THE REPRESENTATIVE REMARK

Presented at the Kick-off Meeting of the Group
for Studying Vietnamese Economic Issues in Japan
Tokyo, May 31, 2003
Prepared by Do Ngoc Huynh

   Good afternoon, Professor Kenichi Ohno, Professor Tran Van Tho, Ladies and Gentlemen, and My Friends,

   Today, we are here to discuss the proposal of establishing the group for studying Vietnamese economic issues and other concerned problems. First of all, I am very honored to be on behalf of the Vietnamese researchers and students participating in the meeting today to express our sincere thanks to Professor Kenichi Ohno and Professor Tran Van Tho for providing us many useful instructions and opinions so that we have the first meeting today. It would be also grateful for me to acknowledge two gentlemen, who have made many efforts during the whole process. They are Mr. Nguyen Chi Thanh, a central banker and also a Master student at GRIPS, and Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hung, a Master student at the University of Tokyo.

   As you know, there are hundreds of Vietnamese students who have been studying economics in Japan. If we include the number of people who accomplished graduate courses of economics at universities in Japan and are now working in Vietnam or somewhere else, this number must be much higher. There has been also a rapidly increasing trend in this number since recent years. However, up to present we are only individuals, we are not in well-organized academic groups or associations so that we could express and exchange our studies and our views on a regular basis within the Vietnamese student community as well as with Japanese and international scholars and economists. Therefore, we are together today to set up a group for studying Vietnamese economic issues in Japan in order to create a forum to facilitate these academic activities as well as to improve our research capacity and to strengthen the voice of our group. To be engaged in the group, we will have a very huge advantage of making something like "Pareto improvements" because we could share our views and our studies, listen to other members' opinions; especially, we will also have very good opportunities to hear valuable opinions and discussions of Professor Kenichi Ohno and Professor Tran Van Tho, whose names have been well-known among economists. Hence, I hope and also believe that our group would be developed rapidly to become a strong Vietnamese economic association in the near future with regular operations in both Vietnam and Japan, as Professor Kenichi Ohno and Professor Tran Van Tho suggested.

   I would like to conclude my presentation by saying that with our best efforts we may achieve what we want. Let us think about the future and wish for the prosperity of our group.

   Thank you very much for your attention.