International Seminar “Public Policy Challenges: Vietnam and Korea” | National Academy of Public Administration

On February 9^th, 2017, National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) and Asia Development Institute (ADI), Graduate School of Public Administration (GSPA), Seoul National University (SNU) co-organized an international seminar “Public Policy Challenges: Vietnam and Korea”. NAPA representatives presented at the seminar were Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vu Trong Hach, Acting Dean of Faculty of State Management on Social Affairs, Ms. Pham Thi Quynh Hoa, General Director of International Cooperation Department, Dr. Nguyen Thi Huong, Vice Dean of Faculty of State Management on Social Affairs, and NAPA scholars and officials. SNU representatives were Professor Choi Jong-Won, Director of Asia Development Institute, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kwon Huck-Ju, Deputy Director of Asia Development Institute, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kim Jun-ki, former Dean of SNU-GPA and researchers from ADI.

In the opening speech, Professor Choi Jong-Won highly appreciated NAPA and ADI’s cooperation activities including international workshops, seminar, academic exchange organized over the last years. International Seminar “Public Policy Challenges: Vietnam and Korea”, as he stated, is a continuity of strong cooperation between NAPA and ADI

At the seminar, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vu Trong Hach warmly welcomed ADI delegation to the seminar and discussion about challenges in public policy formulation and implementation in the two countries. He hoped that the seminar will help participants to exchange experience and practical lessons in coping with public policy challenges as well as tighten the cooperation between NAPA and ADI.

The followings are presentations delivered at the seminar:

“The challenges of inclusive growth for the developmental welfare state” by Prof. Kwon Huck-Ju, Deputy Director of Asia Development Institute mentioning a tendency towards inclusive growth in a welfare state and challenges of South Korea including aging population, changes in family structure, reforms of social safety and solutions undertaken to overcome these challenges.
“Korea’s International Cooperation in Education Sector: The Case of Souphanouvong University in Lao PDR” by CHANG, Ji Soon, Senior Fellow of Seoul National University, highlighting the role of human resources in development and education cooperation between South Korean partners and Souphanouvong University. The network-based cooperation applied by the University is a lesson learned for developing countries including Vietnam in designing development projects in general and projects in education and training in particular.
“A trap or slow transition: Vietnam’s pursuit higher income status” by Dr. Nguyen Quynh Huy, Deputy Head of Teaching Division of Public Policy, Faculty of Administrative Sciences analyzing whether Vietnam falls into the middle-income trap or a slow transition in development. The presentation mentioned trends and scenarios of growth, challenges faced by the country including productivity challenge, and made suggestions for avoiding the trap and speeding up the transition.

All presentations were followed by comments by scholars which allowed to broaden the perspective of the issues. The seminar have raised the awareness of common public policy challenges and typical ones in individual countries, provided an opportunity for sharing and learning experience in policy formulation and implementation for effective policy making in each country