10
Progress Report 2007 and the first quarter of 2008
Progress REPORT
(For the year 2007 and the first quarter of 2008)
Component Five
Business Sector Research
BSPS
Business Sector Programme Support
Component Director
Dr. Dinh Van An, President, Centre Institute for Economic Management
National Agencies : CIEM/ILSSA/DoE
Duration : 2005 - December 2009 (5 years)
Overall Budget Frame : Danida grant: DKK 14,543 million
Hanoi, April 2008
Component 5: Business Sector Research
PROGRESS REPORT
Table of Contents
List of Abbreviations 3
Executive Summary 4
output and activity progress 5
activities - based budget and financial disbursement 6
Achievements against indicators………………………………….. 7
comments and recommendations 9
ANnEX 1 work plan 2007 - CIEm 9
annex 2 ciem – activity-based budget and financial disbursement 2007 14
annex 3 main activities & outcome in semi-annual 2008 15
List of Abbreviations
BSPS / Business Sector Programme SupportCIEM / Central Institute for Economic Management
DANIDA / Danish International Development Assistance
DOE
GSO / Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen
General Statistic Office
HCMC
HH / Ho Chi Minh City
Household
ILSSA / Institute of Labour Science and Social Affairs
IPSARD / Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development
IOE / Institute of Economics, University of Copenhagen
RDE / Royal Danish Embassy
SME / Small and Medium Sized Enterprises
Executive Summary
The BSPS Component-5 Business Sector Research component is jointly carried out by the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), the Institute of Labour Science and Social Affairs (ILSSA) and the Department of Economics (DOE), University of Copenhagen.[1]
This report covers project activities under the BSPS Component-5 during the year of 2007. Generally, project activities were smoothly implemented. Project management encountered no major problems. Dr. Doan Mau Diep was appointed new Director of ILSSA, and Ms Huong took over Dr. Vinh’s responsibilities in relation to the project. This transition was smooth being replaced by at ILSSA. Otherwise the management group has remained unchanged with the participation of the same people from three implementing agencies.
Activities of the two sub-components, 5.1: Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Research Project and 5.2: Market (Household) Research Project were generally implemented as planned with only minor delays encountered. Survey questionnaires and manuals on SME and Household research were posted on the CIEM website. Findings have been disseminated both through a series of Conferences organized by CIEM, DoE, ILLSA and IPSARD (IPSARD is supported under the ASPS programme) at both national and provincial levels. Separate reports and news on this have been prepared. Two reports have been published and made available on CIEM website, and four policy briefs are almost completed and will be published in early 2008. All finalized project results are made available on the CIEM website.
In terms of financial disbursement, CIEM has by 1 December disbursed about 60% of total planed budget for year of 2007. Some 20% more will be disbursed before the end of the year and the remaining 20% will be shifted to 2008 due to some delayed activities on the side of CIEM activities.
In general, the project activities and financial disbursement have been implemented as planned during 2007. Component 5 has achieved so far all indicators designed in Vietnam BSPS monitoring and evaluation framework.
CIEM proposes that Danida should increase the per diem for participation in in-country meeting and the cost for transportation to the airport. Component 5 hopes to have further exchange and corporate with other components of BSPS in utilizing component results and identifying the research topics.
Output and activity progress in 2007
Sub-component 1: Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Research Project
- Recruiting two national consultants to research on challenges of SMEs in industry in implementing WTO commitments. It is expected to have final report on 12 December 2007.
- Organizing the field-trip to Hai Phong, Lam Dong, Nghe An, Phu Tho, Ho Chi Minh city and Quang Nam in March 2007 to check the survey results and to get additional information.
- In addition to field-trips to the above provinces, the field-trips to Tay Ninh, Binh Phuoc, Ha Tay, Hoa Binh, Hai Duong and Hung Yen have been conducted for the research on challenges of SMEs in industry in implementing WTO commitments.
- Organizing the workshop on “Research Findings of the 2005 SME” dated 4 May 2007 in Nghe An to present the descriptive report on SME survey carried out in 2005 and 2006.
- Publishing the book on “Characteristics of the Vietnamese Business Environment: Evidence from a SME Survey in 2005” in bilingual (English and Vietnamese), it is available on CIEM website.
