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STRENGTHENING POLITICAL WILL FOR TOBACCO TAX POLICY REFORM IN VIETNAM Final Narrative Report December 2018 Prepared by HealthBridge Vietnam For Bloomberg Foundation through Tobacco Free Kids
Transcript of Final Narrative Report December 2018 - HealthBridge · Final Narrative Report 6 | P a g e Alliance...
STRENGTHENING POLITICAL WILL FOR TOBACCO TAX POLICY REFORM IN VIETNAM
Final Narrative Report
December 2018
Prepared by HealthBridge Vietnam
For
Bloomberg Foundation through Tobacco Free Kids
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GRANT INFORMATION
Project ID (ex: UNITEDSTATES-2-03) VIETNAM-21-06
Organization’s legal name HealthBridge Foundation of Canada
Project Title Strengthening political will for tobacco tax policy reform in
Vietnam
Project Duration (# of months)
16 months
Reporting Period (mm/dd/yy – mm/dd/yy)
09/01/17 – 12/31/18
REPORT PREPARER
Title (Dr / Ms / Mr) Ms First Name Thi Thu
Family Name Le Position Program Manager
Direct telephone +8424 35119904
Mobile telephone +84912150248
Direct email [email protected]
Skype ID (if applicable) lethithu_hbv
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. This report is due thirty days after the expiration of your project. Please note that the
grant expiration date is listed on the first page of your grant agreement.
2. Information for this report should be cumulative – please include any relevant
information from the entirety of your project.
3. Please answer each question as completely as possible. Be sure to address the progress
and completion of all activities included on the project workplan. If you require
clarification on any question, please consult your TFK Program Officer.
4. This report should be accompanied by an Final Financial Report. If you do not have a
CTFK Financial Report template, please contact your TFK Program Officer to secure
one.
5. Completed narrative and financial reports can be email directly to
Overall Project
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1. Please list the major objectives of your project as they were set forth in original grant
agreement.
Goal: A strong tobacco excise tax passed by the Vietnam National Assembly by 2018
Specific objectives:
- To improve the political commitment of policy makers for tobacco tax reform
- To raise public support for increased tobacco tax
- To strengthen the content of tobacco excise tax revision proposal
2. Please list and describe all activities completed during the grant, including:
a. All completed activities which were included on the project workplan:
Strategy 1: Information, Education, and Communication: Updating communication
materials on tobacco as a development issue and on tobacco tax as an effective measure to
reduce consumption
Activity 1.1: Revise, print, and distribute the Q&A booklet on tobacco tax
The Q&A booklet was finalized with comments and inputs from HealthBridge, World Health
Organization (WHO), Vietnam Steering Committee on Smoking or Health (VINACOSH), and
Tobacco Free Kids Action Fund (TFK) in both Vietnamese and English. The Vietnamese version
was printed in May 2018 with financial support from WHO to distribute in Vietnam. Four
hundred copies were sent to HealthBridge and the same amount was sent to VINACOSH for
dissemination.
From HealthBridge, the booklet was disseminated to media, economic experts and policy makers
during some events: the parallel section on tobacco tax and illicit trade of the eleventh Vietnam
Economist Annual Meeting (VEAM 2018); two media workshops targeted to journalists and
editors in HCM city and Hanoi; the workshop organized by Ministry of Finance (MOF) in
collaboration with HealthBridge targeting on National Assembly (NA) members and policy
makers from different Ministries in Phu Quoc.
The supporting documents:
- The Q&A booklet in Vietnamese and English (1.1.1&1.1.2)
Activity 1.2: Review the available factsheets and update or/and make new ones as needed
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Five factsheets on tobacco tax were revised by HealthBridge with comments and inputs from
VINACOSH, WHO and other partners. These factsheets were printed by WHO and were
disseminated together with the Question & Answer booklet by HealthBridge and by other
partners. The factsheets were designed in a two side A4 paper format. The contents and titles are
as the following:
1. Why it is necessary to increase tobacco tax.
2. The proposed roadmap and options for tobacco tax in Vietnam.
3. Experience of tobacco tax increases in Vietnam in 2006, 2008, and 2016.
4. International experience in increasing tobacco tax: the case of Thailand and Philippines.
5. Myths and facts about the impacts of tobacco tax increases on smuggling and
employment.
The supporting documents:
- Five factsheets in Vietnamese (1.2.1 1.2.5)
Strategy 2: Network Building: Expanding the network of tax advocates and enhancing
their voice by involving development agencies and influential individuals in the campaign
Activity 2.1: Hold a planning meeting/workshop with Vietnam Non Communicable Disease
Prevention Alliance (NCDs-VN) and partners
On January 31, 2018, the project team organized the tobacco tax workshop “Enhancing tobacco
tax policy towards sustainable development” in Hanoi for the NCDs-VN members and other
civil society organizations working in poverty reduction, gender equality, and health.
The workshop aimed to: 1) Provide information about tobacco control-related legislative
documents in Vietnam, the role that tobacco taxes play in health protection, the relationship
between tobacco use and development issues, and international experience on tobacco tax; and 2)
Strengthen the commitment and participation of civil society organizations in tobacco tax
advocacy in 2018.
Forty-four participants attended, from a variety of organizations, including representatives from
the NCDs-VN (Research and Training Center or Community Development - RTCCD, Center for
Health Consultation and Development - CHD, Center for Media in Educating Community -
MEC, IGO-IC, and others); professional associations (Vietnam Association of Public Health,
Vietnam Respiratory Association, Vietnam Nutrition Association), local and international
organizations working on health, poverty reduction, and gender equality (Oxfam, ADRA, Rosa
Luxemburg Stiftung, HelpAge International, Institute of Population and Development, Center for
Studies and Applied Sciences in Gender - Family - Women and Adolescents - CSAGA,
Echphuho, Research Centre for Gender, Family and Community Development - GFCD), and a
number of invited journalists.
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Materials distributed included a handout of the PowerPoint presentations and the Q&A booklet
on tobacco tax.
The most important aspect of this workshop was the time taken to discuss the action plan in
which participants could take part in and collaborate on the tobacco tax campaign. The
participants agreed, among other things: i) To develop and sign a joint letter that provides
comments on the draft law once it has been posted on the websites of the Government Office and
National Assembly for public comments; and ii) To integrate tobacco tax issues into their
activities as a way to disseminate tobacco tax information to policy makers.
Following the workshop, two articles about the workshop were published. This planning
workshop did not specifically target journalists, and the project team did not wish to see
information about the action plan published in newspapers. Therefore, we only invited four
journalists and requested that they not publish the action plan; this limited media coverage of the
workshop.
The supporting documents:
The agenda and photo of the workshop (2.1.1 & 2.1.2).
List of articles published after the workshop:
- Article entitled “Tobacco tax hike needed” in the Dai Doan Ket Newspaper
http://daidoanket.vn/kinh-te/can-thiet-tang-thue-thuoc-la-tintuc393642
- Article entitled “Vietnam’s tobacco tax rate still low” in The People Newspaper
http://www.nhandan.com.vn/xahoi/tin-tuc/item/35432102-muc-thue-tren-gia-ban-le-
thuoc-la-cua-viet-nam-con-thap.html
Activity 2.2: Conduct email communication and face-to-face meetings with organizations or
individuals identified as potential advocates
In January 2018, the project team met with representatives of Oxfam to discuss potential
cooperation in the tobacco tax advocacy campaign. Oxfam was previously focused on the Value
Added Tax (VAT) law, but during the discussion agreed that raising the tobacco excise tax
would be a better solution for meeting the government’s need to increase national revenue, rather
than raising the VAT. They confirmed that they would add a recommendation on raising the
tobacco excise tax to their policy advocacy activities, as well as their willingness to participate in
advocacy workshop(s) about tobacco taxes. As a result of meetings with the Oxfam
representative, the Alliance for Tax Justice1 approached HealthBridge and asked for technical
support to organize the seminar on tobacco tax policy and the proposal on raising tobacco tax for
the Alliance’s members. The seminar was held on May 8th
, 2018 with 20 participants from the
1 The Alliance for Tax Justice includes civil society groups and organizations to work on tax justice, ensuring tax is
raised equitably and spent efficiently to the needs of the marginalized groups. The Alliance was established under
the grant of Oxfam.
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Alliance and some journalists. Three presentations were made by Dr. Nguyen Tuan Lam (WHO),
Mr. Dao The Son (Thuongmai University), and Ms. Le Thi Thu (HealthBridge Canada).
Following the seminar, there were 23 articles published including information and messages
from the seminar.
In June 2018, HealthBridge provided technical support to the National Women Union to
organize the workshop entitled “Impact of tobacco tax raise on women and children’s health”.
We provided advice on the workshop’s agenda and list of participants, commented on the press
release, participated and made a presentation on “Impact of tobacco use on women and children:
illness, poverty and injustice”.
