moi era, an effort led by the Ministry of Justice and including agencies from throughout the government and beyond. Law and legal institutions had grown quickly since the late 1980s, and there was a strong sense that strategic planning by the Party, state and legal institutions would be needed to support the strengthening of legal institutions in the short and medium term (i.e. through 2010). If donor legal assistance activities in the first stage can be characterized as economic law-focused and quite specific to particular ministries and agencies; and in the second and third stages broadening to an institutional focus, then in this stage after 2000 the Vietnamese government acquiesced in the continuation of all those valuable activities and added yet another circle or layer to the expanding menu of donor legal assistance ­ support for legal system strategy development. What resulted was a sizable project to support the Comprehensive Needs Assessment for the Development of Vietnam's Legal System to the Year 2010, coordinated by the Ministry of Justice and supported by a number of bilateral donors, including UNDP, the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Japan, Denmark, Sweden, France, and other donors. Studies and conferences were undertaken beginning in March 2001 and a Comprehensive Legal Needs Analysis emerged in 2003 that provided a blueprint for Vietnam's strengthening of law and legal institutions at least through 2010.22 The advantage of this process is that it brought donors directly into the development of strategy for the legal system. The disadvantage was that the process ­ at least so far as the foreign donors and specialists were involved ­ seemed to avoid a number of important and controversial debates that were beginning to flow around the Party, legal institutions, intellectuals and activists: Should there be a Constitutional Court or some other way to charge constitutional violations and vindicated constitutional rights? How autonomous and assertive should Vietnamese lawyers be allowed to become? What, finally, should be done about the powerful procuracy, at one time the most powerful legal institution after the police but the subject of constant debate over its role and structure since at least the early 1990s? These larger questions were not at the center of the drafting of the Comprehensive Legal Needs Assessment. That is not surprising ­ in most cases these issues have not been thought of as being the appropriate area for engagement by foreign donors. 20 Id. 21 Id. 22 Ministry of Justice, Report on comprehensive needs assessment for the development of Vietnam's legal system to the year 2010 (2002) (http://www.jus.umu.se/ Vietnam/pdf/LNA_FINAL.pdf; http://www.vnforum.org/docs/gov/law/en/ Exsum_5_8_English.doc). 76 Another key theme beginning around 2000 was a shift in donor emphasis toward helping Vietnam harmonize its laws and their implementation with international practice. Earlier efforts had focused on institutional strengthening, economic law, and to some degree on assisting with legal reform strategy. But after 2000 a substantial amount of donor funding (some of it new) moved toward legal harmonization. This shift in focus resulted from Vietnam's signing of a Bilateral Trade Agreement between Vietnam and the United States, and Vietnam's increasing efforts to gain WTO accession in the late 1990s. The U.S. Agency for International Development (U.S. AID) and a few other donors became deeply involved with assisting Vietnam in reforming its legal environment "in almost all key economic and commercial sectors, as well as advancing the procedures and capacity of the courts to resolve commercial, IPR and investment disputes."23 This work, funded primarily by U.S. AID with additional programs underway supported by other donors, has been undertaken in well over thirty national agencies and more than ten provincial and city governments. Activities include redrafting of a significant number of important laws and regulations, training of government officials, English translations, revision of court and other procedures, publication of judicial documents, legislative planning at the National Assembly on WTO accession, and a host of other activities.24 A key actor in this new arena of legal harmonization has been the U.S. AID-funded "STAR" program, which is carrying out much of this work in collaboration with Vietnamese government ministries and other state organizations. That work has gone relatively smoothly, fueled by the fact that much of STAR's workplan is mandated by the BTA and WTO accession, focusing attention by Vietnamese policymakers and national and local institutions in ways that have sometimes been lacking in other programs. The result has been what appears to be a successful program based on its own harmonization goals.25 After the Comprehensive Needs Assessment was completed in 2002 - 2003, the Ministry of Justice moved into drafting a Legal System Development Strategy for approval by the Party and government and implementation by the Ministry and a wide array of other agencies. UNDP, SIDA, DANIDA, the World Bank and ADB have provided assistance to the drafting and implementation of the Legal System Development Strategy. At the same time, however, Party officials began drafting their own version of a judicial reform strategy, one that came to stress court reforms but implicated issues beyond the judiciary as well. The result, in May and June 2005, was adoption of separate, parallel legal reform strategies ­ the Legal System Development Strategy, focusing on legislative and institutional development, and the Judicial Reform Strategy, drafted largely by a judicial reform steering committee led and staff primarily by Party officials and chaired by then-President Tran Duc Luong.26 It would be a mistake to regard the period from 2000 ­ 2005 as solely focusing on legal harmonization, the LNA (in the earlier years), and other major tasks like those. A wide range of 23 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 2005. Matrix of legal assistance activities 2005. Hanoi: UNDP (http://www.undp.org.vn). 