On September 21, USAID’s Governance for Inclusive Growth Program partnered with Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance (MOF) to hold the first annual Vietnam Finance Forum entitled "Public Finance Reform Towards Sustainable Development" to discuss and debate current public finance issues, including potential value-added tax (VAT) reforms. Researchers from MOF’s National Institute for Finance presented the results of a pilot assessment that evaluated the potential impact of domestic VAT reform on state revenues. Additionally, experts from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, International Monetary Fund, Japan International Cooperation Agency and KfW-Group made presentations along with policy recommendations to improve public financial management for the Government of Vietnam. So What? A key objective of USAID is to help Vietnam improve the formulation of policies, regulations and laws through better technical analysis and public participation. High quality, transparent quantitative modeling will help the country to develop and use evidence-based decision making to address the important public financial management challenges.