USAID Supports GVN Officials’ Study Tour on Regulatory Reform

Hanoi June 21, 2007

Sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development, eight leading government officials involved in drafting the new Administrative Procedures Law embarked on a two-week study tour to South Korea, Mexico and the U.S. on Monday, June 18, to learn about regulatory reforms and laws regarding administrative procedures to improve Vietnam’s competitiveness in the World Trade Organization environment.  

Dr. Nguyen Minh Man, director general of the Office of the Government's Administrative Reform Department, is leading the delegation, which is evaluating ways to streamline government regulations to promote a business-friendly legal and regulatory environment. Two USAID-funded projects, STAR-Vietnam and the Vietnam Competitiveness Initiative (VNCI), are co-organizing the trip.

Delegates will travel to Seoul, Mexico City, San Francisco and Sacramento where they will meet with government officials and experts in regulatory reform, competitiveness, transparency law and administrative law.

“This study tour will provide Vietnamese officials with first-hand experience and insight into the dramatic reforms undertaken in South Korea after the financial crisis in 1997 and in Mexico in the late 1990s in order to fully benefit from North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In both countries, decisive reforms made a huge difference to increase investment and jobs,” said Dr. Jim Winkler, project director of VNCI.  “Vietnam faces a similar urgency today to revise out-dated administrative rules and laws that are now a disadvantage in the competitive WTO environment.”

The tour is in response to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung's recent priority to launch a comprehensive Action Plan to simplify administrative procedures and spur Vietnam’s post-WTO economic development.