On November 19th
2018, HealthBridge arranged a presentation on the regular meeting of the
Child Rights Working Group (CRWG)2. The presentation focused on tobacco/alcohol use in
children and youth, the impact of tobacco/alcohol uses on youth, and the tactics of industries to
target children and youth. CRWG had a common agreement that the tobacco/alcohol issue with
children and youth will be added as one of the emerging issues in the country complementary
report on implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Child for the period of 2012-2017.
The report will be submitted to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2019. Further,
the group has committed to provide commenting letter(s) on excise tax Law to the related
authorities when this chance arrives.
The supporting documents:
The invitation letter and photo of the seminar with the Alliance for Tax Justice (2.2.1 &
2.2.2).
List of some articles promoting tobacco tax following the seminar with the Alliance for Tax
Justice, amongst others:
- https://www.vietnamplus.vn/de-xuat-tang-thue-voi-thuoc-la-chuyen-gia-che-thap-muon-
tang-gap-5/501364.vnp
- http://bnews.vn/thue-thuoc-la-nen-tang-hay-giam-thue-suat-/83923.html
- https://www.24h.com.vn/thi-truong-tieu-dung/de-xuat-tang-gap-5-lan-thue-tieu-thu-voi-
thuoc-la-c52a958194.html
- http://dantri.com.vn/kinh-doanh/gia-thuoc-la-qua-re-nguoi-viet-moi-nam-ton-11-ty-usd-
di-chua-benh-20180508151211242.htm
- http://www.baohaiquan.vn/Pages/De-xuat-tang-thue-voi-thuoc-la-len-kich-khung.aspx
The photo of the workshop organized by the National Women Union (2.2.3)
The presentation of the meeting with CRWG (2.2.4)
2 CRWG is comprised of international non-government organizations (NGOs) working in Vietnam, local NGOs and
other Vietnamese community groups working to advance children's rights.
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Activity 2.3: A round table meeting of tobacco control activists/researchers with invited
economists/public health experts will be organized during which evidence from the research
will be share.
From June 11-12, 2018, Foreign Trade University Hanoi, the Development and Policies
Research Center (DEPOCEN) and the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS)
hosted the Eleventh Vietnam Economist Annual Meeting (VEAM 2018)3. HealthBridge
discussed with DEPOCEN the possibility to organize the side workshop on tobacco tax. Finally,
with funding from other sources, two parallel sessions on tobacco tax and illicit trade were added
in the VEAM 2018 program. Four presentations on tobacco tax and four presentations on illicit
trade from Vietnam and some other countries were presented.
HealthBridge supported 23 journalists in-charge of health, social and economic issues to
participate in these parallel sections and provided simultaneous interpretation services.
Following that, there were 8 articles published and 2 TV reportages airing information and
messages from the workshop.
The supporting documents:
The photo of the parallel section on tobacco tax (2.3.1)
List of articles promoting tobacco tax following VEAM 2018:
- http://tapchithue.com.vn/van-hoa-xa-hoi/158-van-hoa-xa-hoi/13829-tang-thue-ttdc-thuoc-
la-khong-tac-dong-tieu-cuc-toi-viec-lam.html
- http://phapluatxahoi.vn/thue-la-chinh-sach-quan-trong-va-hieu-qua-nhat-117318.html
- https://suckhoe.vnexpress.net/tin-tuc/suc-khoe/tang-thue-qua-thap-gia-thuoc-la-tai-viet-
nam-re-beo-3766733.html
- http://baoquocte.vn/tang-thue-de-giam-ty-le-nguoi-hut-thuoc-la-tang-thu-ngan-sach-
72604.html
- http://thoibaokinhdoanh.vn/thi-truong/tac-dong-cua-tang-thue-thuoc-la-1048156.html
- https://tuoitrethudo.vn/tang-manh-thue-thuoc-la-de-giam-luong-nguoi-hut-thuoc--
n2049464.html
- http://vovtv.vov.vn/s-hom-nay/s-hom-nay-11062018-c53-33938.aspx
- http://kinhtedothi.vn/thue-cao-se-keo-giam-tac-hai-tu-thuoc-la-318509.html
- http://baophapluat.vn/tieng-noi-da-chieu/thue-thuoc-la-cang-thap-ganh-nang-xa-hoi-
cang-cao-400049.html
- http://vtv.vn/trong-nuoc/thue-cao-se-giam-tac-hai-cua-thuoc-la20180630185104996.htm
3 The Vietnam Economist Annual Meeting (VEAM) is an annual meeting organized for economists and social
researchers around the world to present their scholarly studies and works.
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Strategy 3: Technical Support: Supporting the tax working group of Tax Policy
Department (TPD), Ministry of Finance (MOF) in preparing the tax options
Activity 3.1: Assist the TPD in preparing tax increase options
During the process of drafting the tax bill, HealthBridge responded to a request for support of
TPD by providing data on tax rates and tax structures from countries in the region and
internationally, evidences on impacts of tobacco tax on employments, and answered questions
related to WHO’s TaxSiM modelling. Through a SEATCA-funded project, HealthBridge and
WHO supported TPD to conduct a study on the impacts of the 2014 excise tax law and
projections to 2024 using the WHO TaxSiM model. It is now being used by TPD, HealthBridge,
and WHO to assess the impacts of different tobacco tax scenarios.
Strategy 4: Knowledge Translation: Communicating evidence on the benefits of increased
tobacco taxation with decision-makers and exchanging the lessons of tax advocacy with the
international tobacco control movement
Activity 4.1 Two advocacy workshops (government called “consultative workshop”) for high
profile government officers of different Ministries and National Assembly committees during
the course of the project
In the first grant agreement signed with TFK on August 31, 2017, we planned to organize three
workshops to raise awareness and support from the policy makers of relevant Ministries, NA
committees and other relevant agencies for tobacco tax increase. However, after discussion again
with TPD, we decided to organize two workshops in 2018, one in the Central region and one in
the North. We consulted with TFK and was approved to revise into two workshops and the
budget was revised accordingly (signed grant amendment on June 18, 2018).
In April 2017, the Government approved for MOF to develop the Law to revise 5 current
effective tax laws (after that adding one more law into Law to revise 6 laws) and Excise Tax Law
(ET Law) is one of them. The Tax Policy Department of MOF is the focal point to develop the
proposal.
MOF publicized the draft of Law on MOF’s website for public comments in August 2017. The
draft of Law has been submitted to the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) for review and assessment. The
assessment meeting was held on Dec 14, 2017. The MOJ assessing Committee agreed that the
draft of Law could be submitted by the Government Office (GO) to the National Assembly (NA)
for adding into the NA 2018’s legislative development agenda. However, in May 2018, NA
requested MOF to split the six-law combination proposed for revision into separate proposals
due to the complexity of the original draft. The ET Law which includes tobacco tax among those
was chosen to be submitted to NA first. Their plan in May 2018 was:
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The draft of revised ET Law was expected to be submitted by GO for NA agenda
approval in October 2018 NA session.
The draft of law revision is expected to be voted by NA in May 2019 session.
Again, MOF delayed its process to submit the proposal to the Government. Our understanding
from TPD is that MOF was submitted to the Prime Minister on Jan 31 2019.
The first tax workshop was organized by TPD and HealthBridge with the technical inputs from
WHO on December 07, 2018 in Phu Quoc. There were 40 participants from NA’s Committee of
Budget and Finance, NA’s Department of Budget and Finance, NA’s Committee of Social
Affairs, NA’s Department of Social Affair, the Government Office, General
Departments/Departments of MOF, and Departments of Ministry of Health, provincial
Departments of Taxation, provincial Departments of Custom, and 389 Committees of Kien
Giang, An Giang, Can Tho, Tay Ninh, Hochiminh. There were six presentations on tobacco tax
and related issues on cigarette smuggling by the resource persons from WHO, WB, Ministry of
Health, and Ministry of Finance. Ms. Doan Thu Huyen, the TFK country coordinator attended in
the workshop.
The second workshop contract with TPD was signed in December 2018 and was planned to be
organized on January 11, 2019. However, due to the unavailability of the speakers then it was
postponed and planned to after Tet holiday (Feb 2019).
The supporting documents:
The agenda of the first tobacco tax workshop (4.1.1)
Six PWPs of the first tobacco tax workshop (4.1.2 4.1.7)
The minutes of the first tobacco tax workshop in Vietnamese (4.1.8)
The photo of the first tobacco tax workshop (4.1.9)
Activity 4.2: One study visit to the Philippines, Malaysia or Thailand will be organized for
selected members of the drafting committee
Originally, the project team planned to organize a study visit to a country in the region.
However, according to the Ministry of Finance, ASEAN members have established an ASEAN
Forum on Taxation4 with a specialized sub-forum on excise tax. All ASEAN members gathered
twice a year to discuss and provide updates about their respective excise tax policies. This bring
together all Ministries of Finance and excise tax experts from ASEAN countries. The
Vietnamese MOF therefore suggested that HealthBridge selected a target country for the study
visit that was located outside the ASEAN region so that they could learn more about
4 This forum was under the chairmanship of the Philippines and the ASEAN Secretariat and the Philippines
Department of Finance was in charge of organizing two annual meetings during 2017-2018.