24 Id. 25 See, e.g., STAR Vietnam, Workplan for 2003 and report on project activities completed in 2002 (STAR Vietnam, 2003); Workplan for 2004 and report on project activities completed in 2003 STAR Vietnam, 2004); Workplan for 2005 and report on project activities completed in 2004 (STAR Vietnam, 2005). One result of particular interest has been the release of the first four volumes of case documents by the Supreme People's Court, a significant event for judges, lawyers and students of Vietnamese law in Vietnam and no less a major event for researchers and students of Vietnamese law abroad (Supreme People's Court 2005, 2008). 26 Vietnamese Communist Party, Resolution 48 on Strategy for Development and Improvement of Vietnam's Legal System to the Year 2010, and Directions to the Year 2020 (Chien luoc xay dung va hoan thien he thong phap luat Viet Nam den nam 2010, dinh huong den nam 2020) (Political Bureau of the Vietnamese Communist Party, May 2005); Vietnamese Communist Party, Resolution 49 on Judicial Reform Strategy to the Year 2020 (Chien luoc Cai cach Tu phap den nam 2020) (Political Bureau of the Vietnamese Communist Party, June 2005). 77 other donor support activities have also taken place ­ new and continuing support for the development of the National Assembly, people's councils, people's committees, various ministries and their responsibilities, the Supreme People's Court, some work with the procuracy, continued extensive work on legal aid, and other areas as well. In fact, it can be said that the period from 2000 ­ 2005 was marked by more diversity in donor support for legal and judicial development in Vietnam than at any other time since the advent of doi moi. Assessing Fifteen Years of Donor Support for Legal Reform in Vietnam, 1990 - 2005 Donor concern with how law actually worked among ordinary people, institutions and enterprises gathered steam in the early part of this decade, mirroring policy concern in the Vietnamese policy and state. Donor programs continued to build capacity within central institutions such as the Ministry of Justice, National Assembly, judiciary and procuracy, but now added a range of activities intended to promote the implementation and enforcement of law and "access to justice." An example from Swedish donor activity illustrates this. In the early 1990s, Sweden's main Umea-implemented project had sought to "improve[e] the mechanisms for law-making and legal training; introduce[e] new and supposedly better structures for economic dispute resolution and bankruptcy; ... enhance[e] the institutional capacity of the Ministry of Justice [and] ... assist in the drafting of specific pieces of legislation or to facilitate a swift integration of Vietnam into regional and international bodies." Beginning in 2001 the focus was on "strengthen[ing] the capacity for law making and law implementation ...; ... improve[ing] the protection of people's rights; and ... enhance[ing] the administrative capacity of the Ministry of Justice."27 It was a changing, hybrid era for virtually all the donors, and the Swedish project description captured it well. During this period, with the agreement of Vietnam's central legal institutions, the donors continued to support capacity building in the central legal institutions, with newer work on implementation, enforcement and access to justice carried out through the central legal institutions as well. When permeated through a Vietnamese, donor and legal lens, what emerged in Vietnam in the earlier part of this decade was a new focus on "implementation," "access to justice," and "participation" and, to some degree, trying to link law and poverty reduction. Those newer efforts were reflected in active new programs, many supported by bilateral donors, in areas of law and gender, legal aid, corruption, rural economic issues, democratization, and the strengthening of a voluntary sector. Much of the donor assistance continued to be focused at the central level, on government institutions, rather than on lower levels and on civil society, though some donors ­ notable among them some of the bilateral donors ­ have supported domestic civil society organizations that are seeking to use law on behalf of victimized groups, be they women or poor farmers or other sectors. Donor Support for Legal and Judicial Development in Vietnam Since 2005: Donor Support to the Vietnamese Priorities Outlined in Resolutions 48 and 49 on Legal and Judicial Reform The primary goal of this Report is to map and analyze current donor support for legal and judicial reform in Vietnam. The key approach is to map and analyze donor support compared to Vietnam's priorities, as outlined in Resolution 48 and 49 and Directive 900, since those are the key current indicators of Vietnamese Party and government priorities in this area. In the section that follows, examples from donor-funded programs focus, as requested by UNDP, on recent programs and projects that are recent and thus respond to current Vietnamese 27 Umea Project in Brief (2000) (http://www.jus.umu.se/Vietnam/frame.htm). 78 priorities as expressed in Resolutions 48 and 49, Directive 900, and other Vietnamese policy documents. The key elements of Resolutions 48 and 49 are as follows: Key Elements of Resolution 48 (Legal System Development Strategy (LSDS)) Directions Develop and improve the law on the organisation and operation of institutions within the political system Strengthen role and legislation relating to the National Assembly Strengthen state administrative agencies and public administration reform, including complaints and denunciations, inspection and control, public service, anti-corruption Develop and improve the law on the organisation and operations of judicial agencies in line with the objectives and directions of the Judicial Reform Strategy, including courts, procuracy, investigating agencies, judgement execution code, judicial support Develop and improve the law safeguarding human rights and the democratic rights and freedoms of the citizen, including work on international conventions, protecting rights, incorrect cases, state compensation, mass organizations, demonstrations, referenda, and related topics Develop and improve civil and economic laws with the focus on the enhancement of socialist-oriented market economy legal regulations, including business activity, competition, contract law, bankruptcy, markets, real estate, labor markets, science and technology, securities, public finance, important technical-economic fields, natural resources and environment, and related topics Develop and improve the law on education and training, science and technology, public health, culture and