Opening the workshop, Dr. Ngo Minh Huong - Director of the Center for Development and Integration (CDI) introduced delegates and seminar programs. In addition to the presence of research agencies and news agencies, representatives of the provinces also attended to listen to the results of the POBI 2018 index.

Assoc.Prof.Dr. Nguyen Duc Thanh, Director of Viet Nam Institute for Economic and Policy Research, delivered the opening speech at the workshop. He emphasized the importance of indicators such as POBI to change the behavior of provinces, helping provinces to be more proactive in publicizing budgets.

In the POBI 2018 public ranking, there are 6 provinces classified into group A - "full" publicity including Vinh Long (90.52 points), Ba Ria - Vung Tau (85.91 points), Da Nang (83.09 points), Vinh Phuc (82.05 points), Quang Nam (76.68 points) and Hau Giang (76.66 points). There are 27 relatively "open" provinces, 21 "open" and "less" public.

POBI 2018 also shows the difference between the level of publicity of provincial budgets of regions. The South Central Coast and the Mekong River Delta are the two regions with the highest average POBI ratings, respectively 60.9 and 59.16 points; followed by the Southeast (54.37 points) and the Red River Delta (50.55 points). The North Central region has the lowest average score in 7 geographical regions, only 40.33 points; followed by the Northern Midlands and Mountains (42.9 points) and the Central Highlands (46.3 points).

Specifically: Cao Bang ranks first in the Northern Midlands and Mountains region with 74.6 points; Vinh Phuc tops the Red River Delta region with 82.05 points; Quang Tri tops the North Central region with 67.43 points; Da Nang is at the top of the South Central Coast region with 83.09 points; Kon Tum tops the Central Highlands with 61.29 points; Ba Ria - Vung Tau tops the Southeast region with 85.91 points; Vinh Long is at the top of the Mekong River Delta region and also the first in the country with 90.52 points.

After the results announcement, Assoc.Prof.Dr. Nguyen Duc Thanh - Director of VEPR runs the discussion. More specifically about the survey, Mr. Nguyen Duc Thanh said that the research team is based on the publication of documents such as draft provincial budget estimates, reporting on budget implementation, data interpretation and The implementation of the budget... According to him, these are documents in the guidance of the Ministry of Finance and in principle must be public on the local website. Since then, the survey team has reviewed the website of 63 provinces and cities to check the publicity of the above documents for completeness and timeliness.

Ms. Mai Anh, representative of the Department of State Budget, Ministry of Finance presented the viewpoint before the results of POBI 2018. She said that it is a very useful indicator to improve the openness and transparency of the provincial agencies and departments. 

Representatives of Vinh Long Department of Finance presented their views on Budget Publication and the results achieved by Vinh Long Province.

Representatives of the Development Policy Academy presented their views before the results of POBI 2018.

Representing the Department of Career Administration, the Ministry of Finance presented its views before the results of POBI 2018.

At the end of the program, the organizers gave flowers and certificates to Vinh Long province - the province with the highest score in POBI 2018.