- Organizing the workshop on “Rural Household and SME Surveys: Findings and Recommendations” dated 23 November 2007 to present survey findings and introduce policy briefs from the Rural Household and SME surveys.
- Elaboration of two SME draft policy briefs on (i) Access To Credit and (ii) SME Fringe Benefits Provision.
- 2005 SME data is available on CIEM website.
Sub-component 2: Market (Household) Research Project
- Publishing the report on “Provincial profiles: Ha Noi, Hai Phong, Ha Tay, Phu Tho, Nghe An, Quang Nam, Khanh Hoa, Lam Dong, HCM city and Long An” in bilingual (English and Vietnamese). It is available on CIEM website.
- Publishing the book on “Characteristics of the Vietnamese Rural Economy: Evidence from a 2006 Rural Household Survey in 12 Provinces of Vietnam” in bilingual (English and Vietnamese). It is available on CIEM website.
- Sending two CIEM researchers to DOE to participate in preparing the descriptive report on household survey from 24 January to 14 February 2007
- Organizing the workshop on “Research Findings of the 2006 Household survey” in Khanh Hoa on 3 May 2007 to collect the comments on the report of household survey findings. The reports are a product of joint work among researchers from CIEM and DoE as well as from IPSARD, which is supported under the ASPS programme.
- Holding of CIEM seminar on two rural household studies in CIEM on 1 August 2007.
- Elaboration of two Household draft policy briefs on (i) Land Use Rights and Productivity and (ii) Household Saving in Vietnam.
- Organizing the field trips to Phu Tho and Nghe An province to research on household economic development in November 2007.
- Recruiting one national consultant to cooperate with researchers from Department of Rural Economic Development Policies, CIEM conduct a research on the role of cooperatives in development of its household economy member in Vietnam. It is expected to have final report on 25 December 2007.
Output and activity progress in the first quarter 2008
Sub-component 1: Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Research Project
- Sending one CIEM researchers to DOE to participate in researching collaboration programme of BSPS_CIEM on the STATA software approaching and using, data processing and cleanning, data analysis, preparing the report on SMEs survey 2007. Time of mission: from January 4, 2008 to February 3, 2008.
- Conducting the study tour to Denmark to work with expert team in set of data, investigative result and report.
Sub-component 2: Market (Household) Research Project
- Sending one CIEM researchers to DOE to work on checking, revising and supplementing on the questionaire for household that will be applied for the second survey in the end of 2008 as expected.
- Design the questionaire form
- Conducting the study tour to Denmark to work with expert team in set of questionaire and investigative methodology.
Activities-based budget and financial disbursement
Please note that this session covers only the financial disbursement for CIEM activities. DOE and ILSSA provide separate report on their respective financial disbursement.
In 2007, the approved budget (including additional funds approved for the workshop on SME and HH survey results) of the CIEM in charged activities in BSPS project was VND 819,711,100. This total grant was allocated to Ouput 1 of SME Research Project at VND 458,145,190 and to Output 2 of Household Research Project at VND 361,565,910. However, as the budget of VND 165,486,711 was left over from 2005 for activities of Output 1 and Output 2, the whole budget of the Project in 2007 increased to VND 985,197,811, the budget of Ouput 1 was VND 622,318,631 and the budget of Ouput 2 was VND 362,879,180 (see the 3rd column of Table: Overview of Disbursement against Approved budget 2007)
As at present of reporting, the actual expenditure was reported at VND 591,458,573 or at 60% of total granted fund by Danida in which, expenditure for Output 1: SME Research Project was VND 313,941,743 (50% of approved budget) and for Output 2: Household Research Project was VND 277,516,830 (76% of approved budget). However, some activities are on progress of implementation and the payment will be made at the end of the year, so it is expected that, by the end of this year, the total expenditure will be VND 813,316,705 (82.55% of approved budget) in which it will be allocated VND 450,991,743 for Output 1 (72.47 % of approved budget) and VND 362,324,962 for Ouput 2 (99.85% of approved budget). The low level of disbursement in Ouput 1 is due to the fact that some activities as International travel and facility work have not been implemented and the budget of VND 171,881,106 will be shifted to 2008 to implement these activities (see columm 4, 5, 6, 7 of Table: Overview of Disbursement against Approved budget 2007).
