CUTS Opens its Fourth
Overseas Centre in Hanoi
January 3, 2007,
New Delhi
CUTS International, a leading Jaipur-based
research, advocacy and networking public interest non-profit
organisation is opening its fourth overseas centre in Hanoi, Vietnam
this month.
Among its other overseas centre, the first one
was established in Lusaka, Zambia in the year 2000, followed by
Nairobi, Kenya in 2002 and London, UK in the year 2003. Reportedly,
CUTS is a rare Indian NGO, which has overseas centres.
The purpose of these overseas offices is to
promote trilateral development cooperation on a range of trade and
economic policy issues, considering the fact that India has
excellent diplomatic and commercial relations with these countries
and the regions. In fact, these offices also network with many NGOs
in the region other than government agencies.
CUTS is currently engaged in many international
projects covering these countries. For example a project which looks
closely at the impact of trade liberalization on development and
poverty (TDP project) being implemented over four years (2005-08) in
15 countries of Asia and Africa, and UK and The Netherlands. The
project is being supported by DFID, UK and Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, The Netherlands.
The TDP project has expanded the frontiers in
applied research on an issue, which is currently being debated at
the WTO, whether trade liberalization results in development or not.
The results are a mixed bag, but what certainly show up
interestingly are people’s perceptions on such contentious issues
and the concomitant lack of a government communication strategy to
deal with half truths and untruths. The project results are thus
both positive and negative. It is not only trade policy as the
subject of this cooperation, but competition policy issues as well.
Writes Gareth Thomas, DFID’s Parliamentary
Under-Secretary of State of UK: “We applaud the impact that CUTS has
had in raising the profile of competition policy issues in
developing countries and, indeed, among the donor community. We
value the productive working relationship that CUTS and DFID have
built up in recent years on this agenda”.
One of CUTS forte is to promote trilateral
development cooperation, which means that a northern donor supports
CUTS to implement capacity building projects in developing
countries. For example, many projects on trade, investment, and
competition law and policy have been done in Africa and Asia. These
have been supported by DFID, UK; Governments of Norway and
Switzerland, IDRC, Canada, etc.
“The training rendered by CUTS in March, 2006 was
extremely useful to us and it was the benchmark for our pace in
implementing the competition law of Ethiopia”, writes Mr Wogayehu
Gebre Hanna, the Head, Domestic Trade Deptt of the Ethiopian Trade
Practice Investigation Commission.
The CUTS Hanoi Centre will be campaigning on a
project to build consumer awareness in the Mekong Region countries
of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. The DFID office in Vietnam is
negotiating a project on Making Markets Work for the Poor in
Vietnam. CUTS is providing technical assistance to the Vietnamese
Competition Authority over 2007-09 with support from the Government
of Switzerland.
“We especially appreciate the profound knowledge
and experience that international high profile experts from CUTS
which were shared with us as part of the capacity building (7Up2)
project implemented in Vietnam. I hope that VCAD will have more
chances to work with CUTS in the next steps of the project”,
testifies Dr Dinh Thi My Loan, Director of Vietnam Competition
Administration Deptt.