information, sport, ethnicity, religion, population, family, children, and social policy, including press and publication, social equality, and related topics Develop and improve the law on national defence and security, as well as public order and safety Develop and improve the law on international integration, including international treaties, WTO, ASEAN, AFTA, economic disputes, international terrorism, transnational organised crime, money laundering, and corruption, international judicial assistance agreements, and related topics Solutions Prioritize legislative solutions Improve lawmaking procedures Improve the level of knowledge and working capacity of the National Assembly) To improve the role and responsibilities of professional research institutions in law- drafting activities To modernise the methods of, and technical facilities for, legislative activities To improve the law on the Official Gazette To research the possibility to exploit or utilise precedent, custom (including those of international trade), and the rules/regulations of professional associations as a source for enriching and improving legal resources To improve legal information and legal dissemination and the education system; and to develop and implement a long-term National Programme on legal education and dissemination To reform the organisation and operation of judicial agencies, in accordance with the Judicial Reform Strategy, with special attention paid to the adjudication work of the court 79 To bring about discipline and legality in the operation of state agencies, especially bureaucracy, corruption, and waste To ensure the quality and quantity of legal officials' human resources, including legal education and training and professional training for lawyers To mobilise and effectively manage all possible domestic and international financial resources for reform Key Elements of Resolution 49 (Judicial Reform Strategy (JRS)) Improving criminal and civil policy, legislation and procedure, as well as judicial procedures, including administrative complaints and related topics Building and developing the organisational structures of judicial organs with a focus on the organisation and functioning of the people's courts, including jurisdiction reform, role and organization of the SPC, trial processes, procuracy, investigating agencies, MOJ and local government roles, and related topics Improving judicial support institutions, including lawyers, lawyer's organizations, trial processes, judicial examination, judicial police, public notaries, bailiffs, and related topics Building an ethical, healthy, and strong corps of judicial and support staff, including legal education and judicial training, law schools, judicial academy, recruitment, salary, and related topics Improving the oversight mechanism for elected bodies and enhancing the people's ownership of the judiciary, including role of National Assembly and People's Councils, NA Judicial Committee, advocacy, dissemination, education, and related topics Strengthening international cooperation in the judicial sector, including international treaties, judicial assistance agreements, joint action programmes, foreign languages, and related topics Ensuring the availability of physical infrastructure for judicial activities, including budget processes for the judiciary, office facilities, IT, and related topics Further development of the leadership mechanism of the Party over judicial work Donor Support and Vietnamese Priorities A detailed review of current donor support for legal and judicial reform in Vietnam enables the following conclusions: In both the number of projects and the amount of funds made available, the great majority of donor support since 2005 has focused on the priorities enumerated in Resolution 48, the Legal System Development Strategy (LSDS), rather than Resolution 49, the Judicial Reform Strategy (JRS). This is quite clearly evidenced by the Matrix of International Aid to Legal and Judicial Areas in Vietnam prepared for this Report (and attached to this Report). Almost all of the large donor- funded projects cited in that Matrix respond wholly or primarily to the priorities of Resolution 48, rather than Resolution 49. For many of the large, donor-funded projects, if they respond to Resolution 49 it is on aspects of work that are also included in Resolution 48. (There are exceptions, donor-funded work that responds directly to Resolution 49, and those are discussed further below.) The large donor-funded projects that respond largely or almost entirely to the priorities of Resolution 49 including the large, multi-donor funded projects on legal system development (VIE/02/015, supported by Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, and UNDP); and strengthening capacity of people's elected bodies (VIE/02/007, supported by UNDP, Switzerland, and Canada). Each of these very large, very complex, multi-pronged projects focuses almost entirely on key priorities in Resolution 48. 80 Resolution 48-responsive projects also include a huge host of other projects supported by the Asian Development Bank, Australia, Denmark, European Commission, European Union, France, Germany (including the German political foundations), Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, Plan International, Sweden, UNDP, UNIDO, UNODC, the United Kingdom (including both DFID and FCO), the United States, the World Bank, and other donors. They are detailed on the Matrix of International Aid to Legal and Judicial Areas in Vietnam. Areas of High Priority and Extensive Work for the Donors Within the priorities listed under Resolution 48 (LSDS), the Matrix of International Aid to Legal and Judicial Areas in Vietnam makes clear that most donor support work has focused on four (4) elements. Those are: o Strengthening the role and legislation relating to the National Assembly and other elected bodies o Strengthening state administrative agencies and public administration reform, including complaints and denunciations, inspection and control, public service, anti-corruption o Developing and improving civil and economic laws with the focus on the enhancement of socialist-oriented market economy legal regulations, including business activity, competition, contract law, bankruptcy, markets, real estate, labor markets, science and technology, securities, public finance, important technical- economic fields, natural resources and environment, and