 Welcome everybody. We are very pleased to welcome the vice-minister of planning and investment Who will give the opening remarks vice-minister, please? Good morning. Dr. David Malone writer of UNU and the Secretary-General of the UN Professor Fintab the writer of UNU Wider your Excellency Kimo Lada Vita Ambassador of Finland Excellencies distinguished participants from all around the world including Vietnam Ladies and gentlemen It is indeed my great honor to be invited to give the opening remarks on behalf of the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Minister on the occasion of the International Development Conference on Institutional reforms for transformation Inclusion and sustainability in collaboration between UN University's World Institute for Development Economic Research UNU Wider and the Central Institute for Economic Management CIEM Vietnam's leading policy think tank Think tank under the Ministry of Planning and Investment of Vietnam On behalf of MPI I would like to warmly welcome all delegates especially 100 international Participants coming from 20 countries all over the globe who have gone through long journeys to Hanoi over the last few days We are joined today by many internationally well-known development scholars academics Professors researchers practitioners policymakers to exchange ideas and insights in the areas of institutional reforms in economic transformation inclusive growth and environmentally Sustainability these topics as you know have been among critical debates and discussions in both low and Middle-income countries including Vietnam in the 21st century Ladies and gentlemen, we are living in the 21st century Which is characterized by many different emerging challenges the developing world have been compounded by multiple crisis The food and fuel crisis the global recession the devastating devastating nature disasters Natural disasters and those have caused pressures to global development sustainability There is also the huge climate change challenge which resulted from the global warming These development challenges are Interacted and are beyond the ability of any one nation to confront by itself Both developed and developing worlds Then should work together in order to meet the global challenges in the 21st January century apart from Resolving common global issues many developing countries at the same time Have to undertake economic transition pushing institutional reforms in order to create favorable environment for economic growth and sustainability This economic transition process covers the change of state role in a market economy promotion of private sector development enhancement of the economy's integration and at the same time Ensuring the growth gains benefited to all The difficult question for developing countries in this context is how to balance institutional reforms and economic transition with the needs of inclusive growth and sustainable development It is great. It is agreed that while each country is unique in its development path The development community can benefit greatly by sharing experiences of reform and development in order to avoid pitfalls and identify opportunities for future success and This is the reason for us to organize this conference here today Ladies and gentlemen, Vietnam started policy of doi mai known as the economic renovation policy since 1986 and it is undergoing process of transition from centrally planning economy to the market economy This economic reform of the last three decades has gained significant achievements These economic reform of the last three decades has gained significant The unknown average growth of GDP was approximately 6.5 percent Vietnam has made very impressive progress towards achieving the MDG's and Has been successful in meeting the MDG one on eradication of extreme hunger and poverty much ahead of the 2015 deadline The country currently is on track to meet several other MDG's goals It is important to stress that along with economic innovation policy Vietnam has remarkably changed the state's way of thinking with regard to institutionalizing policy making process Policy implementation as one less developing a legal framework for sustainable development While while having achieved remarkable economic growth and poverty reduction results Vietnam still has to overcome several development challenges along with economic transfer transition including low growth quality limited productivity and national competitiveness in increasing income disparity and environmental degradation degradation, sorry all these issues Would cause challenges to the country's sustainable development in medium and long term Our conference is held in good moment when the government of Vietnam is in process of reviewing the 30 years of economic renovation drawing lessons and prepare development policy directions for the period 2016-2020 In the context of global integration and interactive Contact us today Vietnam needs very much to learn the reforms and transition experience from other countries From the conference agenda, I found that all topics that won't be discussed in different sessions During the next two days are very important for Vietnam. I believe that we will Get great benefits from participating in discussions sharing our experiences and learning from other countries experience in Dealing with challenges development issues We look forward to sharing and learning from you Let me conclude by opening remarks My opening remarks by expressing great thanks to UNU wider for Co-organizing this important international conference in Vietnam. I Would also like to thank all distinguished chairs presenters panelists who will actively contribute to the conference Last but not least many thanks to all participants attending the conference. I wish all of you a very and reaching and fulfilling time at the conference and Please enjoy time being in our capital of Hanoi. Thank you all very