Integrating change management and project management

Dr Chiba Hiroshi.   Photo courtesy of Family Medical Practice

By Dr Chiba Hiroshi*

Let’s say you are suffering from long-lasting body pain. You’ve tried drugs from the pharmacy or tried yoga classes, but nothing seems to help. What should you do in this situation?

To get better control, you need to know the basic principles of pain.

When a part of the body is damaged due to injury or illness, the sensory nerves around the injured tissue instantaneously send electrical signals to the brain, signaling the body’s injury as pain. Pain is essential information for quickly detecting abnormalities in the body and protecting yourself from further danger. The pain at this time is called nociceptive pain.

Paracetamol and NSAIDs (which stands for Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs like aspirin, ibuprofen, etc.) are prescribed against nociceptive pain. You can even buy them as over-the-counter medicine at pharmacies. Damaged cells release small particles called prostaglandins, which can intensify pain or generate fever. These drugs exert their analgesic effect by blocking prostaglandins. Topical as well as oral medications may be useful.

However, suppose the pain persists even after taking paracetamol or NSAIDs for a certain period. In that case, it is necessary to consider other possibilities as the cause of the pain.

At first, we need to consider whether the pain is caused by treatable diseases.

Diseases such as migraine and polymyalgia rheumatica have particular medications that can control the pain through treatment if accurately diagnosed. Doctors should be on the lookout for these diseases. Malignant cancers can also cause long-lasting pain, so a thorough investigation is necessary.

Pain that lasts for more than three months without such a manageable disease is called chronic pain. Paracetamol is known to be ineffective in treating osteoarthritis and chronic back pain.

Next, consider the possibility of neuropathic pain. Neuropathic pain is a condition in which the sensory nerves get damaged. They transmit electrical signals to the brain that causes pain. Even if there is no damage to the body, the brain receives the electrical signals and feels the pain. NSAIDs and acetaminophen are ineffective for neuropathic pain.

Furthermore, when there is long-lasting pain, sensitisation for pain may occur.

Sensitisation for pain means that the brain or nerve functions have been altered by prolonged pain so that even the slightest stimulus is perceived as pain. There is no test to detect sensitisation. Doctors have to diagnose it solely based on the patient’s complaints, clinical course, and some basic examinations. Therefore, it is difficult to diagnose the pain caused by sensitisation. Even if it can be diagnosed accurately, it takes a long time to treat because of the brain and nerves’ structural changes. Therefore, multidisciplinary treatments using various medications, cognitive therapy, mindfulness, or other practical means like yoga, are necessary in many cases.

Medications to ease neuropathic pain or sensitisation are antidepressants or anticonvulsants, which act on the malfunctioning brain or nerves. It does not necessarily mean that you have epilepsy or depression.

In general, opioids such as oxycontin and fentanyl would not be prescribed for chronic pain. Although opioids effectively treat pain caused by malignant cancers, they are withheld from non-cancer chronic pain for concerns about dependence unless there is no other option.

Lastly, let’s look at the side effects of these medications.

Acetaminophen is an extremely safe drug and has few side effects as long as it is taken in the proper dosage. However, taking too much of it can damage the liver.

It is well known that NSAIDs can cause gastric mucosal damage. In particular, aspirin can inhibit hemostasis, so for example, avoid taking it if you have dengue fever. When you get seasonal flu with fever, taking NSAIDs can cause Rye syndrome, a severe complication.

Antidepressants and anticonvulsants have the side effect of making you drowsy since they affect the central nervous system.

Opioids have various side effects such as drowsiness, constipation, and the formation of physical and psychological dependence, which is a risk of making pain control more difficult.

Thus, to keep pain under control and get your life back, it is crucial to take the proper medication to treat and alleviate the cause of pain. Family Medical Practice

*Dr Chiba Hiroshi is a Japanese Family Doctor with 20 years of experience working in Japan and Cambodia, specializing in primary care, travel medicine, and urgent care. He graduated from Tohoku University school of medicine in 1998 and received his PhD in Geriatrics in 2004. He provides consultation on a wide range of health problems for all age groups. Other areas of specialties and interests include infectious disease, infection control, and medical education.

