Speeches Shim
The customs clearance of imports and exports in Vietnam is riddled with duplication of tasks, ineffective coordination mechanisms, and unclear laws. On November 27 to December 1, USAID’s Governance for Inclusive Growth Program and the Ministry of Planning and Investment’s Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), consulted businesses and provincial customs authority representatives in Northern and Southern parts of Vietnam to identify and document challenges in customs procedures and the specialized inspection of imports and exports (for example goods and product quality control, animal food safety, and declaration of chemicals, etc.)
According to the International Budget Partnership’s Open Budget Index, the world’s only independent, comparative measure of central government budget transparency, Vietnam has a poor track record of fiscal transparency. In response, USAID’s Governance for Inclusive Growth Program worked with the Center for Development and Integration (CDI) ― a Vietnamese non-governmental organization ― to strengthen civil society organizations’ capacity to understand and access budget information and advocate for participatory mechanisms in the budgeting process and in budget monitoring. On November 28, USAID, through CDI, consulted with civil society organizations and the Ministry of Finance to develop a citizen budget in support of the recently revised State Budget Law, which will present key public finance information to the general population in an accessible way to strengthen public oversight and improve policy choices.
Since October 2016, USAID’s Building University-Industry Learning and Development Through Innovation and Technology (BUILD-IT) Alliance has been training and coaching Vietnam National University, Hanoi - University of Science to improve the governance body, curriculum, instructional methodology, student support, HR and financial management. This support helped the university move beyond the national system and integrate into the regional standard. As a result, Hanoi University of Science was recently the first university in Vietnam to gain ASEAN University Network – Quality Assurance accreditation at the institution level.
Vietnam aims to improve legal support services to SMEs and implement the Law on Support to SMEs. In response, USAID’s Governance for Inclusive Growth (GIG) activity and Vietnam’s Ministry of Justice (MOJ) conducted a field study with businesses and providers of corporate legal information and services in Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City in October 2017.
Tuberculosis (TB) is a leading cause of death among people living with HIV and one of the reasons has been the lack of connection between the programs for detection, diagnosis, treatment and management of TB and HIV. During 2015-16, the USAID Sustainable HIV Response From Technical Assistance activity collaborated with the USAID Challenge TB activity to pilot a “two-in-one” HIV/TB integrated clinical model that has reduced patient waiting times and staff requirements, maintained HIV/TB service quality, and has since been expanded to more than 30 provinces.
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