In response to the request from the Central Committee of Organization and Personnel of the Vietnam Communist Party, GRIPS had a special three-month training and research program for senior officials of the Vietnamese government from October 3^rd to December 22^nd, 2016. Three selected senior officials of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), the Financial Planning Department of the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the State Securities Commission of the Ministry of Finance (MOF) participated in the program.

This training program aims to deepen the understanding of leadership and policy making through research activities, lectures and site visits and to make research on specific subjects so that participants can improve policies in Vietnam. In the program, participants attended some of regular courses of GRIPS and also had special lectures by professors of GRIPS.

Each participant wrote policy paper on specific subject such as science technology innovation, improvement of internal audit system in the Ministry of Finance, development of an efficient corporate bond market in Vietnam, respectively. According to their research topics, participants visited related organizations and conducted interviews with experts and practitioners in the field in order to learn experiences and challenges which Japan is facing. Their research activities were supported by the program director, Prof. Masahiro Horie (Senior Professor and Director of the Executive Development Center for Global Leadership), Vice-President Prof. Kiyotaka Yokomichi, Prof. Koichi Sumikura, Prof. Hiroaki Jindo, Associate Prof. Yasuyuki Watanabe at GRIPS and Mr. Akihiko Mori from Development Bank of Japan Inc.

Participants also attended the training program for Vice-Ministerial level officials of Vietnamese government, which was provided at GRIPS from October 17^th to October 26^th, 2016. They joined the field trip to Fukui, Toyama and Kanazawa in Hokuriku area. By visiting Japanese companies, they could seek for the possibility of cooperation between Vietnam and companies in Hokuriku area. At the end of the three-month training program, participants also had a chance to visit Kamakura and experienced Japanese history and culture.

On the last day of the program, participants presented the result of their research work (policy papers), and completed the three-month training program after receiving feedback and advice from their advisors.