Minutes of the Final Internal Workshop of VERN Project

22-23 June 2005

 

 

The final internal workshop of all research teams of VERN project was held at Heritage hotel in Ha Long city on 22-23 June 2005. Participants in the meeting included Prof. Bernard Decaluwe from ADEI, Canada;  one international advisor -  Dr. Remco Oostendorp; VERN project research leader - Dr. Nguyen Thang, all members of VERN project office, members of local technical assistance team, and almost all researchers of six sub-research teams.

 

Dr. Nguyen Thang launched the workshop at 8:30AM, 22 June 2005. He warmly welcomed the international advisors, all researchers and VERN project office staff to the final internal workshop of VERN.

 

Following the introduction by Dr. Nguyen Thang were opening remarks by Prof. Bernard Decaluwe. Prof. Decaluwe expressed his strong support to all the work that have been done so far by all members of the network. He stressed that VERN project is a unique project in the world in the sense that it is fully managed by local researchers. International partners have only acted as technical advisors to research teams. VERN project have been performing well. Its work and papers done by local researchers are of high quality. The project has provided Vietnamese researchers with good networking experience, facilitated the exchange of knowledge between them and the international advisors as well.

 

Before giving the floor to presentations by research teams, Dr. Nguyen Thang again stressed the important role that the international advisors - Prof. Bernard Decaluwe, Dr. John Cockburn, and Dr. Remco Oosterndorp – have played in the project. They have been fruitfully providing teams with theoretical background and valuable comments as well as overall supervision on teams in producing quality research papers. He also remarked that the research findings of all teams in the first phase of VERN would be critical to the application for the next phase of such a project like VERN.

 

 

Group 13 led by Tran Quoc Trung opened the presentation, comments and questions session. They presented their two papers on: (i) “The development of non-farm household enterprises in Vietnam”, and (ii) “Effects of trade liberalization on non-farm household enterprises in Vietnam”. Group 1 led by Dr. Bui Thi Tam followed by their presentation on three papers: (i) “Trade reforms, trade performance, other shocks and poverty in the central provinces of Vietnam”, (ii) “Household responses”, and (iii) “Determinants of expenditure changes: regression models”.

 

Group 26 led by La Hai Anh opened the afternoon session at 1:30PM by their presentation on (i) ‘Export competitiveness of Vietnam in the US and Japanese markets: A comparison with China and five other members of ASEAN”, and (ii) “Determinants of export competitiveness of Vietnam”. The last presentation of the day was made by Group 23 led by Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Canh. The team presented their paper on “Findings of technical efficiency of food processing industry in Vietnam: The case of Ho Chi Minh city”. The first working day of the workshop was closed at 5:00PM.

 

The morning and also the last session on 23 June 2005 was re-opened by Dr. Nguyen Thang at 8:15AM. He asked all the teams to send the list of comments and questions that they received during the workshop together with their work plan for the next two weeks to VERN project office and the international advisors soon after the workshop finished. After that, team 6 led by Dang Nhu Van started their presentation on (i) “Productivity analysis for Vietnam’s textile and garment industry”, and (ii) “Vietnamese textile and garment firms in the global value chain: if and how higher value activity pay-off?”. Team 9/34 led by Dr. Doan Hong Quang and Nguyen Thi Lan Huong followed with their presentation on (i) “The impacts of trade liberalization on manufacturing wage and employment in Vietnam”, and (ii) “Reform-induced wage inequality in Vietnam: the impact of trade liberalization and education attainment”.

 

Dr. Nguyen Thang concluded the meeting with important remarks. He thanked all participants fruitfully participating in the workshop. He asked all teams to take into consideration all the comments on their work during the workshop, revise and complete all the final papers by the end of July. All teams were also asked to send VERN project office and international advisors their work plan for the next two weeks after the workshop. The final workshop, which would be open to wider audience such as other Vietnamese researchers and policy makers, would take place in December this year.  Dr. Nguyen Thang promised that VERN project office and the technical assistance team be willing to fully support all teams and fulfill their requests in this final stage so that all teams would be able to complete their project papers on time with high quality. The workshop was closed at 12:15PM on 23 June 2005.

 

 

 

Date: 23 June 2005

 

On behalf of the VERN project office

 

 

  

Nguyen Thang