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international experiences. After consulting with SEATCA and WHO, and with TFK’s approval,
the study tour was taken place in Australia from August 6-9, 2018.
In term of the list of participants, the study visit to the UK which was organized with funded
from Union and WHO targeting high-ranking policy makers with the head of the delegation
being Vice – Minister of the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam. This visit to Australia targeted
medium-ranking policy makers and was headed by the Director General of TPD of the Ministry
of Finance. The delegations comprised of 10 persons from Ministry of Finance, Ministry of
Justice, Government Office (Department of Legislation and Department of General Economics),
the Office of the National Assembly (Department of Legislative and Department of Social
Affair) who plays very important roles on drafting and accessing the draft of law.
The delegation visited 4 government agencies of Australia: 1) The Department of Treasury; 2)
The Department of Health; 3) The Department of Home Affairs; and iv) VicHealth.
Through discussing with the delegation during the visit, the delegation spoke out some main
lesson learned from tobacco excise tax in Australia, including: i) The Government committed to
increase tax and used tax as a measure to reduce tobacco use in Australia; ii) Regularly
increasing tobacco excise tax; iii) Bi-annually index by Average Weekly Ordinary Time
Earnings not Consumption Price Index; iv) the Australia government is very committed to
combat illicit trade and applies strong measures. All of them show their support to increase
tobacco tax in Vietnam, except one delegate from Ministry of Justices. This delegate showed his
concern on illicit trade during the 2014 tax campaign and in some previous consultative
workshops. Though, it was expected that through this visit he can learn about illicit trade control
(given the situation differences of two countries) but the main point is the commitment from the
government on increasing tobacco tax and combating illicit trade at the same time.
Right after the visit, four individual meetings with delegates from MOJ, GO, NA, and TPD were
made to disseminate the Q&A booklet on tobacco tax/factsheets and discuss the law progress. A
phone call to follow up with delegate from GO was made.
We continue to follow up with these delegations through meetings to provide more information
about the position for the tobacco excise tax law proposal and advocating for their continuous
support for our position when the draft of Law arrives in their office to assess.
The supporting documents:
The report of the study visit (4.2.1)
Photo of the study visit (4.2.2)
Activity 4.3: Seven articles will be published in a journal targeting policy makers
The Magazine of Legislative Studies of National Assembly is published bi-monthly and
distributed freely to National Assembly members. The project team worked with this Magazine
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and experts to develop and publish 7 articles on tobacco tax and related issues. Six of them were
published, except the last one by Dr. Tran Tuan due to his unexpected travelling. He will send
his article to the team for review in February in 2019 and it is expected to be published in the
first volume of March 2019. The following is the list of articles, authors, and the publication
volume of these articles:
1) Article titled “Why it is necessary to increase tobacco tax”, by Dr. Phan Thi Hai and Dr.
Pham Thi Duyen Thao, published in September 2018, Volume No.17/2018.
2) Article titled “Situation of tobacco tax increase in Vietnam and international experience”,
by MPH. Nguyen Hanh Nguyen and Dr. Phan Thi Lan Huong, published in October 2018,
Volume No 20/2018.
3) Article titled “Tobacco taxation in Vietnam: Reform is urgently needed to achieve health
goals”, by Dr. Kidong Park, published in November 2018, Volume No 21/2018.
4) Article titled “Impacts of tobacco tax increases on budget revenues and smoking rate in
Vietnam”, by MA. Dao The Son and MSc. Le Thi Thu, published in November 2018, Volume
No 22/2018.
5) Article titled “Impact of tobacco tax increases on employment”, by Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu
Hien, published in December 2018, Volume No 23/2018.
6) Article titled “Tobacco tax and illicit trade”, by Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Anh and MA. Dao The
Son, published in Dec 2018, Volume No 24/2018.
7) Article titled “Tobacco tax policy in public health perspective”, by Dr. Tran Tuan, being to
be published in March 2019 (already contracted with and paid to the Magazine).
The supporting documents:
The articles published in 2018 (4.3.1)
Activity 4.4: Attending international tobacco control related conferences and having project
team staff give presentations
During March 7-9, 2018, the project team participated and presented four abstracts in the 17th
World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Cape Town, South Africa:
1. The oral presentation on "Tobacco Industry Tactics - Exposing and Countering" by MSc.
Le Thi Thu, Senior Project Manager took place on Wednesday, March 7th
2018.
2. The poster presentation on “Cigarette affordability and impacts of 2014 tax reform in
Vietnam" by MSc. Le Thi Thu took place on Wednesday, March 7th
2018 during the
moderated E-Poster Session "Tobacco Taxation and Illicit Trade".
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3. The poster presentation on “Advocacy for a strong tobacco tax policy - experience and
lessons of an INGO in Vietnam” by Dr. Pham Thi Hoang Anh, the Project Director took
place on Friday, March 9th
2018 during the moderated E-Poster Session "Tobacco
Industry, Interference and Counter Measures".
4. The presentation on “Implementation of smoke free policy in restaurant setting -
experience of a NGO in Vietnam” by MPH. Nguyen Hanh Nguyen, The Project cum
Media Officer took place on Wednesday, March 7th
2018 during the Rapid Fire Session
"Smoke-free and Point-of-Sale Policies and Advertising Bans".
During September 12-15, 2018, the project team attended the 12th
APACT in Bali, Indonesia.
Two presentations were delivered:
1. The presentation on “Fault Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of tobacco industry
undermines meaningful advertisement ban in Vietnam” by MPH. Nguyen Hanh Nguyen,
the Project cum Media Officer.
2. The presentation on “Partial Restrictions in Tobacco related CSR: Vietnam’s Experience
in Enforcement” by Dr. Pham Thi Hoang Anh, the Project Director.
Ms. Le Thi Thu was invited by Johns Hopkins 2018 Asia-Pacific Tobacco Control Leadership
Training Program as a panelist to deliver two presentations: i) Countering tobacco industry
interference in tobacco control in Vietnam; and ii) Tobacco Advertisement, Promotion and
Sponsorship (TAPS) policies and implementation in Vietnam. The training was taken in Bali
from November 4-9, 2018.
The supporting documents:
Four abstracts presented at the 17th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Cape Town
(4.4.1 4.4.4)
Two abstracts presented at the 12th
APACT in Bali, Indonesia (4.4.5 – 4.4.6)
Two presentations at Johns Hopkins 2018 Asia-Pacific Tobacco Control Leadership Training
Program (4.4.7 – 4.4.8).
Activity 4.5: Meetings to communicate Tax Policy Proposals to Decision-Makers
We signed a consultancy contract with Dr. Trinh Thi Le Tram, the head of Department of
Consultancy and Social Criticism of Vietnam Medical Association. She is ex-vice director of
Department of Legislatives, Ministry of Health of Vietnam. She works together with
VINACOSH and HealthBridge to approach and meet with potential policy makers to
communicate the tax policy proposal.
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During the reporting period, the team met with representatives of two Departments of the
Government Office who are in-charge of accessing the draft excise tax law before it will be
submitted to the National Assembly.
In December 2017, the team met with a Standing member of NA’s Committee of Budget and
Finance who is in charge of reviewing this Law and the Vice Director of the Department of
Budget and Finance, the Office of NA. Follow-up meetings were made in 2018. Both of the
Standing member and Vice Director have indicated their strong support for a higher tobacco tax.
The agreement was made between HealthBridge and NA’s Committee of Budget and Finance
that we will organize a workshop on tobacco tax on February 25th
2019 and a study visit for NA
members in mid of 2019.
In November 2018, we met with a Standing member of NA’s Committee of Social Affairs who
involved in some of tobacco control activities before. He showed his positive reaction on tobacco
tax increases.
Strategy 5: Industry Interference: Preventing interference from the tobacco industry
Activity 5.1: Expose tobacco industry tactics on the website named “Y te Vi dan – Health for
People” managed by the NCDs-VN and during the workshops conducted by the NCDs-VN
through their project on article 5.3 and tobacco industry interference prevention.
Firstly, from May 3-5, 2018, NCDs-VN with technical support from HealthBridge, organized a
training on “Monitoring and communication for tobacco control”. The training focused on
updating knowledge about the tobacco industry’s tactics to interfere in tobacco control activities
in Vietnam. Participants’ skills were developed for conducting monitoring of the tobacco
industry’s interference as well as media skills to enhance communication for tobacco control.
There were presentations of Dr. Marry Assunta from Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance
(SEATCA), Dr. Nguyen Tuan Lam from WHO, Dr. Pham Thi Hoang Anh from HealthBridge,
and Mr. Ngo Huy Toan – the inspector of the Ministry of Information and Communication of
Vietnam. There were about 35 participants from NCDs-VN and some journalists participated in
the training. Following the training, four articles were published including information from the
workshops.
Secondly, responding to the World No Tobacco Day in May 2018, HealthBridge collaborated
with RTCCD and MEC to launch a media contest on tobacco control focusing on tobacco tax
and tobacco industry interference. This contest aims to promote and encourage journalists to
write articles on this topic. Selected good articles were disseminated on Citizen and Journalism
Perspective forum (62,065 members) for voting in order to select the 15 best articles. The
awarding workshop was organized by NCDs-VN/MEC/HealthBridge on November 28, 2018 to
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give awards for these 15 best articles. After the awarding workshop, there were 7 articles
disseminated about the contest and awarding workshop.
