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2018
- 17 December
- By Mone SYSAVATH
- Asia Office LAO/030
- Socio-economic development
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LAOS - 7 reasons why the Local Development Programme LAO/030 uses village development funds to overcome poverty
In late November 2018, Regional Office in Vientiane Laos, as part of the mid-term evaluation team, visited several villages in Bokeo province (north of Laos) where the programme LAO/030 is working with 52 poor and multi-ethnic villages to improve better livelihood through Village Development Fund approach.

On the way to the target villages, we spoke to Mr Sisouk Khounvithong who is the Provincial Programme Coordinator about the village development funds and its planning in general.

Question: Why are village development funds supported by LAO/030 programme important in improving people’s live in the target villages?

Answer: In my view, they are, in many ways because:

1. Each community decides to use the fund based on their real need in a transparent and democratic way; 2. Each community decides, in consensus, to use the fund to help the poorest of the poor in their villages; 3. Each community selects representatives themselves who they can trust and handle the funds; 4. The fund directly meets community needs based on village development potential (geographically and local knowledge); 5. Village planning and its identified activities come from voices of all group (adult men, women and the poor) of people in each community; 6. The village development fund benefits both poorest of the poor households and community as a whole. So, no one is left behind;

7. Each village manages the funds with direct technical support from district authorities.

Village Development Fund Committee member explains the village activities implementation plan to the Mid Term Evaluation Team at Khae village, Parktha District, Bokeo province

Villagers vote for their Village Development Fund Committee and its activities, Piengthueng village, Pha Oudom District

Village Development Fund Committee selection result and village activities priorities and ranking, Piengthueng village, Pha Oudom District, Bokeo

Most of the villagers in Tor Lae, Bokeo province are raising local bees as part of their income generating activity from generation to generation.

Mr Sisouk Khounvithong, on the front row second right, is the Provincial Programme Coordinator and the Deputy Director General of Provincial Planning and Investment Department of Bokeo.
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- 11 December
- By Sandrine THINNES
- Asia Office MYA/002
- Socio-economic development
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MYANMAR - Staying healthy through personal hygiene
One of the aims of project MYA/002 is to provide villages in the 5 Tract area of Keng Tung township in East Shan with access to water. Already in six villages efficient door-to-door water distribution systems were installed and the villagers are very happy to have access to water at their doorstep. The efforts to provide more villages with door-to-door water systems from protected sources will continue next year. Access to water gives the project the opportunity to organise personal hygiene awareness campaigns. Improved personal hygiene decreases considerably the most common bacterial infection and causes of diarrhea in children.

Apart from installing village water distribution systems, project has also recently started with the construction of decent toilets and handwashing stations in the public schools operated by the Department of Education in the 5 Tract area. The aim is to provide all 17 government schools and some monastic schools with such improved facilities.

The works for these WASH (Water Sanitation and Hygiene) facilities is currently ongoing in the villages of Wan Kong, Nar Paw, Ah Maw Dea and Mong Lu. In the meantime, the project team decided to already launch in those 4 villages a Personal Hygiene Awareness and Demonstration training to the students of the public primary schools. The public school teachers assisted the project team in their efforts to discuss and raise the awareness of the needs of proper personal hygiene amongst the students. The students were gifted a set of soap, toothbrush and toothpaste to become ambassadors for personal hygiene and set examples to their siblings and parents.

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- 7 December
- By Neira Ramic
- Asia Office LAO/029
- Education, vocationnal training and employment
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LAOS - Bridge to Employment
On 6 December, a certificate ceremony was held for the 38 trainees who successfully graduated from the “Job Bridge” Programme.

“Job Bridge” is a 10-week English language and Job Skills training programme designed to equip trainees with the right skillset to secure their first job in the tourism and hospitality sector. An initiative of the Skills for Tourism Project (LAO/029), the training programme was designed and delivered by Vientiane College with the support of a number of hospitality businesses across Vientiane Capital.

The programme combines a variety of components, including English language training, employability skills, work-place exposure and CV and interview preparation. It is designed specifically for people from disadvantaged backgrounds to gain the requisite skills in order to secure gainful employment within the tourism and hospitality sector.

At the graduation ceremony, Daleen Douangsivanh, Coordinator of the Job Bridge Training Programme at Vientiane College, emphasised the importance of the programme and stated that “the programme offered the possibility to work in cooperation with the Tourism and Hospitality community and to receive support from a wide-range of partners which made a significant impact on the success of the training. The trainees have shown incredible development and the aims of the programme have hit their target.”