Family Medical Practice was the first foreign-owned primary healthcare provider in Việt Nam, and has consistently remained at the forefront of international-standard medicine since 1995. It offers extensive healthcare and emergency medical services nationwide to Vietnamese, expatriate and corporate customers.

For more advice on any medical topics, visit Family Medical Practice Hanoi at: 298 I Kim Mã, Ba Đình District . Tel: (024) 3843 0748.  E: [email protected] .

FMP’s downtown Hồ Chí Minh City location is: Diamond Plaza, 34 Lê Duẩn, District 1; 95 Thảo Điền, District 2. Tel: (028) 38227848. E: [email protected]

FMP Đà Nẵng is located at 96-98 Nguyễn Văn Linh, Hải Châu District, Đà Nẵng. Tel: (0236) 3582 699. E: [email protected] .

Sharp increases in capital contributions and share purchase

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), there were 1,321 valid projects invested in by Vietnamese enterprises abroad with a total registered capital of US$20.6 billion by the end of 2019. The disbursement of the investment capital was US$9.49 billion by the end of the same year.

Vietnamese enterprises have invested in 78 countries and territories across the world with the largest investments poured into Laos, Russia, Cambodia, Venezuela, and Myanmar. Enterprises invested in 18 key industries and sectors with the biggest capital running in the oil and gas industry, accounting for 38.4% of the total offshore investment capital.

About 15.3% of the investment capital was poured into agricultural, forestry and fishery sector while 12.8% of the capital was invested in telecommunications and information technology and 7.2% of the capital went into the hydroelectricity sector.

The number of small and medium-sized projects run by the private sector has increased over the years while the number of large-scale projects run by State-owned enterprises in the areas of oil and gas exploration and extraction, telecommunications, industrial crops and hydroelectricity has fallen sharply.

The volume of investment capital transferred abroad has tended to decrease since the 2015-2017 period due to a plummet in the number of large projects.

According to the MPI, accumulated profits transferred to Vietnam from abroad was approximately US$3 billion while the profit retained for reinvestment was about US$363.4 million. Nearly 10,000 Vietnamese workers have been sent abroad to work.

In addition, Vietnamese enterprises have established a significant amount of assets abroad including factories and production facilities worth billions of US dollars. These are favourable conditions for Vietnamese enterprises to expand their overseas investment and business activities in a context of deeper international economic integration.

Notably, investment abroad in 2019 was entirely implemented by the private sector with no projects conducted by State-owned enterprises. More and more large private corporations and domestic joint stock companies have invested in developed countries in order to expand their market and affirm their brands such as Vingroup, Vietjet, Thaco, T&T, Vinamilk, FPT, and others.

Investment forms are also diverse with an increasing number of investment projects in the form of capital contributions and share purchase in foreign enterprises.

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said that there are Vietnamese enterprises that have spent US$3-5 million to buy shares of foreign enterprises that are now valued in the hundreds of millions of US dollars.

Major global changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic have led to a wave of mergers and acquisitions through capital contributions and share purchase at potential companies for very cheap prices. Vietnamese enterprises need to have big aspirations to participate in this market segment to accelerate the process of reaching out to the world and bringing greater value into the country.

To date, five Vietnamese enterprises have invested abroad with registered capital of over US$1 billion each including the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (Petrovietnam), Military Industry and Telecoms Group (Viettel), Vietnam Rubber Group, Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group, and Long Thanh Golf Investment and Trading JSC.

Besides these impressive achievements, there remain inadequacies including legal risks, international lawsuits and disputes, slow progress of projects, and ineffective implementation of projects, among others.

According to experts, the change in the investment tendency of Vietnamese enterprises in recent years has been market-oriented and consistent with the process of trade and investment liberalisation and international economic integration.

