Dalberg Consulting CC/ the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Denmark) - P4G – Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals (2030) - 2019

Project Description:

Within the context of managing and implementing P4G , Mekong Economics assisted Dalberg to organise meetings with various partners in Vietnam, reach out to Mekong Economics Ltd’ own networks to see if there were any partnerships that could be included in the call, helped partnerships with their 1-2 page concept notes, including editing the document and refining the partnership concept, facilitate the short-listing process between VCCI/MPI/Danish Embassy – arranging the meeting and providing content input on which partnerships are high potential in Vietnam (by February 15, 2019).

Mekong Economics also helped 5 short-listed partnerships with their full applications – supporting the partnerships refine the partnership concept, and with some editing/writing (by February 15, 2019), prepare a one-page word document on how P4G should engage with Vietnam in the coming years, reflecting on the learnings from this engagement (by February 21, 2019)

UNIQUE Forestry and Land Use GmbH/ funded by World Bank - Survey on forestry firms for Vietnam SME Study - 2019

Project Description:

MKE was hired to organize, conduct and document a survey of 100 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the forest sector in Viet Nam. The final products included translated questionnaires (from English to Vietnamese), list and contacts of interviewed enterprises (in English), and Database of interview results in Excel (in English).

International Trade Centre - Company-level survey on Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs) and obstacles to Trade in Vietnam - 2019

Project Description:

Within the framework of ITC’s programme on NTMs and in close collaboration with national stakeholders, ITC carried out the NTM Survey in Vietnam. The survey helped to identify at product, sector and partner country-level the predominant barriers to trade that Vietnam’s business sector currently faces when complying with the NTMs. The survey also helped identifying potential bottlenecks at the national level with regards to the infrastructure and capabilities to meet the regulations. ITC contracted Mekong Economics to conduct this survey on behalf of ITC. The Survey has two components: Component 1: “NTM Survey on Trade in Goods”, Component 2: “Survey on Obstacles to Services Trade”

The required number of completed phone screen interviews was:

Component 1: between 1000-1200, Component 2: 280.

The required number of completed face-to-face interviews was:

Component 1: between 400-500, Component 2: 100.

CFM - Tra Vinh Wind Project – Community Needs Assessment - 2019

Project Description:

The client is committed to maximising opportunities for delivering environmental and social benefits through its investments, particularly to the local communities in the area of influence of its project investments. The client has established an impact framework which provides an overarching approach to fulfilling this commitment. MKE was appointed to carry out stakeholder mapping and a needs assessment along with prioritisation and ranking to provide the information necessary for the development of this impact framework in one of the client’s projects.

PwC Singapore/ Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) - The Technical Assistance Programme on Economic Reform in South East Asia - 2019

Countries Involved:

Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines

Project Description:

The Technical Assistance Programme on Economic Reform in South East Asia (“the Programme”) addresses current market failures and weaknesses that impede South East (SE) Asia’s inclusive economic growth, unlocking increased prosperity for SE Asia and for international business and the UK. The key outcomes supported by the Technical Assistance Programme on Economic Reform in South East Asia are (ER1) Strengthening the business environment, (ER2) Advancing business & government transparency and integrity, and (ER3) Broadening and deepening financial markets.

Overall, Mekong Economics was responsible for the design and delivery of the following cross-cutting analyses in the inception phase: Social Impact Analysis, Private Sector Development Analysis, Economic Analysis, Political Economy and Governance Analysis

Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (Timor-Leste)/ World Bank - Baseline Survey for the Sustainable Agriculture Productivity Improvement Project (SAPIP) - 2019

Project Description:

The Project Development Objective (PDO) of SAPIP is to increase the productivity and marketed production of smallholder agriculture in selected geographical locations in Timor-Leste. Mekong Economics developed and conducted a baseline study (using appropriate methodologies and tools) in order to establish credible baseline for a selected set of indicators included in SAPIP’s results framework. This would be instrumental to allow an assessment of SAPIP’s progresses and final results and outcomes.