Phithuck Chanthavong (Thuck), one of the trainees commented that: “This programme gave me and everyone else on the course the chance for new experiences we never could have before. I want to continue learning and studying English to work in hospitality, and I hope to get a job working as a receptionist.”

Prior to graduation, a job fair was held with leading tourism and hospitality businesses including the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Inthira Group, Naked Espresso, O’Gradys Irish Pub and Restaurant, Common Grounds Cafe, Lao Orchid Hotel, Le Thatluang D’oR Hotel, Joma Bakery Cafe, Doi Ka Noi Restaurant, Tyson’s Kitchen and 108 Jobs. The trainees benefited from communicating directly with employers, undertook interviews at the fair and are hopeful of securing employment in the near future.

The Job Bridge curriculum is currently under consideration for accreditation by the Ministry of Education and Sports and is expected to be replicated in Vientiane Capital and expanded to other locations between 2019 and 2021 with the goal of training 750 people from disadvantaged backgrounds and supporting their transition into employment in tourism and hospitality.

The Skills for Tourism Project (LAO/029) is co-financed by the Governments of Lao PDR, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and Switzerland, and implemented by the Ministry of Education and Sports of Lao PDR and the Luxembourg Development Cooperation Agency (LuxDev).

Skills for Tourism supports improvements in tourism and hospitality technical and vocational education and training and skills development in Lao PDR. A particular emphasis of the project is to support people from disadvantaged backgrounds to acquire the skills needed to work in hotels, restaurants and the greater tourism economy.

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- 5 December
- By Outavong Phathammavong
- Asia Office LAO/027
- Health
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LAOS - Six midwives and nurses successfully graduated from a training course on High-Risk Pregnancy Nursing Care
The Lao-Luxembourg Health Sector Support Programme Phase II (LAO/027), recently offered six short-term scholarships to nurses and midwives from the provincial hospitals of Vientiane, Bolikhamxay and Khammouane province to attend a four-month training course on High-Risk Pregnancy Nursing Care at the Boromarajonani College of Nursing in Khon Kaen, Thailand.

This short-term training started in August of this year, and the first group lately graduated after completing this course on quality nursing and midwifery training. Several additional groups of dedicated nursing staff will benefit from this regionally based short-term scholarship over the next two years.

The LAO/027 programme offers a comprehensive package of long and short-term scholarships to both volunteers and civil servants as part of its human resource capital development programme.

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- 5 December
- By Cam Do Hoang Le
- Asia Office VIE/032
- Inclusive and innovative finance
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VIETNAM - Securities Law revision on the move
Between October and November 2018, the Vietnamese State Security Commission (SSC) with the support of VIE/032 project, organised three consecutive consultation workshops on the amended Securities Law in three regions (Danang, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city) of Vietnam. The workshops were designed to encourage dialogue and consensus building between relevant agencies, organisations and participants, discuss intellectual property rights and raise awareness of these issues within the framework of the securities market.

The first workshop collected feedback from representatives from the Government Office, National Assembly Economic Committee, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Security, Securities Business Association, Fund Management Club and securities firms.

The second and third workshops were broader events with mixed public (Economic Board of Consultants to the Prime Minister, Ministry of Finance, SSC and the Securities Law Editorial Board) and private (stock exchanges, fund management companies, auditing companies, banks (supervisory, custodian, settlement), reputable publicly listed companies) sector participants. These workshops were also publicised by the major news outlets in the northern and southern areas of the country.

The Securities Law constitutes the legal framework for the operation and development of securities and was introduced to the public in 2006 and revised in 2010 along with the bylaw documents. According to the Vice Minister of Finance, Huynh Quang Hai, who chaired the two workshops in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, “the Law has contributed to boost the development of the securities market in Vietnam in view of it becoming the long-term capital mobilisation channel for the national economy.”

Figures show that the securities market in Vietnam has boomed over recent years with the number of listed companies having multiplied by 7 between 2016 and end 2017 to reach a current number of 1 537. Market capitalisation for these companies stands at VND 3.8 trillion (about 162M USD) equivalent to 77 percent of GDP, a 55 percent increase on 2016.

According to Mr Hai, “the stock market has efficiently supported an open, transparent capitalisation process for State-owned enterprises (SOEs) which has accelerated the restructuring of SOEs over the past 11 years. Despite the general development of the market, discrepancies and shortcomings of the Law have been exposed and noted. It is therefore now critical to have it updated and revised for an improved legal framework for the management of the stock market”, Mr. Hai insisted.

