PRG Project (Vietnam)

For many years, Danida Vietnam has supported the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) in the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) under the Poverty Reduction Grant (PRG) program. The program started in the year 2000, is now in its third and final phase. Since the start, the DERG group has been working with the Vietnamese government counterpart, CIEM, under this program.

The overall objective of the program is to further the development process of Vietnam with a particular focus on growth, poverty reduction and equity. The rationale of the project is to achieve this aim through quality economic research and policy analysis to further evidence based policy-making in Vietnam. This is done in parallel with capacity building of national staff and general institution building of CIEM itself.

Under the PRG program, DERG has implemented a wide range of research and training activities with a  view to:
• Producing high quality academic and policy research outputs, including reports and policy briefs as well as internationally refereed journal articles.
• Strengthening the research and policy analysis capacity of CIEM staff through in-service training, collaborative research, formal degree programmes, seminars, training workshops, conferences, and continuous interaction on professional matters. Extending and deepening CIEM’s international network has also been pursued.

A large number of macro, meso and microeconomic issues have been covered under the technical assistance provided by DERG. Recent research areas have included the construction of a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) for Vietnam, international price transmission analysis, and environmental accounting. Work is underway in the areas of the economics of climate change and the Vietnamese labour market