Private Client - Implementation of Environmental and Social Action Plan for the supplies, installations & commissioning of machinery for new automotive plant - 2019

Project Description:

MKE was required to provide assistance to the client to deliver the EASP, in accordance with applicable international and national guidelines including the Equator Principles, the IFC Performance Standards, the EHS Guidelines, and the Vietnamese environmental and social laws and regulations. Our team included one Social Safeguards Specialist and one Environmental Safeguards Specialist.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) - Facilitating Small and Medium- sized Enterprises (SMEs) Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Flows: An ASEAN+6 Case Study - 2019

Description of Project:

The regional technical assistance (TA) (i) assessed the likely impact of investment and other FDI- related provisions in the draft Regional Comprehensive Partnership Agreement (RCEP) for enhanced FDI flows in ASEAN+6; (ii) identified barriers to enhanced SMEs’ FDI flows between ASEAN+6 countries; and (iii) proposed policy reforms, capacity development programs, and private sector transactional support to translate likely RCEP provisions and the potential internationalization of SMEs into enhanced FDI flows in the ASEAN+6 countries, particularly SME- driven FDI for agriculture, manufacturing, and services.

Description of services provided by MKE :

• Analyzed RCEP agreement impact

• Undertook an enterprise level survey in India, Thailand and Cambodia to determine the drivers and motives as well as key barriers and challenges specific to SMEs in agriculture, manufacturing, and services that were investing or contemplating to invest specifically in other countries in the RCEP region; prepared a report on the results of the surveys, and provided recommendations to enhance outward FDI from source countries and FDI facilitation program for each of the destination countries;

• Identified three destination countries in consultation with ADB; provided recommendations for facilitating outward SME FDI from the source countries (support needed by SME investors); and prepared FDI facilitation papers for each of the three destination countries. All of these recommendations aimed to enhance outward FDI driven by SMEs in agriculture, manufacturing, and services in one or more of the identified source countries and inward FDI to one or more of the identified destination countries in the RCEP region.

Belgian Development Agency - International consultant on human resources development and capacity building strategies - 2019

Description of Project:

Facility to Capacity Building (FCB) project is a part of the Vietnam – Belgium 2011-2015 Indicative Cooperation Program that aims to “Contribute to the socio-economic development of Vietnam through institutional capacity development to support the implementation of the SEDP 2011-2015”. The General objective of FCB is “To contribute to the sustainable development and growth of Vietnam by facilitating Vietnam to become a knowledge-based industrialized country by 2020”. The project aims to assist 2 institutions in Vietnam (11 universities, and 10 provincial Departments of Home Affairs and Education) in human resource developments of their managers, lecturers and technical staff.

MKE provided the international consultant to implement the following tasks:

• Develop overall implementation strategy and approaches for FCB, following the strategic approach

• Assist the PMU in implementation of designed activity;

• Develop the result chains and result measurement plan for each result area of the project;

• Quality controller for the activities carried out and ensure these activities contribute to the project expected outcomes;

• Evaluate possible impact of the interventions, advise BTC and the PMU of any needed adjustment in the implementation strategy and approach to ensure achievement of project objectives;

• Responsible for coordination with other consultants, supervise the redaction of team products (if applicable) and assure that all relevant stakeholder are involved.

E.Gen Consultants Ltd. / ADB - Second Upper Secondary Education Development Project - 2019

Description of the Project :

The Second Upper Secondary Education (USE) Development Project (the Project/USEDP II) is financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of Viet Nam. The Project helps the Government promote its ongoing reform initiative for USE through upgrading of teaching and learning to international standards, improving student access and retention, and strengthening school management for USE. The Project is national in scope, with investments to improve access targeted to selected disadvantaged provinces. The objectives of the consultant’s services were to provide all necessary support to the Central Project Management Unit (CPMU) in ensuring the smooth and efficient implementation of the Project, as well as providing technical expertise in a variety of fields, including financial management, procurement management, staff development, monitoring and evaluation, and overall coordination support for the Project.

Mekong Economics provided an Expert on Capacity Development for USE Planning and Management to complete the following tasks under the lead of the international consultant:

• Undertaking an assessment of management capacity and planning capacity of managers in MOET, DOETs, USSs, complimentary education schools and CECs having complimentary programs for USE. The assessment will highlight constraints and weaknesses, where these exist, in the current system, and recommend remedial measures.

• Conducting a comparative study on management capacity development of educational administrators in various countries, and proposing initiatives and frameworks for capacity development of USE management in Vietnam;

• Assisting the CPMU in arranging in-country training for USS principals;

• Assisting the CPMU in arranging in-country training for CEC directors;

• Preparing monitoring and evaluation framework and evaluation indicators for capacity development for targeted groups;

• Assisting the CPMU in designing and implementing OST for core USS managers;

• Assisting CPMU in developing school mapping software for USSs.

• Assisting CPMU in implementing block grants for local government to develop management capacity, including: planning, implementation, M&E, etc.

• Assisting CPMU in evaluating the implementation of capacity development for USE planning and management in targeted provinces and proposing recommendations in capacity development for managers in order to improve USE quality