related topics o Developing and improving the law on international integration, including international treaties, WTO, ASEAN, AFTA, economic disputes, international terrorism, transnational organised crime, money laundering, and corruption, international judicial assistance agreements, international family law, and related topics. Virtually all such work has focused on, and been filtered through, central level government ministries and ministry-level agencies. In terms of both the number of projects and the commitment of funds, very little such work has focused on, or been filtered through, civil society organizations or provincial governments. The Matrix of International Aid to Legal and Judicial Areas in Vietnam makes clear how important these specific areas within Resolution 48 (LSDS) have been to most donor programming on legal reform in Vietnam. These four areas are key elements of the large, multi- donor funded projects on legal system development (VIE/02/015, supported by Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, and UNDP); and strengthening capacity of people's elected bodies (VIE/02/007, supported by UNDP, Switzerland, and Canada), along with other such projects. They are also the strong focus of projects listed and described on the Matrix that are supported by a range of donors, including the ADB (economic law training for legal officials; securitization; energy and environmental law); Australia (law and WTO integration); Canada (legal aid and related work); Denmark (strengthening legislative systems; strengthening law and international integration; anti-dumping law; projects on business, commercial development, taxation, customs, administrative procedures, state budgets, land law, import and export procedures, and related fields in Ha Tay, Khanh Hoa, Lam Dong, Nghe An). They also include European Union (on the capacity of the National Assembly and provincial elected bodies, particularly on economic integration and reforms; and on trade and external economic policy); France (securitization; legal education); Japan (legal training; banking law; international integration issues in the adoption and family law context); Norway (several projects on water resources law and policy); Switzerland (competition law and policy); the United Kingdom (law and WTO integration); UNIDO (business regulation); the United States (STAR work on international integration and legal reform); World Bank (natural resources law and policy) Within the specific solutions (steps) enumerated in Resolution 48 (LSDS), most donor support has focused on the following specific solutions: 81 o Improve lawmaking procedures o Improve the level of knowledge and working capacity of the National Assembly o To modernise the methods of, and technical facilities for, legislative activities o To improve the law on the Official Gazette o To bring about discipline and legality in the operation of state agencies, especially bureaucracy, corruption, and waste o To ensure the quality and quantity of legal officials' human resources, including legal education and training and professional training for lawyers Numerous projects indicate these priorities as well, including the extensive work by the ADB on training legal officials; Denmark, Japan, and Sweden on improving the quality and quantity of lawyers' and legal officials' human resources and on legal education. It must be clearly noted that this does not mean that other Resolution 48 (LSDS) priorities and solutions have not been addressed by donor support. For example, there has been some work on other aspects of Resolution 48 (LSDS), but considerably less. And it must be noted that, within Resolution 48 priorities and solutions (steps), the emphasis of donor activity on the areas outlined above appears to closely match Vietnamese priorities within the Resolution 48 priorities and solutions. Within the priorities listed under Resolution 49 (JRS), there has been relatively little donor work undertaken thus far that focuses squarely on judicial reform and the courts. Most of the donor work that has been undertaken so far relating to Resolution 49 (JRS) is for cognate or related elements of the Resolution 49 agenda that would also fit within Resolution 48 and other priorities. These include: o Improving criminal and civil policy, legislation and procedure, as well as judicial procedures, including administrative complaints and related topics o Improving judicial support institutions, including lawyers, lawyer's organizations, trial processes, judicial examination, judicial police, public notaries, bailiffs, and related topics o Building an ethical, healthy, and strong corps of judicial and support staff, including legal education and judicial training, law schools, judicial academy, recruitment, salary, and related topics o Improving the oversight mechanism for elected bodies and enhancing the people's ownership of the judiciary, including role of National Assembly and People's Councils, NA Judicial Committee, advocacy, dissemination, education, and related topics Within these areas, donor support is focused on certain specific issues: Lawyers organizations (including both the VLA and support for the new national bar organization); legal education; judicial training, and the role and strengthening of the National Assembly and People's Councils. Certain donors have led the way in working on these Resolution 49 issues (which can in some cases be Resolution 48 issues as well). This includes, in particular, specific and detailed work on judicial and procuratorial reform and strengthening with the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuracy. These include Denmark, which is working extensively on capacity building with the procuracy; the European Commission, working on capacity building and institutional strengthening with the courts and the procuracy at the national (SPC and SPC) and provincial levels, as well as on the linked Resolution 48 and 49 priorities of lawyers, lawyer associations and related areas; Japan (JICA), which has now worked for several years on judicial training and other aspects of the judicial reform agenda; Sweden and other donors on legal aid; UNDP, also working on capacity building with the procuracy with the SPP and UNDP; the United States, working on strengthening the procuracy with STAR Vietnam. Areas of Relatively Low Priority and Relatively Little Work By the Donors 