Under the cooperation framework between Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) and Danish Development Research Network (DDRN), CIEM hosted a seminar on “Enhancing research capacity through information access and exchange – the role of Vietnam Economic Portal (VNEP)” (www.vnep.org.vn) on Thursday, 19 August, 2010

VNEP was launched on 17 March 2006. During its 4 year operation, VNEP is said to have followed its right track and achieved the planned target of playing the role as an academic and formal portal focusing on Vietnam economic development, bridging economic experts, policy makers, as well as management officials and business community, research information users, including lecturers, PhD candidates, students, and the public who are interested in Vietnam’s economic renovation and development process.

At the seminar, experts, state officials, and VNEP’s members recognized proactive roles of VNEP to the community; VNEP has made certain contribution to the national economic renovation, integration, and development, creating a two-way communicating channel for managers, researchers and business communities as well as the public. On the other hand, contributive ideas and suggestions presented at the seminar also reflect expectations of VNEP’s stakeholders on its future development in both terms of content and display versions. Some experts noticed that VNEP should attract more users, extending its coverage to all research and business communities, and the civil society by further enhancing quality, depth, and diversification of published news, papers, and columns so as to unceasingly updating relative currently topical issues and future trends as well.

Given achievements gained by VNEP, Dr. Dinh Van An – the ex-president of CIEM – said that it is necessary and noteworthy to continue the mobilization of financial and technical supports from all internal and external resources for VNEP development, further elaborating efforts of VNEP performance over the last time.

In the second part of the seminar, Dr. Neil Blake – senior economic expert of Oxford Economic Publisher, a distinguish invited guest of the seminar - delivered his report on “Global perspective: How secure is the global economic upturn?”. On this occasion, Dr. Neil also had a discussion with national experts on  scenarios, and forecasting models for Vietnam’s economy with the current international background.

Source: VNEP, August 2010.