From August 22–23, 2023, the USAID Partnership for Higher Education Reform supported a 2-day training program on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Investment Projects for the Vietnam National University–Hanoi (VNUHN). This event, held at the Hoa Lac Campus served 63 participants, including leaders from the office of investment promotion, officials from the functional departments responsible for implementing infrastructure investments, as well as several partners from the private sector.

The objective of the meeting was to help participants better understand how PPP activities operate and how to strengthen them, particularly in civil works and construction projects. Such projects are regulated under the Law No. 64/2020 – also referred to as the PPP Law – passed by the Vietnam National Assembly in June 2020. PPP investments can help to mobilize capital and reduce some of the burden to the public sector as the education infrastructure expands. The 3Us recognize the potential benefits of PPP, but the experience with such partnerships is limited.

To fill in this gap, the project chose to emphasize both legal and practical frameworks for implementing PPP projects. The international expert engaged for this activity was Mr. Brad Bodenhausen, Vice President for Community and Global Partnership at Missouri State University. He presented a case study from his institution, shared lessons learned, and offered a summary of best practices in PPP investments viewed from a comprehensive public university in the US.

Dr. Richard Hopper (Chief of Party) spoke about his experience overseeing PPP investments: as president of a public college in the US. He talked about the challenges of balancing competing interests, but the benefits of having multiple perspectives from at least three parties, namely the government, universities, and their private partners – usually from the construction industry.

The PPP practice in public university investment is still very new and unfamiliar to Vietnamese universities. This training workshop was seen as an important first step in bringing the parties together to discuss concrete issues related to future PPP investment projects at VNUHN.