In response to a request from the Vietnam Monitoring Office of Program 165 of the Central Committee of Organization and Personnel, GRIPS conducted a special three-month training and research program for senior officials of the Vietnamese government from October 1 to December 26, 2014. Selected by Program 165, the four participants included representatives of the Ministry of Transport of Vietnam, the Women’s Union of Vietnam, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and the Ministry of Health.

During the program, each participant selected and attended some of the regular courses of GRIPS related to their research themes. The program director, Masahiro Horie (senior professor and director of the Executive Development Center for Global Leadership), Professor Kenji Shimazaki, Professor Masaei Matsunaga, Associate Professor Junya Hoshida, and Mr. Shintaro Nakamura (the senior advisor on social security to JICA) supported each participant’s own research as special advisor by providing advice on methodologies as well as the contents of the selected issue.

The participants also attended special lectures given by Professor Horie, Professor Kiyotaka Yokomichi (vice president of GRIPS), Professor Mikitaka Masuyama (vice president of GRIPS), Professor Ryoko Toyama (Graduate School of Strategic Management, Chuo University), Professor Takeji Takei (Local Autonomy College), Mr. Chihiro Takayama (executive director of Knowledge Creation Department, Eisai Co., Ltd.), and Mr. Yoichi Niiya (director of the International Affairs Division, National Personnel Authority). Through these lectures, the participants learned about a number of topics, including leadership and management skills, local governance and intergovernmental relations, electoral systems and Japan’s party politics, progress toward knowledge-based management with an examination of “Knowledge Management: A Case Study of Tono City, Iwate Prefecture, and Eisai Co., Ltd.”, and comparative study of the civil service system.

Participants completed the training program by writing and presenting their respective research paper.