Vietnam Alliance for Tax Justice (VATJ) Training Course: “Does tobacco tax reform help improve household welfare in Vietnam?” in Ben Tre

Đăng vào 27/08/2023

During 2 days August 11-12, 2023 at Ben Tre Riverside Resort, the Vietnam Center for Economic and Strategic Studies (VESS), the coordinating organization of VATJ organized a training program with the topic “Does tobacco tax reform help improve household welfare in Vietnam?”. The training program is an activity within the framework of a research project on tobacco tax which was implemented by VATJ members.

The two-day training course equips young people and the press on the need for evidence-based tobacco tax reform on multidimensional household welfare in Vietnam. The event aims to connect individuals and organizations with similar interests in tobacco tax reform. This is also an opportunity for young people to learn, exchange ideas and discuss with experts in related fields, contributing to raising awareness and deepening understanding of tobacco issues in Vietnam.

Opening the training session, MA. Pham Van Long, Deputy Director of VESS introduced the context of research project and purpose of the training session. Next, members introduced themselves and shared a summary of their tobacco-related concerns.

The first topic “Overview of the tobacco industry in Vietnam” was presented by Dr. Le Huong Linh, Lecturer at International School – Hanoi National University. In her presentation, Dr. Linh introduced an overview of the history of the tobacco industry, supply and demand issues of the Vietnamese tobacco market and tobacco harm prevention and control policies in Vietnam. All participants are divided into 3 groups. Each group actively discussed according to the topic given by the speaker.

Group discussion

Associate Professor, PhD. Nguyen Duc Thanh continued the training session with topic 2 “Tobacco tax issues in Vietnam”. This topic focuses on the effectiveness of cigarette taxes in reducing smoking rates, concerns related to smuggling and regressiveness of cigarette taxes, and the multidimensional benefits of cigarette taxes for consumers and society.

The second day of the training course started with the topic “Welfare and Multidimensional Welfare of Households” by Dr. Le Huong Linh. During the presentation session, Dr. Linh shared about the following contents: What is welfare? The approach involves multidimensional well-being and Multidimensional welfare of Vietnamese households in the period 2012 – 2018.

Following the topic on multi-dimensional welfare, MA. Pham Van Long gave a presentation on “The relationship between tobacco spending and multidimensional welfare of Vietnamese households in the period 2012-2018”.

The training session continued with extremely interesting and useful sharing from Ms. Nguyen Thu Huong, International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) on the topic “The relationship between tobacco taxes and health”.