In response to a request from the Vietnam Monitoring Office of Program (MOP) 165 of the Central Committee of Organization and Personnel, GRIPS conducted a special three-month training and research program for three senior officials of the Vietnamese government from October 2 to December 24, 2015.

This program aims to enhance the understanding of public leadership and policy development through lectures, site-visits and research activity. Along with attending some of GRIPS regular courses and special lectures, participants conduct researches on issues related to their duties in Vietnam.

This time, the research activity was supported by the Program Director, Masahiro Horie (senior professor and director of the Executive Development Center for Global Leadership), Vice-President Prof. Kiyotaka Yokomichi, Associate Prof.Yasuyuki Watanabe, Curator Emeritus, Dr. Kenichi Matsuura (National Museum of Natural Science) and Former Vice Minister of Defense for International Affairs, Mr. Hideshi Tokuchi as well as other public officials, professors and experts of the fields.

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

They also took a field trip to Fukui and Kanazawa in Hokuriku area to visit SMEs and factories which have business relations with Vietnam. By meeting and discussing with Japanese people, participants could learn the successes, challenges and possible cooperation between Vietnam and Japan.

This training program was highly evaluated by participants and thus both organizations have agreed to continue to collaborate in the future.