There is large room and great potential in international markets, thus, the most important thing for offshore investment is to perfect mechanisms and policies and create more favourable conditions for private enterprises to easily invest their resources abroad in order to transfer the profits to Vietnam. Meanwhile, enterprises need to improve their governance capacity, their ability to grasp the market and sufficiently strong cash flows.

The amended Law on Investment which will take effect on January 1, 2021 has completed policies on investment abroad regarding clear updates of cases prohibited from investment abroad, conditions accompanied with investment abroad, lending abroad, reporting the process of State management agencies related to investment abroad, the use of profits from overseas projects to contribute to other projects abroad, and others.

To prevent risks in offshore investment activities, the MPI has proposed the Government assign relevant agencies to review and evaluate investment trends abroad in the areas of real estate and the investments of foreign investors in Vietnam abroad in order to devise timely solutions to problems arising.

In addition, Vietnam should boost negotiations and early signing of investment promotion and protection agreements with countries receiving large investment from Vietnam or with Vietnam’s potential partners to create a legal framework for safe and effective investment abroad.

To better understand this concept, VietNamNet talks with Dr. Nguyen Van Dang, an expert on public Administration and policy from the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics.

Dr. Nguyen Van Dang. Photo: Pham Hai

The media is familiar with the concepts of corporate governance, urban governance, global governance. Is this the first time the documents of the Party Congress have used the “national governance” concept?

It is true that this is probably the first time the Party documents have mentioned the concept of “governance”. More specifically, in the Political Report of the 12th Party Central Committee presented at the 13th Party Congress, in the section “The key tasks and strategic breakthroughs of the 13th term”, the Party advocated: “Changing national governance in the direction of modernity and efficiency”.

This concept is also used with the same connotations in the “Lessons from experience” section of the 2016-2020 socio-economic report; Resolution of the 13th Party Congress; Socio-economic development strategy for the period 2021-2030. Thus, the concept of “national governance” has been used four times in the documents.

When did the concept of “governance” appear and what does it mean?

The concept of “governance” originated in the ancient Greek as “kubernan”, meaning control/guide. Later, Plato used the word with the connotation of “designing a ruling system”. In the Middle Ages the word “gubernare” appeared in Latin, which also implied to guide/control or rule through law. Until the 1970s, “governance” was still commonly used in the same meaning as “government”.

In the early 1980s, the concept of “governance” became more common and used with a broader meaning.

Government not only refers to the activities of the state, but also extends to non-state subjects. This diverse network of actors gradually reduces the notion of boundaries between units in government, between public – private sector, or domestic – international.

So far, there still exist different interpretations of the concept of “governance” among the sciences. In terms of solving common problems of the community, “governance” or “public governance” is generally understood as the establishment, application, and enforcement of “rules of the game”.

More specifically, it is a set of principles for collective decision-making in multidisciplinary contexts, and there is no formal system of control between them that governs the terms of the relationship between the subjects participating in the governance system.

The difference between “state management” and “national governance ”

What are the key features of national governance?

The first is the multi-subject feature. The governance system will include not only the government, laws, principles and administrative regulations and state agencies, but also private subjects and non-profit organizations, as well as the more active role of every citizen.

Therefore, the public interest is no longer the only basis for governance decisions. In the framework of a multi-subject relationship, the interests of different subjects must be respected. Consequently, policies or management decisions tend to be dominated by diverse interests, not just public interests.

Second, reduce the gap and narrow the public-private boundary. The governance system integrates administrative systems with market and non-profit mechanisms, thereby narrowing and blurring the boundaries between the state and society.

Third, the cooperation between partners will gradually replace the imposed relationship in order as in the traditional government model. Due to the participation of diverse subjects in governance relationships, the form of those relationships will gradually change to a horizontal relationship, which is more collaborative, cooperative, and equal.

Fourth, governance is interconnected – governance models and paradigms that include institutions and people at all levels of government as well as different policy areas, and are not limited by the local territory border.

So, what is the most fundamental difference between “state management” and “governance”?