82 Under the priorities listed for Resolution 48 (Legal System Development Strategy), there has been relatively less donor support in the following areas. But, again, this is relative: this does not mean that there has been no work in these areas, only that there has been less (often considerably less) support than in the areas listed above ­ and some such support has been specifically under overlapping areas of Resolution 49: o Developing and improving the law on the organisation and operation of institutions within the political system o Developing and improving the law on the organisation and operations of judicial agencies in line with the objectives and directions of the Judicial Reform Strategy, including courts, procuracy, investigating agencies, judgement execution code, judicial support o Developing and improving the law safeguarding human rights and the democratic rights and freedoms of the citizen, including work on international conventions, protecting rights, incorrect cases, state compensation, mass organizations, demonstrations, referenda, and related topics o Developing and improving the law on education and training, science and technology, public health, culture and information, sport, ethnicity, religion, population, family, children, and social policy, including press and publication, social equality, and related topics o Developing and improving the law on national defence and security, as well as public order and safety o Prioritizing legislative solutions o Improving the role and responsibilities of professional research institutions in law- drafting activities o To research the possibility to exploit or utilise precedent, custom (including those of international trade), and the rules/regulations of professional associations as a source for enriching and improving legal resources o Improving legal information and legal dissemination and the education system; and to develop and implement a long-term National Programme on legal education and dissemination o Reforming the organisation and operation of judicial agencies, in accordance with the Judicial Reform Strategy, with special attention paid to the adjudication work of the court o To mobilise and effectively manage all possible domestic and international financial resources for reform Even here, however, there certainly has been some work in the enormous diversity of donor support for legal and judicial reform in Vietnam. So, for example, Australia, Denmark, Japan, and several other donors have worked on human rights training; the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (Germany) has supported dialogues on consumer protection and rights; a number of donors have worked on land law and land rights; the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (Germany) and several other donors have worked on labor unions and labor rights; Sweden, the Netherlands and other donors have worked extensively on legal aid; and a number of other examples that can be cited from the Matrix of International Aid to Legal and Judicial Areas in Vietnam. Under the priorities listed for Resolution 49 (Judicial Reform Strategy), where there has been much less explicit donor support than for LSDS-related activities, there has been even less support in the following areas (again, relatively speaking): o Building and developing the organisational structures of judicial organs with a focus on the organisation and functioning of the people's courts, including jurisdiction reform, role and organization of the SPC, trial processes, procuracy, investigating agencies, MOJ and local government roles, and related topics 83 o Strengthening international cooperation in the judicial sector, including international treaties, judicial assistance agreements, joint action programmes, foreign languages, and related topics o Ensuring the availability of physical infrastructure for judicial activities, including budget processes for the judiciary, office facilities, IT, and related topics o Further development of the leadership mechanism of the Party over judicial work Conclusions on the Modalities and Gaps in Donor Support A thorough review of donor support for legal and judicial development since 2005 also reveals the following conclusions: Virtually all multilateral and bilateral donor support for legal and judicial development in Vietnam (in dollar terms and numbers of projects) is focused on and funneled through government ministries and agencies. Virtually all such work has focused on, and been filtered through, central level government ministries and ministry-level agencies. In terms of both the number of projects and the commitment of funds, very little such work has focused on, or been filtered through, civil society organizations or provincial governments or local governments or grassroots organizations. Direct work with Party organizations, provincial agencies, and with civil society organizations in the area of legal and judicial development is sorely lacking and under-represented. This is not necessarily the "fault" of the donors; this prioritization reflects Vietnamese Party and government priorities. o With the exception of some work with the Ho Chi Minh National Political Academy (Party School) on public administration and on human rights, and the very rare exceptions of some work attempted by Sweden and a few other donors, there is virtually no work on legal and judicial development underway with the key Party institutions focused on legal and, especially, judicial development. o There is little donor work on legal and judicial development underway with provincial governments, agencies, courts, and other sub-national institutions. o With some exceptions (primarily foundations and a few bilateral donors), there is very little work on legal and judicial development being undertaken directly with civil society organizations in Vietnam. Despite the importance of issues of "access to justice," most work that purportedly relates to this area focuses on building the institutional capacity of central ministries and other legal and judicial institutions, rather than assisting with access to justice from below and at the grassroots level. To be sure, there is work with legal aid centers operated by the Ministry of Justice, mass organizations, and others, and other forms of work on access to justice, and there is some small, occasional work on rights, but the funding allocated