Thirdly, HealthBridge provided technical support to RTCCD, NCDs-VN and the Ministry of
Communication and Information (MOIC) to develop the Dispatch on directing the press agency
to intensify communication on implementation of the Tobacco Control Law (TC Law) and
implementing FCTC’s article on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship (TAPS). The
dispatch was issued on December 21, 2018 and its main content focused on: (1) Requesting
media agencies to comply with TAPS regulations in TC Law (do not perform tobacco
advertisement and announcing TI’CSR on the press); (2) Enhancing communication on the
FCTC and the TC Law. On December 27, 2018, MOIC in collaboration with RTCCD/NCDs-VN
organized a media workshop to disseminate this Dispatch to journalists and media agencies,
HealthBridge also provided technical support for the workshop and delivered a presentation on
“FCTC and regulations related to TAPS ban”.
The supporting documents:
Links to the articles published after the training on “Monitoring and communication for
tobacco control” on May 3-5, 2018
- http://cand.com.vn/y-te/Nhieu-chieu-tro-chong-lai-viec-ngan-ngua-benh-tat-do-thuoc-la-
489620/
- http://suckhoedoisong.vn/tang-thue-lam-giam-ganh-nang-benh-tat-do-thuoc-la-gay-ra-
n143934.html
- http://cand.com.vn/doi-song/No-luc-phong-chong-tac-hai-thuoc-la-gap-nhieu-rao-can-
489749/
- http://phapluatxahoi.vn/de-xuat-thu-thue-thuoc-la-o-muc-tuyet-doi-de-giam-ty-le-hut-
115186.html
Video introduced the media contest by HealthBridge/RTCCD/MEC
- https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Q-Jj1LbRdAhY3LVwpGXAiKEkiLXDGqas
List of 15 articles were awarded after the media contest:
- https://drive.google.com/file/d/12yLOR777KtNUqRadb-
jrAlXWwfGXPJ5f/view?usp=sharing
List of 7 articles publishing information on the media contest and workshop to give the
award:
- https://phapluatxahoi.vn/trao-giai-bao-chi-vanh-khuyen-xanh-2018-ve-phong-chong-tac-
hai-thuoc-la-128812.html
- http://www.moitruongvadothi.vn/moi-truong/tin-nhanh-moi-truong/le-trao-giai-vanh-
khuyen-xanh-2018-phong-chong-tac-hai-cua-thuoc-la-a37573.html
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- http://www.thiduakhenthuongvn.org.vn/chinh-tri-xa-hoi/trao-giai-bao-chi-vanh-khuyen-
xanh-ve-phong-chong-tac-hai-cua-thuoc-la
- https://vnanet.vn/vi/tin-tuc/suc-khoe-7/vietnamplus-doat-2-giai-vanh-khuyen-ve-phong-
chong-tac-hai-thuoc-la-3602613.html
- http://baodansinh.vn/le-trao-giai-vanh-khuyen-xanh-d33812.html
- https://www.vietnamplus.vn/vietnamplus-doat-2-giai-vanh-khuyen-ve-phong-chong-tac-
hai-thuoc-la/537369.vnp
- http://songkhoe.vn/thuoc-la-gay-ra-hon-40000-ca-tu-vong-moi-nam-o-viet-nam-s2961-0-
578758.html
Photo of the media workshop with MOIC on the disseminate the Dispatch (5.1.1)
The PWP presentation “FCTC and regulations related to TAPS ban” at the MOIC workshop.
(5.1.2)
Activity 5.2: Counter tobacco industry arguments
The anti-tax-rise arguments of the tobacco industry were collected during the workshops and
through media surveillance. To counter the industry’s arguments, the project team met regularly
with its local partners (NCDs-VN, Tobacco Control Fund, MEC, WHO, Tobacco Control
Working Group) to discuss and take action.
During the NA meeting in October 2017, Mr. Nguyen Sy Cuong (Deputy Chairman of the
Foreign Affairs Committee, National Assembly) made a speech at the NA session on October 31,
2017 claiming — with no evidence — that cigarette smuggling has boomed across the sea and
land, causing great damage to Vietnam’s economy. He also wondered if the increases excise tax
on cigarettes would increase the consumption of smuggled cigarettes. He showed a large bag of
cigarette packs, and said that he had easily purchased these smuggled cigarettes at a very cheap
price in southern Vietnam during a mission there.
To counter with this statement, HealthBridge informed the Tobacco Control Working Group and
NCDs-VN and called for an emergency response. NCDs-VN and HealthBridge conducted the
following activities to counter this argument:
On November 7 2017, NCDs-VN and HealthBridge issued a press release to provide
evidence that opposed Deputy Nguyen Sy Cuong’s statement and to urge the Government
and the National Assembly to increase the excise tax on cigarettes as a means to increase
state revenues and to reduce the risks associated with tobacco-related deaths and diseases.
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We sent the press release to the network of 400 journalists and faxed it to the editorial
offices of twenty-seven newspapers.
On November 8 2017, NCDs-VN (Dr. Tran Tuan) and HealthBridge (Dr. Pham Thi
Hoang Anh) conducted a live talk-show to discuss this issue with guest speakers from
Thuongmai University (Mr. Dao The Son) and the Vice President, Democratic Law
Council, Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (Prf. Nguyen Dang Dung).
The talk-show focused on three issues: the need for a tobacco tax increase; the fact that a
tobacco tax increase does not lead to increase cigarette smuggling; and the role and
responsibility of NA members to protect the rights and the benefit of the majority of
voters.
The talk-show was live streamed on the fanpage GTV (the fanpage is managed by the
Center for Media in Educating Community – MEC, a member of NCDs-VN) and posted
on Youtube. After one day, the talk-show had 16,033 views, 4,625 video views, and 621
reactions/comments/share. Many positive comments supported raising the tobacco tax
and opposed Deputy Nguyen Sy Cuong’s statement.
The tobacco industry’s arguments and evidences to counter argument opposing tobacco tax
increases were also shared in the recent workshops including two media workshops in April and
September 2018 (activity 6.1), seminar on tobacco tax (activity 2.2), the VEAM 2018, and
through media (newspapers and social media).
The supporting documents:
Link to the talk-show on GTV’s fanpage:
https://www.facebook.com/thongtinGTV/videos/1729896437022569/
Link to the video talk-show on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtQ_VeRMfd8
Some newspapers reported the views of NCDs-VN (articles in Vietnamese):
- “Vnmedia” e-Newspaper article “12 organizations opposed Deputy Nguyen Sy Cuong’s
statement on tobacco tax”
http://vnmedia.vn/dan-sinh/201711/12-to-chuc-len-tieng-phan-bac-y-kien-dai-bieu-quoc-
hoi-nguyen-sy-cuong-ve-thue-thuoc-la-585673/
- “Vietnam Finance e-Newspaper” article “Opposing Deputy Nguyen Sy Cuong’s view
towards a tax hike on cigarette products stimulating increasing demand for smuggled
cigarettes"
http://vietnamfinance.vn/phan-doi-quan-diem-tang-thue-se-kich-thich-buon-lau-thuoc-la-
cua-dai-bieu-nguyen-sy-cuong-20171108180353821.htm
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- “Thoi Bao Tai Chinh Vietnam” e-Newspaper article “Proposal for strong increase excise
tax on cigarettes"
http://thoibaotaichinhvietnam.vn/pages/nhip-song-tai-chinh/2017-11-07/de-nghi-tang-
manh-thue-tieu-thu-dac-biet-voi-thuoc-la-50099.aspx
Strategy 6: Media Support: Strengthening media interest and support
Activity 6.1: Two full-day journalism workshops on the issue of tobacco and development and
tobacco tax and price
On April 19, 2018 HealthBridge, in collaboration with Ministry of Information and
Communication, organized the first media workshop in the South of Vietnam. The workshop
aims to raise awareness, build capacity and enhance support of journalists for tobacco control in
general, and tobacco tax policy in Viet Nam The workshop attracted more than 80 participants
from national and local newspapers, TV and communication centers in the South of Vietnam.
Information from the workshop was widely spread in the mass media following the event. There
were 2 TV reportages, and around 62 articles and news that distributed information from the
workshop and provided supportive voices for the tobacco tax increase proposal.
On September 25, 2018, the similar workshop had been conducted for journalists in the South.
Ms. Pamela Summer Coffey (Vice President International Operations, Campaign for Tobacco-
Free Kids), and Dr. Jun Nakagawa (Deputy Representative of WHO in Vietnam) attended and
gave speeches at the workshop. There were 110 participants from national and local newspapers,
TV and communication centers. Information from the workshop was widely distributed in the
mass media following the event. After one day following the workshop, there were about 79
articles and news that distributed information from the workshop and provided supportive voice
tobacco tax hike proposal. There was one article published the interview of Ms. Pamela Summer
Coffey on the benefit of a tobacco tax increase and the recommendations for Vietnam for
tobacco tax reform.