Management, whether at the organizational, local or national level, always has a subject that controls relationships and decision-making (government, board of directors, administrators…). However, when it comes to governance, such a central subject does not exist.

The 13th National Party Congress. Photo: Pham Hai

Therefore, the most fundamental difference among management systems is that there will not be a single subject that can fully control the collective decision-making process in multi-subject governance relationships.

Good sign

How will the role of the government be in the national governance system?

Governance systems require the government to gradually adapt to its role of coordinating the differences in expectations and interests of subjects of governance. It also means that the government cannot easily impose its will on related parties as in a traditional governance model.

How do you evaluate the emergence of the concept of “national governance” in the documents of the 13th Party Congress?

First of all, I think it is a good sign because it shows the change in the Party’s perception. However, the limited use of this concept also proves a certain caution of the Party towards this new concept.

In your opinion, why is there such caution?

In my opinion, “governance” is a concept of Western origin so it reflects tradition and reality in Western societies. This concept, thus, will still be very strange to many Vietnamese people.

In addition, the tradition and reality of the political – administrative system in Vietnam and many East Asian countries in general are also very different from the West. Therefore, we cannot rush to use arbitrarily foreign concepts.

Building a national governance model

What is your opinion about the future of “governance thinking” in Vietnam?

We live in a rapidly changing and interdependent world. Therefore, since the late 1990s, management thinking has been an increasingly popular trend in the world.

At home, reforming the political – administrative system towards respecting and promoting the people’s mastery has been a consistent policy of the Party in many recent congresses.

The reality also shows the limitations of the state’s ability and resources in solving community problems. Therefore, we are witnessing the increasingly active participation of businesses, social organizations and individual citizens, working side by side with the government to solve collective problems.

What are the challenges in the process of building “national governance” in Vietnam?

“Governance” is an exotic concept so the first challenge is that we must define this concept associated with the actual context in Vietnam today. This has not been shown in the documents of the 13th Party Congress.

On that foundation, the next step is to build a national governance theory and model, which can catch the world’s movement trends and reconcile with the traditional and current characteristics of Vietnam.

I think that this is a theoretical challenge that the Party should be concerned about in coming years.

Hien Anh

Passengers arrive at Chu Lai Airport in Quảng Nam Province. The central province plans to host international tourists with vaccine passports as part of a pilot project. Photo courtesy of Jetstar Pacific

QUẢNG NAM — The central province of Quảng Nam has put forward plans to host international tourists with vaccine passports and negative coronavirus tests.

As part of the plans, arrivals at Chu Lai Airport will stay at the assigned Hoiana resorts in Duy Xuyên District and Tui Blue Hotel in Núi Thành District for five or 10 days.

Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, Lê Trí Thanh confirmed the plans to Việt Nam News , stating that the province and managing boards of the two resorts and Chu Lai Airport authorities held a working session on preparations to soon host tourists with the proposed vaccine passports.

Thanh said the province will register with the Government to become the first province in Việt Nam to pilot the hosting of international visitors and roll out a ‘safe tourism’ programme.

“We plan to receive South Korean ‘vaccine passport’ tourists on chartered flights as part of the pilot project, and they (tourists) must test negative for coronavirus by Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR),” Thanh said.

“Chu Lai Airport will be given better medical testing equipment and coronavirus prevention measure for arrivals as well as the reception sites at the two hotels,” he said.

The chairman said the two hotels are far from community and residential quarters, and the two sites had been tested and surveyed by the Việt Nam National Administration of Tourism.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism also agreed with the pilot plan.

Thanh said all staff of the two hotels and task force members will be vaccinated and implement coronavirus preventive measures before hosting tourists.

Beach-front Hoiana integrated resort and hotel comlex and Tui Blue in central Quảng Nam Province are assigned to host the first  international visitors with vaccine passports. Photo by Thanh Hà

Quảng Nam Province’s tourism industry saw poor growth in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and storms and floods.

The province, which is home to the UNESCO-recognised world heritage sites Hội An ancient town and Chàm Islands-Hội An world biosphere site, saw tourism revenue decline by 82.7 per cent in 2020, hosting only 1.46 million tourists – an 81 per cent reduction from 2019.