During the workshops, comments were collected from approximately 330 participants in total and are currently being worked on by SSC and converted into further revisions and updates. Discussions in these forums covered a wide range of issues relevant to the Securities Law although topics such as the organisation of the stock market, public offering, foreign investment attraction, information disclosure, stock business, regulations for securities company/securities investment fund/fund management companies drew the most attention. The revision is also considered to be well aligned with other Laws, mainly Enterprise Law, Investment Law as well as Credit Institutions Law.

The draft (amended) Securities Law, which is supposed to be submitted to the National Assembly in its 7th meeting session in May 2019 and considered for approval in the 8th session in October 2020, is expected to develop a stable, safe and sustainable legal stock market environment. Market supervision requirements, particularly in terms of protecting eligible rights and investor benefits, will ensure that the stock market contributes to mid and long-term capitalisation channels for the national economy,” shared Mr. Nguyen Quang Viet – General Director of Legal Department of SSC during the Ho Chi Minh City workshop.

Amendments to the Securities Law, understood as upgrading securities market legal and governance framework, is one of the three results of Project VIE/032. “The support from Luxembourg’s Government and the active role of Luxembourg Embassy and Lux-Development in this financial sector is highly appreciated,” expressed Mr. Tran Van Dzung, Chairman of SSC. “Many good lessons have been learnt from international experts sourced by Project VIE/032, that have helped us cut short unneccesary steps and head in the right direction of consolidating the amended Law”.
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- 27 November
- By Reginald M. Pastrana
- Asia Office LAO/031
- Governance
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LAOS - Thumbs up for full scale legal curriculum development and Quality Assurance standards

Dean, Vice-Deans, Heads of various departments and faculty members of the FLP of the National University of Laos posted for a souvenir photo after receiving their certificates on QA workshop

Legal curriculum and Quality Assurance (QA) standards are the foundations of high quality legal education.

At present, legal education in the Lao PDR is still catching up with international and ASEAN standards. While the National University of Laos (NUoL) is already a member of the ASEAN University Network (AUN), it has yet to receive its accreditation and must continue improving its standards set by the AUN QA framework for higher education. The standard uses scoring system from 1 (poor) to 7 (excellent). Over the next 4 years, FPL aims to reach score 4 (“Adequate as Expected”). The AUN is an agreement between 30 universities in the ten ASEAN member countries which as part of its responsibilities actively promotes quality assurance in higher education institutions, raises the quality of higher education and encourages collaboration with both regional and international bodies for the benefit of the ASEAN community.

The Luxembourg Cooperation, through the project LAO/031, seeks to improve legal education and is committed to scaling up QA standards and supporting the continued development of the higher legal education programme in Laos.

How to achieve this important goal? In collaboration with the Faculty of Law and Political Science (FLP) of the National University of Laos (NUoL), LAO/031 has supported the ongoing curricula assessment and evaluation process for all of FLP’s departments. This has included trainings, seminars and workshops on curriculum development, benchmarking of ASEAN standards and QA awareness raising workshops. Most recently, the project supported a three-day workshop on the ASEAN University Network (AUN) and Quality Assurance Programme Framework in Vientiane Capital from 14 – 16 November 2018.

The workshop hired the services and expertise of Mr. Johnson Ong Chee Bin, a high level expert from the AUN and the National University of Singapore (NUS), to validate the assessments and provide trainings on curriculum development and QA standards. The three-day workshop was chaired by Dean Viengvilay Thiengchanhxay of the FLP, co-chaired by the CTA of LAO/031, and attended by the Vice-Deans, Heads and faculty members of all FLP departments.

Thanks to this eye-opening and informative three-day workshop, the various curriculum assessments were validated by an expert and the thumbs-up was given to the new training programs. It was agreed that the new curriculum and the QA will be implemented during the project life cycle.

Two significant points must be stressed: (1) the improvement of legal curriculum is a giant step towards laying the foundations for a strong legal education institution, and (2) the QA shall set the milestones for higher legal education standards in Lao PDR. Once these mechanisms are fully institutionalized within the FLP, the next goal would be to share and replicate them in other legal learning institutions in Laos, including the Faculty of Law and Administration (FLA) of Champassak University and other law universities in Laos.

Moving forward, LAO/031 will seek to build on the assessments and evaluations that effectively helped to benchmark standards and will also continue to collaborate with an international curriculum expert in targeting 5 academic programmes by the end of the project (or one per year). Regarding QA, the ultimate objective is to graduate to score 4 AUN QA standards by 2022.
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- 5 November
- By Sandrine THINNES
- Asia Office MYA/002
- Socio-economic development
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MYANMAR - Village Veterinarian Extension Services
After the project had trained the 5th batch of village veterinarian extension workers (village vets) in August 2018, it was time to introduce the 65 trained village vets to the concept of extension work. The project team put together information leaflets on the most common diseases in cattle, pigs and poultry and trained the village vets on how to approach the villagers and share the knowledge.

