The course was designed for the UEB staff, faculty members and students as well as those who are interested in the field of trade and services. Lecturing at the helpful training course are Mr. Pierre Sauvé - Director of External Programmes and Academic Partnerships, the World Trade Institute (Switzerland) and Dr. Nguyen Chien Thang - Vice Chairman of Vietnam Institute of Economics (Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences).

Attending the course were Mr. Claudio Dordi, Leader of Technical Assistance Team (EU-MUTRAP Project), Ms. Le Thu Haf, EU-MUTRAP Project Coordinator, Dr. Nguyen Truc Le - the UEB Vice Rector together with staff, faculty members and students of the university.

Mr. Claudio Dordi, Leader of Technical Assistance Team - EU-MUTRAP Project speaks at the training course 

 The day-long training course is designed to address key issues in the law and economics of services trade and investment and its treatment in the EU-Vietnam FTA negotiating context. The course is devided in two half-day sessions. The morning session started with a lecture entitled “Trade and investment in services: challenges and policy prospects in Vietnam” by Prof. Pierre Sauvé. The lecturer focused on the most recent trends in the underlying economics and policy aspects of services trade, which also d provided the understanding of the economic underpinnings of services trade and investment.

Afterwards, Dr. Nguyen Chien Thang introduced to the learners an overview on service development, trade in services and competitiveness. Through the evidence of competitive advantages in some selected sectors, the lecturer analyzed the growing influence of the value chain to service sector in Vietnam’s economy as well as Vietnam’s ranking according to various services trade restrictiveness and other governance-related in indicators.

In the afternoon session, the learners were offered with an understanding on the key negotiating challenges affecting both policy making and market opening deriving from the multiple negotiating in which Vietnam is pursuing the liberalization of services and free trade agreement.

Besides the discussion after each lecture, the closing session consisted of a Q and A exploring stakeholder challenges, opportunities and constraints weighing on the conduct Vietnam’s negotiating strategy in services and the contribution that policy research can make to enhancing the quality of trade policy formulation in the country. Within the cooperation framework between the VNU-UEB and MUTRAP, two training courses on the implementation of WTO commitments and legal changes of Vietnam’s economy have been held for the UEB faculty members and students in 2008. The training course on “Trade and investment services: Challenges and policy prospects in Vietnam” asserted the increasingly close collaboration between the UEB and MUTRAP. In the future, the university will continue to coordinate with MUTRAP to organize a useful forum for academic exchange, which will strengthen exchanges between faculty members, students and professionals in Vietnam and worldwide.