On July 22^nd - 23^rd 2018, at Renaissance Riverside Hotel Saigon, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and on July 24^th 2018, at the campus 33-35 Ho Hao Hon of Ho Chi Minh City Open University (OU), OU hold the Vietnam’s Business and Economics Research Conference (VBER2018). The Conference offered a program that facilitated dialogue between academics, public policy makers, practitioners, and postgraduate students.

The program included:

• International high profiled keynote speakers;
• “Sharing is Caring” Session;
• Policy panel discussions with the focus on Financial Development and Inequality;
• High quality submitted papers;
• Ph.D. Colloquium;
• Posters Sessions; and
• Professional development workshops.

The key theme of the Conference on “Financial Development & Inequality in Emerging Markets: The Facts and The Future” - was both timely and relevant following the APEC Meeting in Vietnam in November 2017 on Creating New Dynamism and Fostering a Shared Future.

The key purpose of the Conference was to bring together academics, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to discuss ongoing research on a wide range of theoretical and empirical issues related to sustainability of economic development in emerging markets, especially for Vietnam.

Keynote Speakers

The VBER2018 Conference welcomed a world-class keynote speaker, Professor Ken Clements from the University of Western Australia, Australia. Ken Clements has been at the UWA since 1981 as a Professor of Economics and since 2008, BHP Billiton Research Fellow. Professor Clements is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia; received a Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council; and served as a Member of the ERA 2015 Economics and Commerce Research Evaluation Committee, Australia Research Council.

In addition, Professor Carmine Bianchi from the University of Palermo, Italy joined VBER2018 as a keynote speaker. Professor Bianchi is the director of the Doctoral program in “Model-Based Public Planning, Policy Design, and Management”, and of the Scientific Coordinator of the Master in Public Management. He has research and consulting experience with public and private sector organizations in designing policies and outlining consistent programs to link strategy and implementation. He has been collaborating with a number of Universities all over the world, ranging from Europe to Australasia and America.

The VBER2018 warmly welcomed Dr. Min-Teh Yu from the China University of Technology, Taiwan. Dr. Yu is Chair Professor at National Chiao Tung University and a research fellow at RIRC, National Cheng-Chi University. He has been a Distinguished Professor at National Taiwan University and a Visiting Professor at Drexel University. He was also President of the Taiwan Risk and Insurance Association and the Financial Engineering Association of Taiwan. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Ohio State University and a B.S. from National Taiwan University.

 “Sharing is Caring” Session – Preparing Future Generations of Vietnam’s World-Class Researchers and Practitioners

This session is unique and it is generally considered as a flagship session to VBER Conference series. Led by world-class professors, the keynote speakers of VBER2018 Conference, young and talented local Vietnamese researchers shared their own experience to complete their Ph.D. studies overseas and to conduct independent researches to get them published in highly regarded international journals. VBER2018 Conference welcomed the following young and talented scholars to the session, including (i) Dr. Le Ho An Chau, HCMC University of Economics; (ii) Dr. Le Thai Ha, RMIT Vietnam; and (iii) Dr. Nguyen Duy Bach, Hong Kong Baptist University, China.

Special Session – Policy Panel Discussions

On the ground of strategic policies play a cornerstone factor in economic growth and development, especially in emerging markets, this Conference brought world experts to present and share new ideas/approaches in relation to public economics/policies with a particular focus on Financial Development and Inequality. Senior executives from international and local agencies working on these issues presented the current state of play and challenges that Vietnam will face in a near future.

PhD scholars/ Master students Forum & Posters Session

This Forum offered students with accepted papers the unique opportunity to present their research and have their work discussed by distinguished academics. All accepted papers were provided with written comments (before the Conference) and critical comments by discussants (during the sessions at the Conference) who are senior academics/ researchers with the same/similar area of research interest.

The Posters Session provided research students an opportunity to receive valuable advice, recent developments in a literature and quantitative techniques with fellow students and senior academics.

Thế Anh