Dr. Nguyen Viet Dang, Lecturer and Researcher, Faculty of Economics and Rural Development, Hanoi University of Agriculture, Vietnam, outranked 65 other applicants to the Special SEARCA-Beahrs Environmental Leadership Program (ELP) Scholarship.

Dr. Nguyen Viet Dang

This year, SEARCA and the Bearhs ELP initiated a joint training scholarship. SEARCA sees this partnership as a way of carrying out its mandate of strengthening institutional capacities in agricultural and rural development in Southeast Asia. Moreover, it is hoped to further develop the training scholar so that he/she may perform his/her strategic role toward the development and institution of environmental policy in his/her country that will lead to cross-sectoral environmental initiatives.

"I am excited to participate in this program and at the same time nervous," said Dr. Dang, recognizing that with such opportunity comes a big responsibility. He just completed (November 2009) his PhD in agricultural economics from the University of the Philippines Los Baños under a SEARCA-DAAD scholarship. His MS in regional and rural development planning is from the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok, Thailand.

SEARCA and the Bearhs ELP will fully cover all expenses related to Dr. Dang's participation in the summer certificate course.

In its initial year of implementation, the Special SEARCA-Beahrs ELP Training Scholarship attracted 65 applications from the Philippines (28), Indonesia (18), Vietnam (11), Myanmar (3), Thailand (3), Cambodia (1), and Lao PDR (1).