Viet Nam has continued to pursue its Doi Moi reform program for the adoption of market-oriented economic principles. To help it maintain that path of economic reform and liberalization, Japan was one of the first donors to resume providing Viet Nam with aid on a substantive scale. In the interest of ensuring that market economic principles take root, it has provided Viet Nam with intensive levels of "intellectual support," including cooperation in developing a legal system and formulating national economic plans. Acting in response to requests from the Vietnamese government, in 1995 Japan implemented its Comprehensive Policy Assistance Survey for Viet Nam (otherwise known as the "Ishikawa Project"), an undertaking aimed at helping the country with the task of economic planning. This was an effort in expertise support led by a group of experts including Hitotsubashi University Professor Emeritus Shigeru Ishikawa, and was designed to provide Viet Nam with policy recommendations and advice for its development programs. Two development studies as well as follow-up research have been implemented to date.

In the first phase (June 1995 to October 1996), the Japanese group provided recommendations for the draft version of Viet Nam's next 5-year socio-economic development plan (1996-2000), and, after dialogues with Vietnamese policy counterparts, put together a set of recommendations on issues in macroeconomics, finance, industrial policy, and agricultural and rural development. The second phase (October 1996 to March 1998) comprised a review of progress in implementing the current 5-year economic plan, together with the submission of various policy options with a bearing on agricultural and rural development, industrial policy, finance, and the reform of state enterprises.

From July 1998 to July 1999, Prof. Ishikawa's group provided follow-up policy recommendations, engaged in a follow-up study for the selection of future assistance themes and formulation of future plans, and provided Viet Nam with additional recommendations on issues in industrialization, financial sector reform, and agricultural policy.

These efforts in assistance were deeply appreciated by Viet Nam. Vietnamese Communist Party Chairman Le Kha Phieu expressed his gratitude in person on the occasion of Japanese Prime Minister Obuchi's visit to Viet Nam in December 1998.

The Ishikawa Project constitutes the core of the intellectual support Japan has supplied to date. However, when Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Kai visited Japan in March 1999, Prime Minister Obuchi pledged that Japan would actively continue its aid efforts in this area in the years ahead.

Japan plans to draw on the accomplishments of such follow-up studies and continue providing advice on available policy options from a medium- and long-range perspective.