US Embassy Charge d’Affaires Claire Pierangelo addresses the ceremony (Photo: flickr.com)

(VOVworld) – A closing ceremony to review USAID Support For Trade Acceleration (USAID STAR PLUS) opened in Hanoi on Monday. The meeting was co-hosted by the Ministry of Justice and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The project was to support Vietnam in global economic integration and turn Vietnam into a reliable trading partner, bringing benefits for Vietnamese people, enterprises, and trading partners. Since 2010, the USAID’s project helped Vietnam prepare for participation and implementation of trade agreements, custom modernization, promotion of agricultural product export, and legal transparency. Speaking at the closing ceremony, US Embassy’s Charge d’Affaires Claire Pierangelo said the project is an example of effective cooperation between Vietnam and the US. She added that the project trained thousands of officials and supported economic and legal reform thus contributing to Vietnam’s economic restructuring. Claire Pierangelo said: “We have worked with the National Assembly, the Office of the Government, the Ministry of Justice to promote legal transparency. The key to this is something we work together. USAID STAR did not come in and say Vietnam, you must do thing this way. USAID STAR came in and said here are examples of how other countries do things. Here’s how the legal international system works. Let's look at Vietnam’s system and let's see how Vietnam can become part of the international economic trading community and raise its legal standard".

In 3-year implementation of the project, the US government provided technical support worth 43 million USD to Vietnam. The project’s training programs improved skill and capacity for policy makers in analyzing and forecasting macro policy.