Speeches Shim
Since 2015, USAID’s Healthy Markets activity has conducted a pilot of community-based HIV testing approaches, including HIV lay testing, self-testing and partner notification (the voluntary process where trained health workers notify the sexual partners of a person newly diagnosed with HIV, with the consent of the HIV positive client).
In the World Bank’s Doing Business 2018 report, Vietnam ranking jumped from 82 to 68 out of 190 economies, the highest increase in the past decade. Vietnam increased its ranking in six out of ten indicators, including the area of paying taxes, which rose sharply from 167 up to 86. USAID’s Governance for Inclusive Growth (GIG) activity has supported the Government of Vietnam’s Resolution 19, which aims to improve the business enabling environment.
The Law on Forest Protection and Development (now named the Law on Forestry) is among the few laws that regulate wildlife protection in Vietnam, but it had not been revised since it was issued in 2004. This year, in order to improve the government’s oversight and legislation to combat wildlife trafficking, USAID’s Governance for Inclusive Growth (GIG) Program and the National Assembly provided technical support to review and analyze proposed changes in the law.
On November 9, newly-appointed U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Daniel Kritenbrink visited the USAID Building University-Industry Learning and Development through Innovation and Technology (BUILD-IT) Alliance’s Maker Innovation Space at Danang University. In Danang to participate in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit, Ambassador Kritenbrink met with Danang University engineering students and discussed their projects while learning about BUILD-IT’s progress in bringing new technologies and hands-on project work to the university students through the Maker Innovation Space.
Community-based self and lay HIV testing has the potential to reach those most at risk of HIV and accelerate the detection of new cases. Recently the Nghe An Provincial AIDS Center reported that village health workers and civil society organizations trained and supported by USAID’s Healthy Markets activity identified 352 new HIV cases in 2017, accounting for 30% of new cases detected in the province.
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