to such work, and the number of projects, pale by comparison to other priorities. Virtually no work is being done in key but sensitive areas of significant discussion in Vietnamese legal circles ­ such as consistency of law; judicial independence; freedom of association; "constitutional protection"; the next revision of the Constitution; and other such areas. Exceptions to this are the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and some occasional work by UNDP. It will be important to expand work in these areas over the next several years. There is much more that can be said in the area of mapping donor efforts to support legal and judicial reform activities in Vietnam. But this Report and analysis serves to outline the significant ways in which donor support for legal and judicial reform in Vietnam has furthered Vietnamese priorities as expressed in Resolutions 48 and 49 and Directive 900, which also emphasizing the priorities of Resolution 48 and conducting not nearly as much work on the priorities expressed in Resolution 49, through work that has largely focused on strengthening the capacity of the state, and which has overwhelmingly taken place with and through central government ministries and ministry-level agencies and with relatively few activities and projects at the provincial and local levels and through civil society and grassroots organizations. 84 PARTNERSHIP NOTE FOR CG MEETING PUBLIC FINANCE MANAGEMENT (CG Meeting, 4-5 December 2008) I. Background: After two years since the accession to the WTO, especially in the context of financial crisis occurred in the second half of 2008, there have been various impacts on the whole economy, through which, some weaknesses in policies have been seen. These weaknesses will need to be further revised and perfected in line with the WTO commitments and international economic Agreements that have been contributed to the openness of Viet Nam economy. Thanks to the country's political stability and timely and appropriate adjustments to the policies for stabilizing macro economic and inflation control, the country has been able to mobilize all national and international resources for economic development and ensured social welfare. In this context, appropriate financial policies and public financial reform have been sped up through efforts of the Government of Viet Nam and valuable supports from the international donors. II. Implementation progress and partnership achievements in 2008: 1. Information exchange sessions of the Working Group led by the Government of Viet Nam are maintained regularly in order to improve the quality of public financial reform. The thematic-group approach has been applied in the previous years and still upholds effectiveness. Donors have expressed interest in various components of the Public Finance Modernization Master Plan (PFMMP), although different donors have showed different levels of interest. 2. The Single Document approved by the Ministry of Finance in 2007 is the basis for mobilizing both national and international resources for continuing implementation of reform activities in public finance management. In 2008, funding activities of bilateral and multi-lateral organizations in public finance management have been referred to the Single Document to ensure public finance reform activities are implemented in a consistent and comprehensive manner. 3. Technical support provided by bilateral and multi-lateral organizations in public finance management in 2008 focused on the followings: · With the roles to coordinate financial supports for PFMMP, the Phase I of MDTF has been successfully implemented and completed in December 31st 2007. the preparation of MDTF Phase II has been completed with some changes in order to promote Government ownership and improve effectiveness. The implementation of Phase II will start at the beginning of 2009. · Expenditure management: Public Finance Management Reform Project (funded by WB) is being implemented according to the plan (Component I almost completed its analysis and development of working mechanism, its budget and financial mechanism and treasury activities and design of TABMIS system. Component II has completed piloting the planning of Mid term Financial Framework and Mid term Expenditure Framework (MTFF and MTEF) at pilot units and initial positive results achieved in regard of projection of public mid-term financial resources and in budget and finance management. Component II ­ Public Finance under the Macro economic Reform Program funded by GTZ and SIDA's "chia se" project shall continue to provide support for amendment and supplementation of Law on State Budget. 85 · Revenue management: detailed implementation plan for Tax Systems Reform program to 2010 was approved by the Government of Viet Nam and has been implemented since 2005. After the preparation for the Modernization of Tax Management Project was completed (funded by WB), the implementation of the Project has started. Beside that, Phase I of the Tax Administrative Management Reform Project funded by JICA has been successfully implemented and Phase II has started. The Risk Management in Customs in the Mekong basin funded by JICA and the Project on development of econometrics model and analysis and impact assessment of the Law on Personal Income Tax in Viet Nam funded by Denmark is being implemented and is in the wrap up period. The Customs Modernization Project (funded by WB) is in its third years of implementation, although there are difficulties encountered during course of implementation, however, it is achieving positive initial results. Beside, two technical assistance projects funded by JICA are "Strengthening customs control at major seaports in Viet Nam" and Project on "Strengthening training systems to improve capacity of border gates customs officers in Viet Nam" which are being urgently completed the procedures and put into operations by the Ministry of Finance. IMF has been supporting MoF by sending expertises to consult implementing the Personal Income Tax Law and establishing the Large Taxpayers Office. · Government debt management: with the objectives of building a consistent and efficient management to ensure debt safety and national financial security, the Public Financial Management Reform Project ­ Component III has supported the Ministry of Finance to develop a public debt management plan and a draft Law on public