Traditionally both national and regionaldevelopment planning in Vietnam has been driven by'top-down' Central Government social and economictargets based on limited analytical investigation. However,with the advent of the free market economy in Vietnam sincethe late 1980s, vigorous global economic competitiveness andVietnam's membership to the World Trade Organization(WTO), changes in national policy in Vietnam have nowrequired a more decentralized approach to developmentplanning based on the preparation of integrated regionaldevelopment strategies. This change in policy directionrequires the application of new and innovative approaches todevelopment planning underpinned by 'bestpractice' tools and techniques. This new way ofplanning will more effectively manage current and futureinvestment opportunities at the provincial and regionallevels in Vietnam. This report is the culmination of thefindings and recommendations of the project over this threemonth period noting that the training program itselfinvolved a total of 45 participants from relevant provincialgovernment and district level authorities in Quang NamProvince (QNP). Appendix two is a list of participants. Itis emphasized that the method of training adopted in thistechnical assistance project was very interactive, itrequired individual and group tasks to be completed byparticipants based on the organization of participants intofive teams, nomination of a team leader for each team andregular presentations of team activities to the whole groupthroughout the training program. The program ran for a totalof seven days (7-9 October 2008 and 4-6 November 2008) witha 'report back' workshop session of allparticipants and other provincial government officials on 7November 2008.