Japan helps Vietnam with judicial reform

Vietnam and Japan on February 25 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on a project under which, Japan will provide Vietnam with technical support for legal and judicial reform (second phase).

Signatories were representatives from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Vietnam Ministry of Justice, the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuracy and the Vietnam Lawyers’ Association.

Started in 2007, the project aims to increase central judicial agencies’ supervisory and guidance capacity.

In the first phase, Japanese experts helped the Ministry of Justice compose the Law on Civil Procedures Prosecution and the Law on State Compensation. The two laws were adopted and promulgated by the National Assembly in 2008 and 2009.

Following these positive outcomes, Vietnam and Japan agreed to continue into the second phase of the project, which will be carried out in four years, from April this year, at a cost of US$ 4 million, funded by the Japanese Government.

JICA Chief Representative Tsuno Motonori said, ”Vietnam is becoming a middle-income nation. In the process of comprehensive integration into the world economy, the country needs to reform its legal and judiciary system. Japan is ready to share its experience and assist Vietnam in building a legal system in line with the socialist-oriented market economy and a contingent of judicial cadres capable of dealing with new challenges.”

In his speech at the signing ceremony, the Head of the Department for International Cooperation under the Ministry of Justice, Vu Khanh Ngoc, praised the effective cooperation between the two countries in legal and judicial fields over the past 15 years. The project will enable Vietnam to further reform its legal and judicial system, Mr Ngoc added.

JICA and Vietnam began the legal and judicial cooperation in 1996. Since then, many cooperation programmes in this field have expanded rapidly, with a focus on composing legal documents, raising the capacity of legal experts, judicial cadres at central and local levels.