Speeches Shim
Communities living in the buffer zones of Vietnam’s protected areas, especially ethnic minority groups, have traditionally depended on forests for their livelihoods. USAID’s Green Annamites project recently helped establish “A Luoi Cooperative for Safe Agro-Products” in Thua Thien - Hue province. The cooperative brings together and empowers Co Tu ethnic minority women to produce fruits and vegetables in accordance with environmentally friendly and safe farming practices. USAID is guiding the cooperative on how to effectively market and maximize profits from sales of their safe and delicious produce. Following a recent USAID-funded products-introduction event in A Luoi district, BigC - a leading supermarket chain in Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos - selected the cooperative’s locally produced bananas for sale at all BigC stores in Thua Thien - Hue province.
On October 17, Secretary Mattis visited Bien Hoa Airbase, a former American airbase, situated 30 kilometers outside of Ho Chi Minh City. He was greeted at the airbase by Major General Bui Anh Chung, Deputy Chief, Air Defense-Air Force Command of Vietnam’s Ministry of National Defense (MND), USAID’s main Government of Vietnam counterpart in its dioxin remediation efforts. Major General Chung and his staff briefed the Secretary on findings of the joint USAID-MND environmental assessment of dioxin contamination in the airbase area, as well as plans for joint remediation efforts. During his visit, Secretary Mattis told reporters, “I just want to get eyes on [the site] so when I go back and I talk to Congress, I can tell them my impression with actually having seen the site.”
Sustainable cultivation of high-value medicinal plants can increase incomes and improve livelihoods for communities living in the buffer zones of protected areas, communities where members’ livelihoods have traditionally depended on the forest. From October 4-6, the USAID Green Annamites project trained 90 members of the Co Tu ethnic minority in Quang Nam province on how to grow Dang Sam, a type of ginseng, which is native to Vietnam. During the training, participants (80 percent women) learned how to identify suitable sites for planting Dang Sam, as well as techniques to breed, cultivate, plant, and nurture this medicinal plant.
Policy Impact Assessment is a critical step in developing laws and a new requirement under Vietnam’s 2015 Law on Laws. Earlier this year, USAID helped Vietnam’s Ministry of Justice (MOJ) to develop and launch a Policy Impact Assessment manual. On October 9-10, the USAID Governance for Inclusive Growth Program and MOJ trained representatives from several ministries and provincial justice departments on skills needed to conduct the five elements of policy impact assessment: economic impacts, social impacts, gender impacts, administrative procedure impacts, and legal system impacts.
On October 4, USAID introduced the USAID Linkages for Small and Medium Enterprises (LinkSME) project at the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) Vietnam’s Supplier Day event in Ho Chi Minh City. This annual matchmaking event, which was attended by approximately 200 people, brings together large foreign firms interested in contracting inputs and supplies from local SMEs. At the AmCham Supplier Day, representatives from the World Bank and other organizations discussed the challenges faced in connecting Vietnamese SMEs to global value chains. USAID LinkSME representatives also spoke to potential project partners and gathered feedback from them. USAID LinkSME will level the playing field by lowering costs for multinationals located in Vietnam to source locally while representing a huge opportunity to grow Vietnam’s SME sector and build its middle class, major consumers of American products. The project will also improve Vietnam’s regional competitiveness, by making it a more attractive and predictable investment climate.
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