The village vets should approach the villagers in small groups and introduce them to the signs shown by animals if infected by any of the most common diseases. The villagers are then invited to contact the village vet immediately if those signs occur so that the animal can be treated or put under quarantine to avoid further spreading of the disease.

Although the information leaflets are in Burmese language and many of the villagers are illiterate, the fact that the village vets provided information in their local ethnic language (in these shown cases La Hu) and explained in detail the pictures, the villagers are able to recognize and react appropriately.

Upon a recent follow-up mission the project team and the field coordinator visited villagers and asked about the leaflets and their purpose. Many households were able to provide the information that was shared with them and even showed the coordinator which diseases they had already come across. They were also very happy to have a village vet who provides the medicine and can thus even cure their animal.

For the moment, MYA/002 project is supporting the village vets with the medicines/vaccines free of charge. The payment of the medicines/vaccines will start once the village vets have completed their full training and also when the project has provided further support to the farmers in improving their husbandry techniques and are able to create an income from their livestock. For now the importance lies on training the village vets and the farmers alike in preventing and containing most common diseases to avoid outbreaks and loss of valuable assets to the farmers’ livelihoods.

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- 10 October
- By Sandrine THINNES
- Asia Office MYA/002
- Socio-economic development
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MYANMAR - Improving Basic Agricultural Knowledge
Since August 2018, the MYA/002 Agricultural Production Support team in close collaboration with the Department of Agriculture improved the knowledge in basic agricultural techniques of 45 participants from 21 villages of the 5 Tract area of Kyaing Tong township.

Identifying the most common diseases in paddy rice

Over the course of 3 days, the participants were introduced how to recognize the different types of soil and the most common diseases and pests in paddy crops. The training further included practical exercises in how to set up a compost heap to produce natural fertiliser as well as how to mix natural pesticides from garlic and soap for instance. As many of the farmers work on mountainous terrain, the technique of how to plot a sloping land using an A-frame was very informative to them.

The trainings were delivered in Burmese with a translation into the local dialect of either La Hu or Shan. Information cards were handed out to the participants to support the theory with pictures and images so that even illiterate farmers are able to understand the information more easily. The trainees are invited to share their knowledge with their peers.

Finding the bug in the rice field

Besides the training sessions, the project team visited those initial 21 villages and recruited farmers interested in setting up a vegetable garden (called home garden) as well as model farms with long term crops such as tea, coffee and/or fruit trees amongst the most common long term crops. The response from the villagers was phenomenal as more than 450 people are interested in setting up home gardens and 91 volunteered to try out the model farm concept. Home gardens are not very common in the villages as they are always ravaged by free ranging chicken and pigs but also most farmers are not very familiar with the needs or techniques of growing vegetables properly. The villagers would however be very happy to also see a change in their diet and are happy to learn how to grow them.

Visiting a farm in Loi Mwe growing cabbage and tea in a mixed plot

To wrap up this initial training, the project invited the trainees to a learning trip to the Loi Mwe area to visit the model and research farm from the Department of Agriculture, the famous tea village of Ba Wei (with over 70 year old tea plants), a farm/home garden plot as well as a multi crop (elephant foot yam, pineapple and pine trees) plantation on sloping land. For some this trip was also an adventure as it was the first time for them driving in a bus and also to have slept in a guest house. However, such learning trips are so important to help the trainees to better understand the theory as well as to exchange with other farmers in the area.

Ba Wei tea master showing how the fried green tea needs to be macerated before drying

In the upcoming months the project will support the volunteers with the necessary seeds, seedlings, tools and other material to set up their home gardens and model farms. The MYA/002 team and its partners are looking forward to soon be tasting those homegrown vegetables in a few weeks time.

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- 2 October
- By Neira Ramic
- Asia Office LAO/029
- Education, vocationnal training and employment
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LAOS - Marking World Tourism Day with the launch of the Sabaidee English App to improve language skills in tourism and hospitality
World Tourism Day is globally celebrated on 27 September each year to raise awareness on the contribution tourism makes to sustainable development. This year, the theme is “Tourism and Digital Transformation”. It focuses on the importance of digital technologies in providing innovative approaches to skills development to prepare young people for their future of work. With this in mind, the Technical and Vocational Education Department of the Ministry of Education and Sports – with the support of the Skills for Tourism Project (LAO/029) – has created an English language mobile app, specifically designed for the tourism and hospitality sector.