The supporting documents:
Photos of the first media workshop in Hochiminh (6.1.1 6.1.2)
Links to some articles that distributed information from the workshop in Hochiminh are
below:
- http://vietnamfinance.vn/de-xuat-tang-thue-de-chong-tac-hai-cua-thuoc-la-
20180420133229505.htm
- http://thoibaotaichinhvietnam.vn/pages/thoi-su/2018-04-19/tang-thue-de-giam-thieu-tac-
hai-do-thuoc-la-56422.aspx
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- https://vietnambiz.vn/de-xuat-tang-thue-voi-thuoc-la-de-giam-ty-le-su-dung-51649.html
- http://baonhandao.vn/y-te-suc-khoe/thuoc-la-la-nguyen-nhan-hang-dau-gay-tu-vong-o-
nam-gioi-9930
- http://congluan.vn/doi-song-xa-hoi/y-te/ky-nang-viet-bai-tuyen-truyen-phong-chong-tac-
hai-thuoc-la-35773
- http://www.phunuvagiadinh.vn/suc-khoe-gia-dinh-27/phong-chong-tac-hai-cua-thuoc-la-
tang-thue-de-giam-ty-le-nguoi-dung-nang-cao-loi-ich-kinh-te-279472
- http://thanhtra.com.vn/xa-hoi/doi-song/nang-cao-ky-nang-viet-ve-phong-chong-tac-hai-
cua-thuoc-la_t114c1159n133015
Photo of the second media workshop in Hanoi (6.1.3)
Links to some articles that distributed information from the second media workshop in
Hanoi are below:
- https://english.vov.vn/society/reporters-share-experiences-in-writing-about-tobacco-
prevention-384058.vov
- http://en.nhandan.org.vn/society/health/item/6651502-experts-propose-tax-increase-on-
cigarettes-to-cut-smoking.html
- https://dantri.com.vn/suc-khoe/gia-thuoc-cao-se-ngan-chan-nguoi-hut-thuoc-
20180927062056058.htm
- https://vnexpress.net/tin-tuc/cong-dong/cau-hoi-hom-nay/tang-gia-100-nghin-dong-mot-
bao-thuoc-la-nguoi-nghien-se-cai-3813846.html
- http://baochinhphu.vn/Suc-khoe/Tang-thue-de-giam-nguoi-hut-thuoc-la/347651.vgp
- https://petrotimes.vn/tang-thue-5000-dong-moi-bao-thuoc-la-se-giam-18-trieu-nguoi-hut-
thuoc-515869.html
- http://toquoc.vn/goc-nhin/cau-chuyen-thue-gia-va-tac-hai-cua-thuoc-la-366515.html
- https://suckhoe.vnexpress.net/tin-tuc/suc-khoe/da-so-nguoi-viet-ung-ho-tang-gia-va-thue-
thuoc-la-3815102.html
- http://thoibaotaichinhvietnam.vn/pages/thue-voi-cuoc-song/2018-09-06/viet-nam-can-ap-
dung-thue-tuyet-doi-cao-voi-thuoc-la-61686.aspx
- http://enternews.vn/bo-sung-thue-tuyet-doi-co-the-tang-thu-ngan-sach-3-949-ty-dong-
136643.html
Activity 6.2: Regularly update the media with new research findings and tax advocacy
progress (this activity is at no cost)
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HealthBridge Vietnam maintained regular communication with media networks through email
and meetings. Information provided to the media email list during the reporting period included
international evidence on tobacco industry interferences.
Project staffs were interviewed by television and radio programs:
- In April 2018, Dr. Hoang Anh was invited by Vietnam Television (VTV) to participate in
the program named “Global Visa” (Visa toan cau) on VTV2 to discuss the burden of
disease and poverty caused by tobacco. The program was aired on VTV2 in May 28,
2018 on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day.
http://vtv.vn/video/visa-toan-cau-thuoc-la-ganh-nang-benh-tat-va-doi-ngheo-301565.htm
- In May 2018, Mrs. Le Thi Thu was interviewed by VTV1 for their reportage on tobacco
tax in the program called “90 minutes to understand,” aired on VTV1, May 13, 2018.
http://vtv.vn/trong-nuoc/tang-thue-lieu-co-giam-ti-le-nguoi-hut-thuoc-la-
20180513081425058.htm
- In May 30, 2018, on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day, Dr. Hoang Anh was invited
by the Voice of Vietnam (VOV) to join the voice talk show on smoke-free environments
on the program named “Your specialist” (Chuyen gia cua ban).
http://vov1.vov.vn/chuyen-gia-cua-ban/xay-dung-mot-to-am-khong-khoi-thuoc-262018-
c25-41711.aspx
- In August 18, 2018, Dr. Hoang Anh was interviewed on “The role of tobacco tax
measures in tobacco control policies”, live talk in VOV1 from 3.15pm-3.45pm on the
program named “Your specialist” (Chuyen gia cua ban)
- In September 2018, Dr. Pham Thi Hoang Anh gave interview for Radio France
International (RFI). The content focused on the current situation and challenges in
tobacco control in Vietnam.
http://vi.rfi.fr/viet-nam/20181001-chong-thuoc-la-o-viet-nam-cuoc-chien-dang-dai
- In October 2018, Mrs. Le Thi Thu gave answer to the interview of VTV1 for a TV
reportage on tobacco tax.
- In October 2018, Dr. Pham Thi Hoang Anh provided answer to the interview of VTC for
a TV reportage program on tobacco tax
- In October 2018, Dr. Pham Thi Hoang Anh provided answers to the interview of VTV
for a TV reportage program on tobacco and alcohol control.
- In December 2018, Mrs. Le Thi Thu was invited by the VTC6 to participate in two TV
panel discussion programs on tobacco tax increase.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANYCkEBwqPk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIavGXrQoPY
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- In December 20, 2018, Mrs. Le Thi Thu was invited by VTC to join the talk show
program on health issue. The content of program focused on tobacco and poverty.
Project staffs were interviewed by the press:
- In Aug 2018, Dr. Pham Thi Hoang Anh was interviewed by Infornet Newspaper. Two
articles entitled “Tobacco taxes and prices in Vietnam are at the lowest level compared to
other countries” and “The challenges of tobacco industry in tobacco control in Vietnam”
were published in Infornet Newspaper on August 24, 2018 and August 26, 2018 as the
result of the interview.
https://infonet.vn/thue-va-gia-thuoc-la-o-viet-nam-lai-dang-o-muc-thap-nhat-so-voi-cac-
nuoc-post272984.info
https://infonet.vn/can-thiep-cua-nganh-cong-nghiep-thuoc-la-gay-kho-khan-cho-cong-
tac-pcthctl-post272982.info
Strategy 7: Raising Public Support: Conducting a campaign to gain public support and
create public pressure for a strong Excise Tax reform
Activity 7.1: Develop and air two reportages on the impact of low cigarette prices on tobacco
consumption in youth
In December 2018, HealthBridge worked with VTV and National Assembly Television to
develop and broadcast two reportages on the need of increasing tobacco tax.
The first reportage was developed by VTV with technical inputs and comments from
HealthBridge. This reportage focused on the remaining problems after 5 years of Tobacco
Control Law implementation that highlighted the inadequacy in the tobacco tax policy and the
need of increasing tobacco tax. This reportage was aired in the “Parliament with voters”
program, VTV1 channel, on December 24, 2018.
The second reportage was developed by National Assembly’s Television with technical inputs
and comments from HealthBridge. This reportage focused on the economic burden of smoking,
the current situation of cheap cigarette and the public support for tobaco tax increase. The
reportage was aired in the News program, National Assembly’s Television channel, on
December 27, 2018.
The supporting documents:
Link of the first reportage:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B86IHbTo21u9EwV8yKBMabnOF7sS4kT3/view
Link of the reportage:
http://quochoitv.vn/Videos/thoi-su/2018/12/nghich-ly-gia-thuoc-la-tai-viet-nam-/229191
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Activity 7.2: One TV talk show and one radio talk show will be prepared and aired on Voice of
Vietnam
TV talk show:
HealthBridge worked with the National Assembly Television channel to produce and telecast a
TV talk show on “Tobacco tax”. The talk show was telecasted in the “Today’s Issues” program
on January 31, 2018 and again telecasted on February 1, 2018.
The talk show focused on the need to increase the tobacco tax, providing information about the
tobacco tax increase proposal, and answering the myths on the impacts of tobacco tax increases,
smuggling, and employment. There were 3 speakers who joined the talk show: 1) Dr. Phan Thi
Hai from Vietnam Tobacco Control Fund; 2) Mr. Dao The Son from Thuongmai University; and
3) Dr. Pham Thi Hoang Anh from HealthBridge. While Dr. Kidong Park (the Representative of
World Health Organization in Vietnam) and Mr. Sabestian (Chief Economist of World Bank)
were interviewed in the short introductory reportage telecasted prior the talk of speakers.
