A project to enhance Vietnam ’s capacity for intensive global integration was launched in Hanoi on December 20 and will be implemented through 2014.

Addressing the event, Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh said the project manifests international friends’ valuable support for Vietnam ’s renewal policy and global integration.

UNDP Country Director Louise Chamberlain pledged to work closely with the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry to implement the project in an effective and practical manner.

The project, the first of its kind in Vietnam , focuses on training high-ranking Vietnamese leaders in partnership with Harvard University in the US . It will organise policy, seminars, fund research, assist activities as part of global integration - especially South–South and sub-regional cooperation.

The project will be a great help for Vietnam at a time when the country is involved deeper in global integration, including the establishment of the ASEAN Community by 2015, the completion of its commitment to the World Trade Organisation by 2018, plus five free trade agreements and a regional comprehensive economic partnership that the country is presently negotiating with regional and global partners.-VNA