debt management. Beside, the ADB technical assistance is being implemented in this field in order to achieve the objective of decentralization of financial management of ODA resources. · State-owned enterprise management: continue to receive technical assistance from ADB for reform of State owned enterprises and subsidy policy as per WTO commitment through the Project "Technical assistance for preparation of project on State enterprise reform and provide supports for enterprise administration and a project on "Post WTO". · Public asset management: the Government of Australia through a project to support the development and issuance of Law on State assets management and utilization. Improvement of legal system on State assets management is now a focus of technical assistance. The key achievement in this area is reflected in the approval of the National Assembly on Law of Disclosure of State Property Utilization and Management (approved on June 3rd 2008), in which the Government promulgates regulations on disclosure of public goods utilization and management before 27/8/2008 and legal documents for enforcement of the Law are being prepared. · Price management: with supports from donors via MDTF Fund, policy system on price appraisal in Viet Nam is being completed and applied, training of price appraisal personnel is especially concerned. The technical assistance (AusAID, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dutch Development and Cooperation Ministry) is supporting Ministry of Finance in development and enforcement of rural clean water price system. · Continue to follow up the recommendations on public expenditure assessment in 2004: the quality and effectiveness of these recommendations is improved thanks to effective coordination of the Working Group for implementation of the recommendations and are updating regularly for related agencies. · Policy development: this is still receiving supports from UNDP through project VIE/03/010 and based on achievements of this project, UNDP continues to provide 86 supports to Ministry of Finance a project on Support for financial policy assessment. Policy advisory Group of the Ministry of Finance is effectively operating. · Other areas (training, insurance, accounting, auditing, security market, financial policy, improved capacity on finance management etc): continue implementation of technical assistance from donors such as Luxembourg, Switzerland , AFD, WB FIRST Fund and cooperation in tax and insurance with Ministry of Finance of the United States of America: to build capacity for civil servants through consultancy, training, workshops, and thematic research. Especially, the ongoing Project ETV2 funded by the EC has brought positive results. · Several new bilateral projects and programs have been signed and implemented: the cooperation between the Tax Administration and IFC on simplification of administrative procedures for tax-payers; the cooperation program between MoF and ADETEF on Customs, Taxation, Treasury and Financial Inspection... III. Outcomes of the partnership in public finance: 1. Budged expenditure management: the continuous work to revise and amend the Budget Law to ensure the consistency of the reform of the budget system, increase decentralization of budget management, level of budget deficit and method to calculate budget deficit, government regulation on debt, responsibility and rights of government units in implementing medium-term expenditure and financial framework, outcome- oriented budget planning and implementing, increasing budget publicity, reforming budget supervision, monitoring and evaluating budget management and implementation. The recommendations in the Public Expenditure Review 2004 are under continuous implementation. The Review on Vietnam's national fiscal responsibilities 2007 has been completed by MoF, WB and other donors. 2. Budget Revenue Management: the implementation of Tax System Reform and Modernization for the period of 2005-2010 has achieved good progress and results, which have set favourable premise for reforms activities and modernization process for the coming years. The pilot implementation of self-enumeration and taxes self-submit activities of business and other reforms have gained some results. Concerning the custom sector, some initial objectives in the 5 programs of the "Custom Modernization and Development reform for the 2004-2006 period" have been achieved, including institution and mechanism reform, training activities, information technology and professional equipment modernization and Infrastructure modernization. The implementation of the "Custom Modernization and Development reform for the 2008- 2010 period" has started, the program include reform of custom procedures, improvement of effectiveness of custom management, modernization of facilities and application of information technology and custom statistics, reform and reorganization of managerial apparatus and human resource development. 3. Debt management: there have already been essential legal documents at power level of Government Decrees and Ministry Circulars regulating the publicity of financial status, state budget and public debt, improving step by step publicity on public debt information (to issue a bulletin on foreign debt). Especially, MoF has submitted the draft Law on Public Debt Management to the Government and the National Assembly for comments during the 4th session of the 12th tenure of the National Assembly in 2008 and will be passed during the 5th session of the 12th tenure of the National Assembly in 2009. The creation of new Public Debt Management is an important step of Debt Management Reform in order to create a consentaneous system for public debt management (including domestic and foreign debt as well as Government debt guarantees) and improve the legal framework for related activities. 87 4. Monitoring financial market and developing bond market: focusing on building consentaneous Financial Market Monitoring Program through one government supervision agency (State Securities Commission), promoting a specialized bond market, according to which the Hanoi Securities Trading Center will be assigned to organize the transaction process. 