A value for money (VFM) assessment allows public policy makers to determine which procurement, between traditional or public-private partnerships, is better to procure for a specific project. Although the government of Vietnam has established a large number of PPP projects since first announcing its desire for private participation in 1993, the government has never carried out an evaluation of the “economy, efficiency and effectiveness” of PPPs over traditional public procurement. This paper proposes a value for money methodology to evaluate whether decisions to pursue a PPP creates good value for the Vietnamese government. A case study in Vietnam (Phu My project) is applied to examine the reliability of the method. The result of research reveals that there is a 84.9 % confidence level that a PPP model may not be a better option for procurement in the Phu My project. In addition, vehicle tolls and the inflation from 2016-2034 have had the largest impact on the case’s value for money.

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This article aims to provide an overview of the development, progress, and problems of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD)—the only continent-wide forum in Asia—emphasizing the role of Thailand, the founding country. The ACD serves as the missing link in Asian cooperation, constituting an informal and a non-institutionalized forum for Asian Foreign Ministers. It is a useful diplomatic asset, which is not as recognized as ASEAN, APEC, or ASEM but can still provide a forum for Asian Foreign Ministers to informally exchange views on matters of common interest. A lack of leadership and political will is among the major factors that have considerably undermined the significance of the ACD.

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This research is focused on analyzing the urban spatial structure of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area (TMA) by using the Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) approach. To address the main research objective, the spatial structure of the population is analyzed. For this research Global Moran’s I and Local Moran’s I were selected. The population Census data 2000 is used for this analysis. ArcGIS 10.1 and GeoDa software are used to project and analyze the population census data. Population numbers are converted to density to exclude the influence of the census unit area sizes. The analysis pointed out specific locations of clustering types by proving the existence of spatial association and heterogeneity and differences in the case of the spatial pattern of population distribution.

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Many technological advances have been developed to increase agricultural productivity in the Philippines. However, the gap between production and consumption is continuously growing. Small scale farmers face many challenges, which include high production costs at the farm level. Farmer Field School (FFS) was conducted to initially disseminate integrated pest management to address the problem. However, adoption was not fully met since farmers are tied into a “To see is to believe” principle. Thus, in 2010, a new initiative aiming to demonstrate the advantages of using quality rice seeds of the most preferred and newly released inbred and hybrid rice varieties was implemented by the government to increase the productivity and income of rice farmers in irrigated areas. This study assesses the impact of Science and Technology Based Farm Projects on adoption of Integrated Rice Crop Management (IRCM) specifically the PalayCheck System. Comparison groups consisting of STBF beneficiaries and non beneficiaries were used to evaluate the impact of STBF project on PalayCheck System knowledge. One barangay in Victoria, Tarlac was used as a study site as it is one of the location where STBF was established. A survey and structured interviews were conducted to collect data. Data collected was for two seasons namely 2013 Wet Season and 2013 Dry Season. The results of the survey indicated that technical knowledge scores of STBF beneficiaries were greater than non beneficiaries. It was also indicated that crop yields and farm income were greater for STBF beneficiaries. It was also shown that trainings attended was a significant variable in explaining adoption of the farmers. Though, STBF can be considered as an extension alternative for small rice farmers because of its participatory nature, there is still a need for improvements for sustainability within the context of agriculture in the Philippines.

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