The talk show was conducted to provide information to policymakers before the draft bill
supposed to submit to the Government Office in February 2018 as MOF’s plan. HealthBridge
and the tobacco tax communication team agreed that it was a vital time to deliver the message to
policymakers.
The supporting documents:
The link to the talk show in National Assembly TV channel:
https://youtu.be/0WnyfdVains
Radio talk show:
In October 2018, HealthBridge cooperated with the Voice of Vietnam (VOV) transportation
channel, which is the most popular radio channel in Vietnam now, to produce and air a radio
reportage on the benefit of tobacco tax raising. The radio reportage was aired in October 18-19,
2018 and re-aired on 5.30pm, October 20, 2018.
The supporting documents:
The link to the radio talkshow:
http://vovgiaothong.vn/tin-tuc/Duong-tin/30636/De-xuat-ap-muc-thue-tuyet-doi-voi-thuoc-
la-tu-5000-dongbao
Activity 7.3: Amplifying this media coverage and those developed under activity 5.3 will be
featured on the NCDs-VN website, Facebook, and on the “Vietnamkhongthuocla” page
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Originally, we proposed to collaborate with NCDs-VN website and “Vietnamkhongthuocla”
fanpage for media campaign. However, we found MEC and Echphuho having the strong
capacities in social media and have rich past experiences targeting on the groups of our interest
then we decided to work with these two groups.
Campaign in collaboration with MEC that targeted on the public, journalists, and
politicians.
MEC is a private media center that has experience with social media. It is currently managing a
multimedia TV channel on Facebook which aims to provide and communicate information on
hot issues of public concern (called GTV, attracts 11,707 followers). It also manages a forum of
journalists on Facebook (called Citizen and Journalism Perspective, has 62,065 members). MEC
is a member of NCDs-VN and is committed in tobacco control. This is good channel to target the
public, journalists and politicians on social media.
From April 15, 2018 to December 2018, several activities were performed including:
- Shared information on the type of articles, videos, voting, questions for discussion, and
news in two main social media platforms of MEC including GTV channel (11,707
followers) and Citizen and Journalism Perspective Forum (62,065 members), and raised
discussion among forum’s members. Most of the comments on the forum were to support
of tobacco tax raising.
- Cooperated with famous facebookers to promote supporting voice for tobacco tax raising.
A famous journalist (Hoang Tu Giang) and a popular facebooker (Bach Hoan) were
contacted and they agreed to provide supporting voice for tobacco tax raising on their
own facebook. During July – December 2018, 1 post from Hoang Tu Giang was
published, the other will be done in 2019.
- Organized a media contest: responding to the World No Tobacco Day in May 2018,
HealthBridge collaborated with RTCCD and MEC to launch a media contest on tobacco
control with the content focusing on tobacco tax and tobacco industry interference
(mentioned in Activity 5.1).
- Further, some other interactive products were produced including: 03 videos clip on
tobacco and poverty, why need to increase tobacco tax, and the public support on tobacco
tax raising; a live-stream talk show; and caricature. These products have been produced
and planned to publish on social media platform (facebook and youtube) in 2019 parallel
with the tobacco tax advocacy process.
This activity cost was shared with SEATCA funded project.
The supporting documents:
Recorded activities in social media platforms of MEC from April to December 2018:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1FqDFcz0g3m_Lpeh8_ydTdcMmkfVSMba9
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Campaign in collaboration with Echphuho to target young people
Echphuho is the innovative and passionate youth group working on media. They have experience
in using social media for advocacy. In 2015, Echphuho cooperated with Oxfam to organize a
campaign on information transparency which was considered as one of the most successful
youth-led advocacy campaigns in Vietnam. We decided to work with Echphuho to design a
special campaign on tobacco tax which targeted to public in order to improve the public support
and create public pressure on policy makes to increase tobacco tax.
From June 2018, HealthBridge has started working with Echphuho to develop a campaign on
social media to advocate for tobacco tax raising. The campaign aimed to increase public support
for tobacco tax increase and create public opinion to put pressure on policy makers to increase
tobacco tax.
The campaign was designed in two channels:1) The webpage at https://www.buoctien5000d.com
to provide basic information of the campaign including a campaign recommendation, key
products of the campaign, questions and answers about tobacco tax increase and campaign, and
specially, it contained petition where audience can vote for their support for the recommendation
of increasing tobacco tax by 5000 VND. The results of the petition partly reflects the public
support with the tax proposal and will be aggregated in to advocacy materials and disseminate to
policy makers during the advocacy process; and 2) A fanpage named “Buoc tien 5000 dong”
(The movement toward 5000dong) at https://www.facebook.com/buoctien5000d/. This fanpage
is the main channel of the campaign to provide information, publish campaign’s products and
interact with facebook users.
The following products/activities were developed under the campaign and published through the
fanpage:
Produced the video animation:
This 4-minute animation video provides quick and comprehensive information on the
need of increasing tobacco tax to protect the next generation and calling people to support
for the proposal of increase tobacco tax by 5000VND and sign the petition. Video link (in
Vietnamese): //www.facebook.com/buoctien5000d/videos/346778042723536/
Video script (English):
https://drive.google.com/open?id=12M2_QsLmiLYV9YKmRpgnS0nCNhjc4B9M
Collected products on tobacco related harms and tobacco tax:
The campaign collected some viral communication products on tobacco related harms
and tobacco tax in type of video, articles, pictures to re-up on the campaign in order to
provide information to the campaign’s readers.
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The campaign was designed to run during the NA discussion on tobacco tax which was expected
in October - November 2018. However, due to the delay in the law making process then we just
run pilot the campaign in one week from October 27, 2018 to November 3, 2018. The campaign
was paused and will be restarted as soon as the Law will be submitted to NA.
Initial results of the pilot run the campaign were as below:
After 5 days (from October 27th
to November 1st 2018), without any advertisement, the
campaign was naturally engaged: 536 persons followed the fanpage, 530 persons sign the
petition, 20,000 views and 6,000 engagement with the campaign’s video.
After 19 days (from October 27th
to November 15th
2018), there were 1,130 persons
signed the petition (98% agreed), 2,450,000 reaches, 150,500 views and interactive with
campaign.
It was promising results in term of spreading the campaign. After pilot run the campaign, we
worked with Echphuho team to carry out the analysis of the initial results and from that we made
the recommendation for the 2019 campaign. In order to enhance the effectiveness of campaign in
increasing the support of public and creating the public opinion to put pressure on policy makers
on raising tobacco tax, we will plan to produce some more campaign’s products and in different
kinds of format such as pictures and viral videos. Besides, different channels to spread out the
campaign, including but not limited to connect the campaign with media and hot facebookers
will be made.
The supporting documents:
Summarize of initial results of Echphuho pilot run campaign:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-
AIRlefHIFkNsUjgXNa4L_IZvZFi8agsFrCEDkfdWoc/edit#gid=1001671139
Analysis of the pilot run of campaign and orientation for next steps:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TRbDlId4-Av5iqF15K3_LhwiLTsECr8z/view
b. All completed activities which were not included on the project workplan, if any:
No.
5. Please list and explain any changes to the major objectives that occurred during your
project implementation.
There were no changes in the project’s objectives. The project’s activities were implemented
well and in time to contribute to reach the objectives
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6. What changes did you make to the activities set forth in your original project workplan
and why? Please address all activities listed in the project workplan that were not
completed.
The activities added and/or revised during the project implementation include:
The activity 4.1, three advocacy workshops with Ministries, Government Office, and
National Assembly (two in the North and one in the South) were reduced to two workshops
(one in the South and one in the North).
After discussed with Tax Policy Department of Ministry of Finance, we recognized the need to
invite some the key policy makers based in Hanoi to attend the South workshop for getting the
response/comments from provincial levels then resulted in increasing the number of participants
from Hanoi. The workshop objectives and content were kept as the original plan. This was
approved by TFK in the grant amendment singed in June 18, 2018.
The activity 4.2, the change of country of visit for selected members of drafting committee
Originally, we proposed the study visit to one country in the region (Philippine or Thailand). As
mentioned in part 2 above that MOF would like to visit a non ASEAN country so that they could
learn more about international experience beyond the ASEAN region. After consulting with
SEATCA and WHO, and with TFK’s approval (the grant amendment singed on June 18, 2018),
the study tour was taken place in Australia.
The addition of activity 4.5, meetings to communicate tax policy proposal to decision
makers.
Amongst many challenges in pushing tax policy in Vietnam, the low political commitment of
top-level leaders is one of the key issues. What HealthBridge has been planned in the project’s
plan of course made positive impacts on changing believe of many officers/policy makers of
middle-ranking from Ministries levels and many National Assembly members on the tobacco tax
benefit and the need for increasing. The challenge was that we hardly access to the top-level
leaders of the Government and National Assembly. Experience from previous campaign showed
that even we did very well, in the last minute, someone at the top level could interfere and stop
all our possible chance. We need to have our “pro tobacco tax” voice at the top level but how we
can access and deliver information to this small but very important and hard to be accessed
group. Therefore, we discussed with Dr. Phan Thi Hai, Vice Director of Tobacco Control Fund
and agreed that we need to identify the consultant(s) that have their own access to the leaders and
agreed to convey our messages. We sent the request to TFK for possibility of supporting this
activity. The grant amendment was made on December 31, 2017 to enable us to carry out this
important work.
