ADB launches training programme on public policy

Hanoi (VNA) - The Asian Development Bank (ADB), with funding from the Japanese government, opened the 2009 Executive Public Policy Training Programme for Vietnamese officials on March 23.

"As Vietnam is becoming a middle income country, the role of the Government is
changing rapidly, in order to respond to new challenges, Vietnamese government
officials need to be well equipped," Ayumi Konishi, ADB country director said at
the opening ceremony.

The training programme, enrolling more than 300 senior and mid-level government
officials this year, aims to upgrade their knowledge and skills so that they can
better analyse and formulate policy reforms as well as more effectively implement
new policies being adopted by the country.

It is being implemented under the Asian Development Bank's Regional Technical
Assistance for Public Policy Training Programme 2007-2010, for Cambodia , Laos
and Vietnam at a budget of 18 million USD, the ADB said.

The Public Policy Training Programme 2007-2010 involves a number of long-term and
short-term activities which aim at helping build sustained domestic institutional
capacity in these countries. The programme was initiated in Vietnam in 2007 and
extended to Cambodia and Laos in 2009.

In the 2007-2008 period, the programme provided training for 450 Vietnamese
officials. It is expected that by the end of 2010, some 1,100 Vietnamese
government civil servants will have benefited from the training programme.-Enditem