On November 24, the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) had an online working session with the Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE).
An overview of the working session.
NAPA representatives participating in the working session were Assoc. Prof. Nguyen Ba Chien, NAPA President, Dr. Dang Thanh Le, Director General of the Institute of Administrative Studies; Mr. Nguyen Huy Hoang, Director General of the Department of Personnel and Organization; Ms. Pham Thi Quynh Hoa, Director General of the Department of International Cooperation; leaders of the Department of Refresher Training Management and Department of International Cooperation.
From CBIE, there were Ms. Larissa Bezo, President and CEO and Ms. Karen Dalkie, Vice President of Development and Partnerships.
The working session aimed to discuss the potential collaboration between NAPA and Canadian partners and to exchange ideas about developing a cooperative program to enhance NAPA’s capabilities in implementing training programs for public leaders and managers in Vietnamese localities.
Ms. Larissa Bezo, President and CEO of CBIE, speaking at the working session.
During the working session, from Vancouver, Canada, Ms. Larissa Bezo provided an overview of CBIE. CBIE is a non-profit organization involved in policy formulation, implementation, and development, and promotion of Canadian education internationally. CBIE has implemented over 100 global projects in more than 60 countries with a total budget exceeding 2.5 billion dollars. Due to the decentralized nature of education in Canada (as there is no Ministry of Education at the federal level), educational activities in Canada are decentralized to the provinces and states. Therefore, cooperation in education and training is carried through CBIE, serving as a bridge between universities and international training institutions.
In terms of cooperation in public service, CBIE has experience in implementing the Human Resources Management of the Public Service of Ukraine from November 2008 to September 2012, funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The project beneficiary was the Ukrainian Main Department of Civil Service (MDCS) (later the National Agency of Ukraine for Civil Service). The implementation of this project has provided CBIE with valuable experience to build a cooperative program with the Academy in developing the capabilities of Vietnamese local public leaders.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ba Chien, NAPA President, speaking at the meeting.
At the meeting, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ba Chien highly appreciated the working opportunity between NAPA and CBIE, creating conditions for both sides to discuss cooperation possibilities. Regarding the content of cooperation, he affirmed that enhancing leadership and management capabilities is a very important task for Viet Nam at present. In the context of global uncertainties, the process of innovation and national development poses an urgent need to enhance leadership and management capabilities, contributing to socio-economic development and public service modernization. Currently, Vietnamese localities are also paying great attention to enabling their leaders to participate in training and cooperation programs with overseas institutions and organizations.
In this context, NAPA wishes to promote cooperation with international partners, including Canadian partners. The proposal to expand cooperation with Canadian partners is based on the rich tradition between NAPA and Canadian training institutions for public leaders and managers. This proposal was reiterated by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ba Chien during the working session with Mr. Shawn Steil, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Canada to Viet Nam on May 15, 2023.
Based on the requirements of the NAPA missions and practical needs, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ba Chien proposed that the two sides develop a cooperation program to enhance the capabilities of Vietnamese public leaders and managers at the local level. The aim is to enhance the capabilities of female leaders of local state administrative agencies, with the expected outcomes as follows:
–Training programs will be implemented to enhance the capacity of leaders at the provincial, department and district levels in local leadership, administration and governance. This will promote the process of local socio-economic development and public service modernization. Programs will be implemented both domestically and internationally to allow participants to access practical experiences and learn from the local governance experience of Canada;
–NAPA leaders and lecturers will possess the capability to develop and organize internationally standardized capacity-building programs for public leaders and managers at the local level;
- Programs and training materials for leadership and local management capacity building for specific target groups (provincial leaders/ source provincial leaders; department-level leaders and district-level leaders) will be developed and published;
– Training programs specifically for local female leaders will be developed and implemented.
At the end of the working session, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ba Chien expressed great joy that the two sides had agreed and reached a consensus on the draft cooperation program for the future. He hopes that the two sides will soon implement the program successfully.