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The activity on disseminate project’s activities/outputs at 17th
World Conference on Tobacco
or Health (WCOTH).
The project and TFK found the opportunity to disseminate the project’s activities and outputs in
17th
WCOTH then this activity was added and reflected in the grant amendment singed on
December 31, 2017
The activity 7.3, the collaboration with Echphuho and MEC on social media
As mentioned above, we originally proposed to collaborate with NCDs-VN website and
“Vietnamkhongthuocla” fanpage for media campaign. However, we found MEC and Echphuho
have the strong capacities in social media and have rich past experiences targeting groups that
we are interested in, so we collaborated with these two groups to conduct the social media
campaign.
7. Please describe the impact your project had on the passage and/or implementation of
tobacco control policies in the area in which you worked (city, country, region, etc.).
The most important achievement for Vietnam tobacco tax reform so far is that the draft Law
revising 6 Laws officially submitted to Ministry of Justice on December 14, 2017 for assessment.
It has proposed to increase the excise tax rate by either: 1) Adding the specific tax rate of
1,000VND per cigarette pack and 10,000d per cigar stick besides the current percentage tax rate
regulated in 2014 ET Law; or 2) Increasing the current advalorem tax rate to 80% from January
1, 2020. The advance of this proposal is the option of adding specific tax component which will
help to narrow the price’s variance amongst the tobacco segments hence reduce the affordability
of the poor and youth. However, the findings of the study to access the impacts of tobacco tax
using WHO TaxSiM model showed that there is a need to add at least 2,000d per cigarette pack
to reduce the affordability and the optimum option is adding 5,000d per cigarette pack.
This achievement was gained from the contribution of this project to overall tobacco tax
campaign by HealthBridge and other partners in Vietnam. The specific outcomes of this project
were as the following:
The political commitment of targeted policy makers for tobacco tax reform improved.
This outcome was measured through the significant numbers of government officers and
National Assembly members expressing their support for a strong tax policy reflected in their
speech during the consultative workshop in December 2018 in Phu Quoc. The speeches made by
some key policy makers are as the following:
“According to the recommendation from developed countries, we need to apply specific excise
tax. In the current country situation, completely applying specific tax is impossible, but for
cigarette, this time we propose to apply mix tax structure which means that we still collect
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advalorem excise tax and plus a specific tax which could be 1000 VND, 2000 VND, 3000 VND
or 4000 VND per pack.” (Mr. Nguyen Dinh Thi, Head of Tax Policy Department)
“The 2020 tax strategy is to expand taxable objects and increase tax rates. For cigarettes, this
products need to be limited in consumption. (Mr. Tran Quang Chieu, Standing Member of
Committee of Budget and Finance of National Assembly)
“Highly agree with the proposal of increasing tobacco tax. Why do not increase more than 5000
per pack” (Mr. Nguyen Thanh Xuan – Deputy Chairman of the Can Tho Provincial National
Assembly delegation)
“I agree to increase tobacco tax to reduce consumption. Our current tax is not strong, while the
world has done strongly, Laos also did very strongly. Why have we concerned about specific tax,
we should produce high quality product, and remove the low- price cigarette” (Mr. Binh- Deputy
Director of An Giang Provincial Department of Taxation"
We proposed to evaluate the impact of the workshop on the changes in knowledge of the policy
makers before and after the workshops as mentioned in the proposal submitted to TFK.
However, after discussing with TPD, we found that it is too sensitive to do so with this particular
target group, the high-ranking policy makers from National Assembly and Ministries so finally
we did not evaluate the outcome by this indicator.
The network of tax advocates and development agencies committed to support for tobacco
tax raising increased
The project has strong commitment to support tobacco tax from some organizations include: the
Alliance for Tax Justice, NCDs-VN, the Child Rights Working Group, CSAGA, Echphuho, and
GFCD.
The journalists and public showed their support for tobacco tax increase
We measured the media support through media surveillance and the articles published after two
journalism workshops in May and November 2018. We analysed the media surveillance reports
for year 2017 (prior the project intervention) and 2018 (starting the project intervention by
HealthBridge. We found that the number of articles on tobacco tax published in 2018 higher than
in 2017 was 321 and 225 respectively. Through the first journalism workshop in May 2018, there
were 2 TV reportages, and around 62 articles and news that distributed information from the
workshop and provided supportive voices for the tobacco tax increase proposal. After one day
following the second journalism workshop organized in November 2018, there were about 79
articles and news that distributed information from the workshop and provided supportive voice
tobacco tax hike proposal.
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Besides, some journalists from newspapers, television and radio agencies actively approached
HealthBridge for interview on tobacco tax and its related issues and provide their support for
tobacco tax increase in their articles and programs in 2018.
The public support was measured through the social media campaign. As mentioned above in
part 6, due to delay of law development process the project has not run the social media
campaign yet. After 19-day pilot run of the campaign by Echphuho (from October 27th
to
November 15th
2018), there were 1,130 persons signed the petition with 98% agreed to support
to add 5,000VND to the current tax structure. The pilot run of the campaign got attraction of
2,450,000 reaches, 150,500 views and interactive with campaign.
8. What impact did the grant have on your organization’s capacity? (i.e.- staff,
infrastructure, processes, technical expertise, etc.)
HealthBridge has been recognized as the unique organization who works on tobacco control in
Vietnam since 1995 and we involved in tobacco tax very early from 2006-2007 for supporting
the revision of ET Law in 2008. In 2010, we had supported from SEATCA to conduct the project
with a main focus on tobacco tax serving for ET Law revision in 2014. Since this SEATCA
funded project, we started to have a part-time staff to work on tobacco tax. This Bloomberg
Philanthropies/TFK grant, together with SEATCA funded project, enable us to have two full-
time staffs and a part-time project director to coordinate and implement the projects’ activities on
tobacco tax. One of them is in-charge of the media work, the very important component for
tobacco tax campaign.
The project’s staffs join very effectively and play the key role in the tobacco tax communication
group in Vietnam, leading in the tobacco tax advocacy targeted to policy makers and media, and
generating the evidence to support TPD and other related Government agencies. That
achievements could be gained partially thanks to the support from Bloomberg
Philanthropies/TFK. Our capacities have been improved during the project implementation, for
example project staffs attended the 17th
WCOTH. Besides that, the technical supports/inputs
from the international team (Ms. Pamela Sumner Coffey and Ms. Jingjing Li from the beginning
of the project) and the country coordinator (Ms. Doan Thu Huyen) to the project’s activities such
as sharing with us the international information/evidences, commenting on project’s activities,
making presentations also sharpened our knowledge on the issues. HealthBridge is the reliable
source to provide the information related to tobacco tax to the media and the Government
agencies.
In November 2018, with the support from TFK, our new Country Director, Dr. Nguyen Thi An,
was able to join the Johns Hopkin 2018 tobacco control leadership training program in Bali,
Indonesia. This strengthens her skills in policy intervention development and implementation on
tobacco control and enhances the collaboration and networking among a wide range of partners
in the tobacco control movement.
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Furthermore, through this project, we have extended our contacts and collaboration with
Government agencies, civil organizations, and the research institutions such as Tobacconomics,
DEPOCEN.
9. What were the greatest challenges or constraints you faced while developing and
implementing this project?
During the project implementation, we also face with some challenges:
The tobacco industry (TI) interfered in the law development process through many channels.
They keep the close relationship with and utilized the Ministry of Industry and trade
(MOIT), Vietnam Tobacco Association (VTA), media, and personal contact to speak on
their behalf. They provided funding for the meetings and study tours of policy makers,
exaggerated the negative impacts of tax policy in economy, and provided misleading
information on the burden of smuggling and employment to worry the policy makers. Some
of policy makers having the important role in law development process speak the tobacco
industry’s language.
The low political commitment of top level leaders: As we mentioned in the part 6, through
our past activities on tobacco tax advocacy so far, we have some achievement in reaching
some middle ranking of policy makers and advocate for their support on tobacco tax but not
the top level leaders from the Government and National Assembly. The experience from
previous campaigns showed that even we did very well, in the last minute, someone at the
top level could interfere and stop all our possible chance. Moreover, we recognize that the
tobacco industry has their own channels and resources to do that.
The timeline for excise tax law development has been delayed and unclear. We have to rely
on the information from Tax Policy Department on the timeline but it is not shared in open
manner to all partners. For HealthBridge, the personal relationship with TPD and other
related agencies is needed to gain the updated information sometimes.
More partners involved in tobacco tax advocacy in Vietnam bring the contribution to the
overall impacts but sometime resulting the unexpected overlap therefore requires better
follow up and coordination amongst partners.
10. What unanticipated opportunities arose during the project?
The delay in the excise tax law development process happened then the implementation of the
project activities also were delayed in comparison with the original plan in order to meet with the
new schedule.
