On Saturday, 07/27/2013, SRD’s Executive Director has appeared as a guest on “Contemporary Stories” – a well-known talk show of Vietnam’s national television. In this episode, the discussion revolved around the citizens’ right to participation, barriers as well as solutions to increase people’s involvement in formulating policies and addressing social issues.
Being filmed on July 27, the talk show, themed “Citizen participation” drew the participation of two guests, Mrs. Vu Thi Bich Hop – Executive Director of Sustainable Rural Development (SRD) and Dr. Dinh Xuan Thao – Director of Institute for Legislative Research. At the talk, Dr. Dinh Xuan Thao shared his thoughts on public engagement, “Citizen participation is the primary right which is stated in the Constitution”. This right also is stipulated in a wide range of legal documents and the state’s regulations and policies as well. The guests confirmed that civil involvement is prerequisite for ensuring the appropriateness and applicability of policies, which will promote the consensus and obedience to the law among citizens. Furthermore, obstacles to citizen engagement and examples of how the lack of civic participation and insufficient public consultations led to the issuance of ineffective policies were discussed from both legal and realistic perspective.
From left to right: Ms. Vu Thi Bich Hop, Mr. Đinh Xuan Thao (Guest speakers), Ms. Ta Bich Loan (Journalist, Program’s MC)
With respect to the solutions to facilitate people’s input in policy-making, Ms. Vu Thi Bich Hop shared SRD’s successes in encouraging people to participate in the policy development and implementation at the project areas of SRD. As a result, the practical effects of those policies and the improvement in the residents’ livelihoods have been seen clearly.
Inviting guest speakers who are policy makers and prestigious experts, “Contemporary Stories” is a television dialoguing program focusing on “hot” issues in the society. In this talk show, the current stories about economic, education, politics, law, public health, culture of the country will be discussed under the multi-dimensional, unbiased, straightforward views. From that, the underlying reasons for the current problems as well as the solutions to those might be found. The program, hosted by the famous journalist – Ta Bich Loan, is broadcasted on VTV1 channel at 22:30 on Fridays every two weeks.
Guest speakers receive flowers from the program and take a picture.
-SRD-
Centre for Sustainable Rural Development (SRD)
No.31, Alley 19 Kim Dong Street, Hoang Mai District, Ha Noi
Phone: +84 24 3943 6676/78 | Fax: +84 24 3943 6449
