STAR Project to be expanded
VNGOP – During its regular meeting to review performance in 2007 and ratify the workplan 2008, the Steering Committee for the Support for Trade Acceleration Project (STAR-Việt Nam Project) stressed the expansion of the Project in 2008.
Last year, when the Project’s stage II started, Vietnamese agencies and the STAR Project Director put the 2007 workplan into operation. The remaining activities in the 2007-2009 plan were included in the 2008 agenda.
Accordingly, the US will provide technical assistance to support the drafting of the Law on Information Access and the Law on Arbitration as well as the revision of the Penal Code relating to economic crimes (including intellectual property and money laundering).
Besides, technical assistance programs will be developed to facilitate bilateral cooperation under the Việt Nam-US Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), the Việt Nam-US Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) and WTO commitments.
The Steering Committee emphasized that it is necessary to minimize negative impacts on the poor caused by the implementation of BTA/WTO and expand the STAR Project to different localities and mass organizations in the time to come.
The STAR Project website should be launched soon to provide a channel for information exchange.
By Hoàng Phương