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In Apr 2017, the Government approved for MOF to develop the Law to revise 5 Tax Laws (after
that add one more Law into Law to revise 6 Laws) and ET Law is one of them. The Department
of Tax Policy of Ministry of Finance of Vietnam is the focal point to develop the proposal.
MOF publicized the draft of Law on MOF’s website for public comments in August 2017.
HealthBridge sent a comment letter on the Draft of Law to MOF in September 2017 and also
worked with NCDs – VN to send their comment letter at the same time.
The draft of Law has been submitted to the Ministry of Justice for review and assessment. The
assessment meeting was held on December 14, 2017. The MOJ assessing Committee agreed that
the draft of the Law could be submitted by the Government Office to the National Assembly for
adding into the NA 2018’s legislative development agenda.
Dr. Nguyen Trong An from NCDs-VN was invited to join the MOJ assessment Committee for
the Law. HealthBridge supported Dr. Nguyen Trong An to prepare the assessment paper for
submitting to MOJ. Ms. Le Thi Thu, Senior Project Manager also attended as an observer at this
assessment meeting.
However, in May 2018, NA requested MOF to split the six-law combination proposed for
revision into separate proposals due to the complexity of the original draft. The ET Law which
includes tobacco tax among those was chosen to be submitted to NA first. Their plan in May
2018 was:
o The draft of revised ET Law was expected to be submitted by GO for NA agenda
approval in October 2018 NA session.
o The draft of law revision is expected to be voted by NA in May 2019 session.
Again, MOF delayed its process to submit the proposal to the Government. Our understanding
from TPD is that TPD is submitting to the Minister of MOF and waiting for Minister to approve
before it is going to be submitted to GO.
11. Do you feel that your project represented the most effective approach to tackling the
problem at hand? With the benefit of hindsight, what, if anything, would you do
differently?
The comprehensive strategies were used in this project therefore resulting in solid condition for
the future continuous tax campaign. These strategies were included: i) Working with partners to
develop and update communication materials; ii) Building the network of tax advocates and
enhancing their voice; iii) Providing technical support to the Tax Policy Department in preparing
the Impact Assessment Report (RIA) and other mandatory supporting documents; iv) Knowledge
translation through communicating with decision makers about the evidence supporting tax
reform; v) Preventing interference from the tobacco industry; vi) Strengthening media interest
and support; and vii) Raising public support and creating public pressure for a strong excise tax
reform.
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However, we realized that the strategies targeting to the top leaders would be included from the
beginning of the project and be one of amongst most important strategies to enhance the chance
for the success of the tobacco tax reform.
12. What new partnerships or collaborations were created or have you entered into as a
result of the project? How will these collaborations continue?
Some new partnership and collaboration were made during this grant as the following:
Through our past tax campaign, we were able to involve World Bank in Vietnam (WB) to the
advocacy workshops but somehow the participation was based on our requests. During this
project, we have enhanced our relationship with WB after attending the meeting arranged by Ms.
Jo Birckmayer, Public Health Advisor from Bloomberg Philanthropies. More collaboration with
WB are made such as inviting the WB expert to present in our advocacy workshops and the
readiness of World Bank expert(s) in writing the article on tobacco tax related issues based on
the discussion with HealthBridge.
The tight collaboration with WHO Geneva and Country Representative of WHO Vietnam Office
in joining response media interviews and advocacy activities, including but not limited to,
developing WHO TaxSiM modelling to access the impacts of tobacco tax, making presentations
at our advocacy workshops, being a guest speaker at the talk show.
Besides, the collaboration with the researchers (Evan Blecher and Frank Chaloupka) from the
Tobacconomics5 was established during the project. We worked together to develop and publish
the policy brief on tobacco tax in Vietnam.
Finally, the partnership with Echphuho, the innovative and passionate youth group working on
media, was also created as a result of meeting with Oxfam representative.
Budget
13. What changes did you make to the budget during this project?
As mentioned in part 6, some of the activities were added and/or revised resulting the
changes in the project’s budget. All of these changes were approved by TFK and the grant
amendments were signed, specially:
The first amendment was signed on Dec 31, 2017 to add US$2,300 for the project staffs
to attend and make presentations at 17th
WCOTH.
5 A program of the University of Illinois at Chicago.
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The second amendment was signed on the same date of Dec 31, 2017 to add US$11,000
for meetings to communicate tobacco tax proposal with policy makers
The third amendment was singed on June 18, 2018 to add US$21,375 for organizing two
advocacy workshops and a study visit for policy makers.
14. What did you learn that will benefit your next project budgeting process?
The nature of this project is policy advocacy then the activities/budget may need to be
revised to meet the changes in law making process and/or the issues arise during the
advocacy process. The project team, with their experience, made the best effort to foresee
those unexpected issues/problems at the soonest for budgeting from the beginning of the
project. However, we acknowledge that tobacco industry interference is unpredictable then
sometime the extra activities are needed to respond with the emerging situations.
15. What new staff members were employed through this grant that were not listed on
the original budget? What original staff members were no longer on the project at
its conclusion?
Based on the need to have a staff working on monitoring tobacco industry tactics and
supporting the media work together with Project Officer, we signed a short-term consultant
contract with Ms. Pham Le Thanh to carry out these works from June 2018 – December
2018. However, her salary was charged in to this project only for December 2018 under the
personnel budget line of Senior Project Manager, Ms. Le Thi Thu.
The Project Director, Dr. Pham Thi Hoang Anh was retired on the end of November 2018
and the informing letter was sent to Bloomberg Philanthropies and TFK. Starting from
December 2018, Dr. Nguyen Thi An has taken over this role in the project.
16. During this reporting period, were any funds spend to support or oppose candidates
for elected office? If yes, what amount of grant funds was used?
No, none of the grant funds was used for this purpose.
Moving Forward
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17. How do you intend to sustain and build upon the outcomes of this project? What
new lines of activity or inquiry will you pursue as a result of this work?
The successful implementation of this grant lays out the solid condition for the future tax
campaign such as the availability of good advocacy material and evidences supporting for
tobacco tax increase, the support from certain numbers of policy makers, media, and general
public, to some extent understanding the tactics of tobacco industry in interfering the tobacco
tax law development process to take actions. For the tobacco tax campaign next year(s), we
will implement comprehensively the strategies mentioned above in part 4. However, more
emphasis will be placed on: i) Extending the alliance through advocating for more
involvement of civil society organizations/individuals and from diversified areas to support
for tobacco tax campaign because tobacco use has the negative impacts on almost of
Sustainable Development Goals; ii) Better understanding of the policy makers’ position
through policy mapping and analysis for utilization of the different approaches and strategies
to get their support, including the top policy makers; iii) Increasing the support from the
public through the strengthening the social media campaign approaching youth (Echphuho)
and general public, media and policy makers (MEC).
TFK Grants Program Feedback
18. How would you improve upon the grant negotiation process?
The questions and comments in term of both financial and technical aspects from TFK during
the negotiation process help us to improve and make the proposal clearer.
19. If a site visit occurred during your project, how would you have changed its format,
agenda, etc.?
During the project implementation, we had some visits of TFK’s representative for updating
the project progress, the challenges, and the recommendations for and from HealthBridge to
make the project run more smoothly and effectively. We highly appreciate these visits.
Besides, we regularly informed TFK the timeline of our important project activities so TFK
could arrange the visit in order to attend and contribute to our activities. For example, we
conducted the journalism workshop to raise their awareness on the connection between
tobacco and poverty and the importance of tobacco tax increase in September 18, 2018. Ms.
Pamela Summer Coffey, Vice President International Operations of TFK attended the
workshop and made the opening remarks. She also was given the interview to Dan Tri
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newspapers on the recommendations for tobacco tax reform in Vietnam and the article was
published after the workshop. It would be useful to have TFK technical experts presented in
the future activities.
20. How would you describe your interactions with your TFK program officer, grants
administrator and/or finance compliance officer?
The correspondences with TFK officers mostly were through the email exchange but we got
timely response to meet work’s requirements.
HealthBridge also kept frequently and in time update with Ms. Doan Thu Huyen, the
Coordinator of TKF based in Vietnam on the project progress and informed any news and/or
provided advice when needed. The interaction could be made by email exchange or through
phone call and even we met face to face. It is very useful to have such TFK coordinator who
has experiences in tobacco control in country to consult when needed.
21. What additional feedback do you have on the overall management of, and services
provided through, your grant?
The management of the grant by TFK is very professional and helps to facilitate well
implementation of the grant in the country.
APPENDICES:
In addition to the final narrative and financial reports, please submit the following documents:
1. Copies of *all* materials produced under this project (including reports, fact sheets,
advertisements, etc.) regardless of language. Please also send any related newspaper
articles, videos, photos, etc.
The supporting documents were listed in part 2 and sent along with this report
2. Copy of the organization’s latest audited financial statements including: auditor’s
letter, organization financial statements and accompanying notes, and auditor’s
management letter
HealthBridge 2017 audited financial statements is send along with this report.
