On 03/04/2008, the People's Committee of Hai Duong Province issued Decision No. 1144/QD-UBND of development planning on medical career in Hai Duong to 2015 and orientation towards 2020. After 5 years of implementation, many basic criteria approved in the master plan was completed in 2020. In addition, the socio-economic context and health care needs of the local people had a lot of changes, as well as the overall development plan of Vietnam Health System in 2020 and orientation towards 2030. Requiring the planning development of the Health System in Hai Duong province in 2020 to be adjusted and supplemented to timely satisfy the requirements of the new situation.

Within the framework of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) development plan in Vietnam, Health Strategy and Policy Institute (HSPI) organized a consultation workshop on topic selection forHTA in Vietnam on June 12, 2014 at Fortuna hotel in Hanoi. The purpose of this workshop was to get comments and feedback on criteria used to select topics for HTA in Vietnam and to collect proposed topics from stakeholders

In the context of Vietnam’s efforts to achieve universal health coverage through Health Insurance, one of the most concerned issues is to improve the performance of health system, especially in terms of financial resource allocation and use. With the purpose of supporting policy-makers in making evidence-informed decisions, health technology assessment (HTA) is considered as an effective tool to improve the efficiency of health system. Therefore, development of HTA is being paid attention by the Ministry of Health (MoH). In order to ensure a close and effective coordination between policy makers, research institutions and other stakeholders, Health Strategy and Policy Institute (HSPI) is assigned as the focal point for coordinating HTA activities in Vietnam.

Following the success of the “Conference for the implementation of the national policy for alcohol related harms prevention up to 2020” in Hanoi. On 16 May.2014, the Conference for the implementation of the national policy for alcohol related harms prevention up to 2020 in Da Lat city, Lam Dong Province along with the presence of representatives of the People's Committee, Department of Public Security, Industry and Trade Department, the Department of Health of the 33 provinces in the South.

The 67th Session of the World Health Assembly (WHA) takes place 19-24 May 2014 in Geneva, with the participation of 194 member countries of the World Health Organization (WHO). Vietnam delegation led by the Deputy of the Minister of Health Prof. PhD.Le Quang Cuong with the participation of representatives from the Department/ Bureau of the Ministry of Health, universities, hospitals and research institutes including the Health Strategy and Policy Institute.

Health Technology Assessment (HTA) is considered as an effective tool to improve the efficiency of health system through providing evidences for policy makers to develop policies. The Vietnam’s Ministry of Health is paying special attention to developing HTA, especially in the situation that Vietnam is on the way to achieve the universal health coverage based on health insurance. As being a multidisciplinary field of policy analysis, HTA requires close and effective coordination between policy makers, academia and other stakeholders. In 2014, Health Strategy and Policy Institute has been assigned by the Health Minister as the focal point for coordinating HTA activities in Vietnam.

On 07/05/2014, with the support of the World Health Organization, the Ministry of Health held a conference for the implementation of the national policy for alcohol related harms prevention up to 2020. The Deputy of The Ministry of Health, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thanh Long hosted the conference. Representatives of 9/Ministries/ Sectors/ participating in the formulation and implementation of policies, as well as representatives of the People's Committee, Department of Public Security, Department of Commerce, Department of Public Health from 30 provinces / cities, the northern society organizations attended the conference.

In Vietnam, since “renovation” in 1986, the health system had transformed from being fully subsidized by the state into being funded by various sources, including: state budget, health insurance and out-of-pocket payment by patients. In which, the financial resources from the health insurance fundwere considered as an important and sustainable measure for moving towards UHC. However, after nearly 20 years in operation, purchasing arrangements ofhealth servicesby Health insurance (HI) fund still existed many difficulties and shortcomings related to the benefit package, provider payment method and capacity of health service delivery, which affectedthe efficiency of HI policy implementation as well as the performance of the health system.