5. Corporate finance management reform: the corporate financial mechanism is being financed step by step to be in line with the market economy, the government financial management on its assets and capital in the state-owned enterprises has been reformed, the financial policy system on business categorization/rearrangement has been created comprehensively. A draft of new government decree on financial management for state- owned enterprises and the state investment in enterprises has been submitted by MoF to the Government. 6. Public asset management: Public asset in administration sector in the whole country has been systematized, checked, categorized and managed. This is the first step to established systematically essential policy and legal framework for public asset management. Some Laws has been issued and promulgated like Land Law, Bidding Law ... regimes, norms and instructions on using and managing public assets in the administration sector have been improved. 7. Price management: the legal framework has been completed, an appropriate system of price assessment in line with ASEAN criteria has been developed, six more criteria for asset value evaluation have been developed and are scheduled to be introduced in December 2008. An amendment to the Circular on power and method to define clean water supply in residential areas, industrial zones, residential clusters and rural areas. The system of market-oriented price under government management for oil products price has been implemented. IV. Key activities in public finance management to be implemented in the coming time: Reforms in the area of public financial management will focus on implementation of each component in the Single Document: 1. Budget Expenditure Management: The Law on State Budget will be amended and approved, under law instruction documents will include regulations on medium term financial plan, decentralization of fiscal management will be increased and first steps in implementing outcome-oriented budget implementation will be carried out, the budget deficit figures will be in line with the international practice and regulations on lending limit for provinces. Implementation of the recommendations in the Public Expenditure Review 2004 will be continued. Pilot implementation of PEFA will be put under consideration 2. Budget Revenue Management: to implement both Taxation and Customs reform projects (funded by WB) to set up and synchronized overall tax policy system, to simplify customs procedures, make it harmonious and in line with advanced international norms/rules. Simultaneously, improving Tax Collection System and Custom Progressive Management to increase staff capacities to meet the demand of Budget Revenue Management Process. 3. Debt Management: implement Debt Management Program to set up a focal point for public debt management, to reach the objective of fiscal stability and ensuring national financial security. To set up a modern debt management system to monitor public debt, including: (i) method of recording debts syntheses, and (ii) method of defining, analyzing, resolving and managing fiscal risks. When the Law on Public Debt 88 Management would be promulgated in 2009, the under-law documents will be published and the law implementation process will be started. To continue to shift to active debt management method, to design a medium and long term debt management program. 4. Monitoring financial market and developing bond market: to implement a unified management and supervision system for the financial market in Vietnam, to create a management mechanism to monitor and coordinate different agencies; to monitor the financial market, to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of financial market management and supervision; to ensure market safety, protect investor and national currency-financial security. To have a roadmap for securities development to 2010; to strengthen capacities for intermediary financial institutions; to diversify securities market products; to improve the interrelation between securities market and currency market in order to introduce appropriate national policies, control inflation and stabilize domestic currency; to improve coordination and ensure national financial security. 5. Corporate finance management reform: To create an optimal model of state capital management for enterprises with a suitable, complete and comprehensive mechanism in line with international practice in the context of post-WTO integration; to implement the common Enterprise Law, and the Investment Law (2005); to promulgate a law on using state capital in business, to speed up the equitization process at state-owned enterprises, to strengthen the role of SCIC as the representative of capital owner. 6. Public asset management: to review, finalize and provide instruction on the implementation of the legal framework for public asset management; to assess all investment plans and public procurement, including expenditure on repairing and upgrading public assets for administrative agencies. To use "market prices" in all transaction such as leasing, procurement, selling, joint-venture lease, asset liquidation and other types of transaction. To modernize technology and equipment, to apply information technology, to set up a unified nation-wide database for public assets to provide information to management agencies and the public; to set up a software of public asset management. 7. Price Management: To draft the Law on Price Management (starts at the beginning of 2009), to develop a set of criteria for price evaluation for Vietnam to be in line with international practice and Vietnam's reality. To continue the road map for implementation of market economy under state management for some products and services IV. Measures for improved partnership relation: The Working Group of the Ministry of Finance is responsible for coordinating international cooperation and partnership arrangement with donors in the field of public finance management; it shall continue its current tasks and further promote working mechanism which has been adopted in 2008, which consists of: - Strengthen information sharing and policy dialogue; - Improved coordination of funding resources to enhance the effectiveness in mobilization and use of funding resources; - Promote stronger involvement of related agencies under Ministry of Finance and Government agencies to improve the effectiveness of the forum; - Maintain biannual Group meetings; - Promote and support information sharing, policy dialogue and development of programs and projects in public finance management. 89