© Phoonsab Thevongsa

Called Sabaidee English, the app aims to improve English language competences of students and employees in tourism and hospitality. Through a series of fun and entertaining exercises and games, users can practice and improve their communication skills in English. The app, which is available on both Android and iOS platforms, is completely free of charge and once downloaded, can be used offline. In its testing phase, Sabaidee English was very well received by students and teachers alike. It has also been welcomed by employers as an effective and accessible way to develop the English language skills of staff.

© Phoonsab Thevongsa

"As 2018 is Visit Laos Year, special attention needs to be placed on developing the capacities of people currently employed in the tourism and hospitality sector, as well as those undertaking education and training for future careers in the industry. Through the development of Sabaidee English, the Technical and Vocational Education Department is committed to improving English communication skills for employees in tourism and hospitality”, says Mr Nouphanh Outsa, Director General, Technical and Vocational Education Department.

© Phoonsab Thevongsa

Since 1980, the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has celebrated World Tourism Day on 27 September each year. The purpose of the day is to raise awareness on the role of tourism within the international community and to demonstrate how it affects social, cultural, political and economic values worldwide.

The Skills for Tourism Project (LAO/029) is co-financed by the Governments of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and Switzerland and implemented by the Ministry of Education and Sports of Lao PDR and the Luxembourg Development Cooperation Agency (LuxDev).
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- 26 September
- By Hoang Le Cam Do
- Asia Office VIE/032
- Inclusive and innovative finance
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VIETNAM - Workshop on the Financial Conglomerates Supervision
Danang has recently witnessed the first training workshop on the Financial Conglomerates Supervision in Vietnam under the framework of Project VIE/032 – Capacity Building in Finance Sector. The intensive three-day training, from 27 to 29 August 2018, was jointly held by Project VIE/032 and Vietnam’s National Financial Supervisory Commission (NFSC).

Despite NFSC being the only institute assigned for Financial Conglomerates supervision in Vietnam by the Prime Minister’s decision since 2015, with a specialised Financial Conglomerate Department being responsible for 8 potential financial conglomerates (if so-called) (i.e. 7 bank-holding companies & 1 insurance corporation), the Vietnamese regulatory regime for a financial conglomerate is currently basically an institutional approach with separate requirements for banks, securities firms and insurance companies. Until a national supervisory framework or concrete guidelines for financial conglomerate supervision are available, a number of potential risks threaten the financial market in Vietnam. It has become an urgent need for NFSC to get updated with latest information and shared with knowledge and skills by one of the experienced conglomerate supervision example countries within the region. Experts from both public regulators and private sector on Conglomerates from South Korea (Korean Financial Supervisory Services, Shinhan Financial Group, and one of the top professors on risk contagion within Financial Conglomerates from Dongguk University in S. Korea) were therefore chosen as speakers and facilitators for the workshop.

The training workshop draw attention from various financial institutions and entities. In addition to majority of participants coming from NFSC, the rests were from Ministry of Finance, State Securities Commission, Insurance Supervision Authority, Central Economic Committee, Economic Committee of National Assembly, financial and economics academy/university/college, as well as from banking sectors (State Bank of Vietnam and other state-owned commercial banks).

Issues exchanged in the event have been of great interest for all participants, which covered from legal issues such as building up legal frameworks for conglomerates, conglomerates identification, international supervision and examination standards (criteria, information collection), reporting regulations and typical models to technical matters as risk contagion, information sharing and feasible problems/challenges to be resolved; study cases were also shared by the speakers.

NFSC’s Deputy Manager of Conglomerates Supervision Department, Mrs. Thi Minh Nguyet NGUYEN, shared her view that the three-day event has satisfactorily reached her expectations: “The training is quite useful with loads of information; the presentations and discussion focus right on the knowledge blanks I wanted to fill”.

Mr. Huy Tuan HA, Vice Chairman of the NFSC, expressed his appreciation of the training contents and highly valued the support from Luxembourg to this event, saying: “the support from Luxembourg’s government through the activities of Project VIE/032 is very much appreciated. With that, we could grasp a dear opportunity to have our staff’s knowledge widened and skills sharpened, which clearly helps improving the capacity of NFSC’s personnel on this absolutely important subject.”

After the training, the NFSC is expected to “step by step strengthen its conglomerate supervision activities by consolidating supervisory and examination criterion with more detailed and systematic guidelines in data collection and calculation, providing further trainings for Conglomerates Supervision Department’s staff, improving supervision data infrastructure, reinforcing information sharing mechanism amongst relevant departments, and continuing seeking for international technical assistance in development of supervision processes/criteria in line with both international practices and Vietnam’s circumstances”, said Mr. Tuan.
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