The “2010 International Symposium on Implementation of Road Asset Management in Vietnam” was held at the University of Transport and Communications (UTC) Hanoi Campus on September 27, 2010. This international symposium was held with the aim of identifying the current situations of road asset management in Southeast Asian regions and to discuss their future directions.

The symposium was attended by many participants involved in road asset management from the Vietnam Ministry of Transportation (MOT), Vietnam Road Administration, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), etc. The symposium was started with the opening greeting by UTC Dean, Tran Duc Su and then followed by lectures by MOT Vice Minister Ngo Thinh Duc who spoke about the current situation and achievements of road asset management in Vietnam, and then by Toshio Nagase from the JICA Vietnam Office who spoke about the JICA’s involvement in Vietnam.

Following these lectures, Professor Kiyoshi Kobayashi from the Kyoto University Graduate School of Management presented his group’s research regarding the Pavement Management System (PMS). Kazuya Aoki of Pasco Co. then gave a demonstration of the PMS and Keizo Shintani of Nippon Expressway Research Institute (NEXKO) introduced examples of highways in Japan which utilized the PMS. In the discussion forum, there were heated discussions regarding the problems faced by Vietnam’s road asset management and the usage possibilities of the PMS developed by Kyoto University. Kyoto University, the UTC, MOT, and JICA agreed to continue to cooperate in refining and further developing road asset management systems.