much. All the best. Thank you Thank you very much vice-minister. I appreciate very much this warm welcome and thank you all for traveling to this fascinating city Founded as Tang Long the rising dragon more than a thousand years ago in 1010 by the Emperor Li Tai Toh as the seat of his government Now in 1831 Tang Long was renamed Hanoi between the two rivers and Hanoi is now the capital of one of the most dynamic and bustling countries in the world. I Would like to add my warmest gratitude To the MPI to CIM and its presidents president Dr. Kung and vice-president madam Hong and all your staff for joining you organizing this conference in a smooth partnership with UNU wider and a truly global network of researchers At wider we've been looking forward to this event and it is both a personal and a professional pleasure to greet you here in Hanoi As some of you will know, I've been so fortunate to have spent a major part of my professional life Here the last 15 years working with numerous Vietnamese collaborators senior researchers and policymakers in for example the Ministry of Planning and Investment Today I am here in the capacity as director of UNU wider In 2001 we wrote in a study The process of economic reform in Vietnam can be compared to traveling a long winding road Through dangerous mountains and huge river valleys Great achievements have been made since doi moi was initiated in 1986 But Vietnam has only come part of the way Well, we wrote that 15 years ago and as the vice-minister referred to Vietnam has made great strides since then Vietnam has now reached what some would call the second state of its reform process There were three issues restructuring the nation's financial system restructuring its public investment program and the restructuring of its state-owned enterprises have taken center stage Now these reform challenges Are is set out in the conference outline Very relevant to many other developing countries and I'm grateful that we will all be able to share Experiences and insights on these topics in this conference over the coming couple of days But why do we have been discussing intensively our new? 2014 to 18 work program on transformation Inclusion and sustainability Which is in focus also here so To start us off We thought Tony Addison chief economist and deputy director wider and myself that we should engage in a brief dialogue Talking about what are some of our expectations to try to sort of set the scene? Why are we here today and tomorrow? So Tony could you please set out the challenges we wish to see discussed over the next two days Okay, thank you very much Finn. It's a very old pleasure to be here in Hanoi and to See both old friends and to make new friends. Well first up Well, obviously one of our first topics is transformation Because many of us come from countries now. They're experiencing economic growth But we're not satisfied with the level of diversification of the economies particularly the creation of high value-added Agricultural sectors and particularly industry and services. So that's why we have transformation on the agenda But we also have inclusion on the agenda because that's very close to our hearts at wider We've just released the world income inequality database the latest version of that Which is the most comprehensive database on inequality in the world But we want to think about inclusion in broader terms as well because we need to think about gender equality at this conference We can't have economic growth with half the population missing out on employment opportunities and opportunities for advancement So there are many different manifestations of inequality. We need to look at in this meeting And indeed we'll be discussing social protection throughout the meeting and our third big theme is of course sustainability because we have the difficult trick of pulling off economic diversification and achieving inclusion in the context of fast growth without destroying the environment and I think we all know that the impact of climate change is a very dangerous phenomenon for all of our countries, but also there's the complete objective of embracing sustainability and environmental inclusive Development in all of our national agendas how we for example finance energy how we finance clean energy infrastructure Is one of going to be one of the issues at this conference and underpinning all of this this very large and important agenda Is the issue of institutions? Countries vary in terms of their institutional capabilities the forms that institutions take would be talking a lot about Institutional underpinnings of transformation inclusion sustainability Over the next few days not just the role of government But also the role of local government of the private sector of communities and so forth so all of these different actors So Finn we do have a very large and challenging agenda, but then again. We have a large group of People from far and wide to help us discuss that agenda Okay, thanks. So institutional reforms for transformation inclusion and sustainability Now a second question We have together with CIM been fortunate to be able to bring together Professionals from a very wide set of countries and it's a national development organization. Now. What what's the underlying rationale for that? Well here we've brought together a very welcome range of people and experiences Because we come from countries at very different stages of development And it's important that we all learn from those different stages of development For example the low-income countries many of them now thinking about or actually achieving The movement up to middle-income status Through their economic growth are going to face some of the issues that now middle-income countries face For example building inclusive financial sectors, which are well regulated achieving the privatization and regulation of formally state enterprises Getting energy Investments