The tourism association of Quảng Nam has inked an agreement to boost post-COVID-19 tourism in the region in 2021 with Đà Nẵng and Thừa Thiên-Huế. — VNS

Associate Professor, Dr. Bùi Hoài Sơn, Director of Việt Nam National Institute of Culture and Arts

With increasing religious observance, the potential for scams is rising. Authorities need to step in to help people stay vigilant and avoid being duped.

E-newspaper VietnamPlus speaks with Associate Professor, Dr. Bùi Hoài Sơn, Director of Việt Nam National Institute of Culture and Arts, on the problem from a cultural and sociological perspective.

How do you evaluate people’s religious practices?

Social development leads to a number of consequences that make many people feel insecure, anxious and turn to religious beliefs as a consolation. Many individuals and organisations have built spiritual tourist sites, creating spiritual activities to fill that need.

In addition, the impact of new media (social networks) in disseminating information, creating online communities to connect religious and spiritual practices, also increases this need.

In my own opinion, this practice has both positive and negative consequences. The positive thing is that the spiritual beliefs and practices help people be more determined in their work. From these efforts, society will develop.

Practising religion and beliefs also helps people appreciate the values of “ chân – thiện – mỹ ” (the true, the good and the beautiful), thereby reinforcing the virtue of honesty of each person. Practising religion is also part of traditional culture. Traditional cultural values, thereby, are maintained and strengthened by the Vietnamese society as the country is integrating into the global system.

However, this practice also has some negative consequences, as it leads to the restoration of unsound customs, pushes some people to the level of superstition, adversely affecting the spiritual and material life of each individual and family.

Scammers use spirituality, incantations, and worship to make profits. Notably, this behaviour takes place in the capital, not in the countryside. How do you evaluate this situation?

Currently, we are witnessing a lot of scammers that take advantage of beliefs and spirituality for profit, and it is worth noting that many highly educated people still believe in superstition. That shows there are factors governing people’s perceptions that make them believe in things which are not scientifically grounded.

Society at any stage also needs religion and beliefs. Before, people were confident that when science developed, religion would lose its place and disappear. This is not correct, because religion or belief, does not compete with science, but complements science at a point that science cannot explain.

There are many phenomena that cannot be explained by science that makes people believe in fate, in luck, and all of which have led them to spiritual therapy and superstition.

In your opinion, how should State management agencies, the media and cultural experts get involved in order to warn people?

The first thing to do is promote information in mass media. However, the information also needs certain precautions, otherwise it will backfire. Specifically, instead of condemning a certain phenomenon, we inadvertently create curiosity and stimulate attention towards the phenomenon itself.

Second, State management agencies need to issue specific sanctions and regulations. Spiritual profiteers need to be prosecuted so that they cannot take advantage of spiritual needs and lure others into superstitious activities.

Next, cultural experts need to be proactive and active in analysing the advantages and disadvantages of religious practices, especially in superstitious phenomena. In today’s age, information comes and passes quickly, so we need accurate and reliable information from cultural experts.

Families, schools and mass organisations also need to play an active role in creating proper awareness of inappropriate spiritual activities.

I believe, when we create a healthy cultural life, we will minimise the negative impact of these phenomena on people, thereby helping us to build a healthy culture for society.

What should people do to protect themselves against inappropriate spiritual activities?

The boundary between religious practice, belief and superstition is quite fragile. Religion and belief contain many good values, therefore, each person’s life will become happier and more worthy of living by pursuing the values ​​that religion and beliefs bring. Therefore, in order to properly practice religions or a belief, we need to first understand the nature of it.

Religion or belief teaches people to think well, live well, do good things for others. When we do that, society will certainly be good. In addition, when we practice the right religion and belief, we will create a lifestyle that respects the traditions in the family.

Other factors, without scientific basis, are not the nature of religion or belief, and therefore, are not conducive to individual personal development and should be removed from social life. — VNS