Delayed activities
In general, the project activities have been implemented as planned during the year of 2007 and first quarter of 2008. However, three activities has been delayed, those are field trips of subcomponent 1.2 and facilities purchasement of subcomponent 1.4 & 2.4 planned to implement in the first quarter of 2008. These activities will be implemented in the next quarter of 2008.
Achievements against indicators
Sub-component 1: Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Research Project
- 2005 SME survey descriptive report was finalised for publication, and was made available on CIEM website.
- Provincial profile was finalised for publication and posted on CIEM website.
- Two policy briefs on SME are available.
- Data set on 2005 SME survey is available on CIEM website
Sub-component 2: Household Research Project
- Database on 2006 household survey will be posted on the CIEM website after finishing the descriptive report and two in-depth analyses.
- 2006 Rural Household Survey in 12 Provinces of Vietnam finalised for publication and posted on CIEM website
- Two policy briefs on Households are available.
It should be noted that in addition to disseminating the project results through CIEM website, CIEM will use other channels such as through workshops/conferences, policy working papers, publications, etc.
In terms of financial disbursement, CIEM has disbursed about 60% of total planed budget for 2007. Some 20% more will be disbursed by the end of the year and the remaining 20% will be shifted to 2008 due to some delayed activities
Matrix Component 5: Business Sector Research
Indicator / Baseline 2004 / Target 2010 / Means of VerificationImmediate Objective 5.1.
Database on SME development further developed and utilized for policy development / SME data documentation available covering survey methodology, questionaire design, field implementation and advice on data access
No. of policy relevant research papers and policy briefs and statement published / √
6 / CIEM website
CIEM publication list
Output 5.1.1
Cleaned sets of SME survey data covering 2005, 2007 and 2009 available / SME database available and accessible / None / 3 data sets / Data sets in downloadable format on CIEM website
Output 5.1.2
Provincial background data, policy research studies and policy recommendations prepared and disseminated / Provincial profile studies available
Two policy research studies prepared and disseminated one year after completion of the survey / None
None / 10
6 / CIEM publication list
CIEM website
Immediate Objective 5.2.
Database on household and market development further developed and utilized for policy development / Household data documentation available covering survey methodology, questionaire design, field implementation and advice on data access
No. of policy relevant research papers and policy briefs and statement published / √
4 / CIEM website
CIEM publication list
Output 5.2.1
Cleaned sets of household survey data covering 2006 and 2008 available / Household database available and accessible / None / 2 data sets / Data sets in downloadable form on CIEM website
Output 5.2.2
Provincial background data, policy research studies and policy recommendations prepared and disseminated / Provincial profile studies available
Two policy research studies prepared and disseminated one year after completion of the survey / None
None / 7
4 / CIEM publication list
CIEM website
Comments and recommendations
This project has provided the research community with very good data set on SMEs and household and prepared analysis on the development of these sectors in 12 provinces/cities of Vietnam. CIEM, as a policy advisor to the Government on economic reform, will certainly make use of it. However, since all provinces under the BSPS and ASPS are in the sample of the survey, so that the output of the project should be useful for other BSPS components as well. Aware of this, CIEM has sent all results of the projects to other components. Since there will be 4 rounds of the SME and Household surveys under this component until 2009, it would be good if the Component 5 could have better exchange information with other BSPS components, so that it will improve further the quality of next survey as well as the applicability of policy analyses.
During the year of 2007, CIEM, DOE and ILSSA have a close and very good relationship in carrying out project activities. For project management, it expects that in the future, CIEM will continue to receive a close administrative relation with ILSSA in order to better manage the project and make in time report to Danida.
For project activity implementation, on 20 October 2007 we received the letter from EDK on UN-EU guidelines for Financing of Local Costs in Development Co-operation with Vietnam. We see that the per diem for participation in in-country meetings is too low, it cannot cover accommodation, meals and sundry expenses. Besides, cost for transportation to the airport up to maximum 50,000 per person/one way trip is unacceptable. Therefore, CIEM proposes to use/follow EU guidelines for Financing of Local Costs in Development Co-operation with Vietnam issued on 1 November 2005 or increase the the perdiem for participation in in-country meetings and cost for transportation to the airport.