all of these things are where low-income countries very much are going to be learning from middle-income countries But we also have represented at this country this conference and high-income countries Because one of the interesting things for economists is that of course? The problems never stop the problems of being a low-income country very different to being those of a middle-income country But the problems never cease the higher your income grows Indeed, you know, we've seen with the financial crisis of the last few years Which is in some ways was a North Atlantic financial crisis There are real dangers ahead as you diversify your economy as you deepen your financial sector as you would try to achieve more Development and growth so we can all learn from each other and this is why in a sense the United Nations and Wider is a very strong part of the United Nations University and the United Nations system is a very good convening point for us all to share in these experiences And it's particularly welcome. I think Finn that we see a very large contingent of African colleagues But we also welcome colleagues from Latin America from Southeast Asia From Russia from Japan and far and wide Okay. Thank you. So bringing people bringing professionals together Learning from each other we can all learn that's a continuous process throughout That certainly makes a lot of sense to me and certainly when I think about the mandate of the UNU and UNU wider now You did make sort of reference to the Nordic countries indirectly through High-income countries. You want to say a word more about the Nordic countries Well, it's always been a pleasure for wider to have our home in Helsinki Helsinki Finland and indeed wider Celebrates its 30th anniversary next year of its founding in 2015 and Helsinki has been a very warm and welcome home for us and a very good base for us over those 30 years, but we also engage very intensively with the rest of the Nordic region Including particularly Sweden and obviously Finns are home Denmark and in some ways we wanted to include an Nordic theme to this conference because the Nordic countries show in some ways how you can create Market economies which are also very inclusive Market economies which have grown Which continue to grow which generate tax revenues those tax revenues support comprehensive systems of social protection and the provision of public goods such as infrastructure Those economies invest in clean energy and in environment Creating something of a virtuous circle So we think that the Nordic model is particularly an interesting model to bring to this conference as we all of us Struggle with the agenda of how we transform our economies But at the same time contain inequality as well as reducing absolute poverty Our metric of success should not be just Absolute poverty reduction. It has to be also inequality But we also wish to Bring the other country experiences to this meeting and as the vice-minister said Vietnam itself is going through a next phase of Reform after the very successful doymouth reform So in many ways although we weave the Nordic experience into this meeting We also do have experiences from across the world and many of you over the next two days will be sharing those experiences with us Okay, one final question So what do we at UNU wider at least hope to take home from this conference? Well wider has always been an Institute that runs on the goodwill of Its network and you are all part of the network You may be now new members of the network Some of you are older members of the network, but over the years we've extreme experienced extremely good strong good will a willingness to share your quality research a Willingness to engage in open debate in a friendly and collegiate manner And so we will take away from this program of the next two days Ideas that we can bring into our research program and continue our engagement with you The ideas behind this conference are part of our 2014 18 Work program which began in January and we'll be taking these ideas forward particularly as we move into celebrating our 30th anniversary in 2015 We'll also though be trying to pick up on views and ideas about the post 2015 development agenda Which is obviously a very large debate in the global development community at the moment particularly in the UN system We're particularly looking for ideas about how we should all create good jobs in our society How we can turn sometimes the rhetoric of gender equality into practical action at large scale How we can deepen the expansion of social protection? Which has been very successful in a number of our countries, but now needs to roll out in other countries as well so we'd like to take the ideas that we generate over the next two days into the UN system into the debates in New York and elsewhere and Finn Finn mentioned that we're on a long and winding road Vietnam has started very successfully on that road I think like people Ideas need to travel So I think my motto for this conference is that we're here to get good ideas to travel further Thank You Finn. Okay So a little bit of scene setting One word of warning for those of you who are going to go up on the podium be very careful. It's quite easy to fall down the stairs Thank you very much. We thought this was one way of trying to at least help kick us off Do what I referred to as a little bit of scene setting We're no further ado. I would like to pass the torch to professor It is a bit satellite from the University of California Berkeley a very valued member of the UNU wider board It is a bit has promised to moderate the first plenary session and we are honored to welcome professor Koushik Basu the senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank I will come back to you just before the coffee break with a few housekeeping pieces of information and Welcome all we look forward to a great Learning experience all of us together. Thank you