At the reception, there were also leaders of some VASS research institutes such as the Director of Institute of American Studies, the Director of Institute of World Economics and Politics, the Director of Institute of Northeast Asia Studies and the Deputy Head of International Cooperation Division.
Vice President Nguyen Quang Thuan thanked the Ambassador and Chilean guests for visiting and briefly introduced the functions, tasks and organizational structure of VASS, emphasizing the research, policy advice and training functions and tasks of VASS as a research agency for the Government. He also introduced the unit members of VASS, including research institutes/centres, journals, publisher, museum, etc.
The Ambassador thanked Vice President Nguyen Quang Thuan and other participants for the reception. After the visit to VASS in 2011, this time, the Ambassador wanted to introduce to VASS two Chilean research institutions, namely: Chilean Pacific Foundation and Institute of Freedom and Development Studies, which could establish cooperative relationships with VASS and its specialized research institutes.
Chilean Pacific Foundation (CPF) is a multi-aspect research foundation, having representatives in various regions with the primary focus on policy and international issues. CPF has established relationships with various partners in the world such as Japan, the US, Southeast Asia. For Vietnam, since 1990, CPF has conducted research on its ‘doimoi’ policies, having relationships with a number of Vietnamese ministries. In collaboration with VCCI, it has organized various visits for Vietnamese enterprises to Chile and vice versa. CPF would like to be able to propose a number of cooperative initiatives in research, for instance ASEAN - Latin American relations, etc., proposing that the two parties could exchange publications, research outcomes for publication in reviews and journals of the two parties.
The Institute for Freedom and Development Studies (IFDS) is a Chilean economic research institution, focusing on studying the economics of different countries, including Vietnam. IFDS is studying the economic situations of Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS), public policies, leading party, etc. IFDS would like to establish a cooperative research relationship in different areas of Vietnam and to exchange experiences in social research of the two countries.
After the introduction by the director of some VASS research institutes, the two parties discussed topics of mutual concerns. VASS proposed a number of specific collaborative research and scholarly exchange topics, focusing on issues of Asia-Pacific, the emergence of China and the US in Asia-Pacific, which are drawing the attention of the world. Representatives of the institutes in the meeting highly appreciated the achievement of Chile in its transition from dictatorship to democratic regime, wishing to learn the Chilean experiences in economic development. A number of proposed research collaboration contents are as follows:
1) Chilean foreign affairs, in particular its experiences in solving territorial dispute with neighbors (Peru, Bolivia);
2) Economic cooperation between Vietnam and Chile in the coming period;
3) Chilean system of policies and experiences for Vietnam;
4) Regional security (Asia - Pacific, the East Sea of Vietnam);
5) Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) and prospects;
6) GMS – the role of countries in cooperation to develop this sub-region;
7) Social alterations, problems and solutions, etc.
The two parties would actively search for feasible collaborative possibilities in research and training, in scholar exchange, sharing information and publications, etc., seeking financial funds to implement joint research proposals in the future. In the short term, the two parties would focus on exchanging publications, sharing documentations and publishing research outcomes in specialized reviews and journals of the two parties.
Luu Anh Tuyet
