The purpose of the trip was to gather and present the best practices, business propositions and lessons learned from Sri Lanka's experience to authorities in Ben Tre, one of Prosperity Initiative's main partner provinces in Viet Nam.

Prosperity Initiative has begun a follow up survey to its 2007 assessment of the local bamboo industry's impact on poverty in Thanh Hoa, Viet Nam. The 2007 survey involved interviews with 210 farming households and 82 collectors and traders as well as subsequent in depth interviews with selected farmers, bamboo workshop owners and workers.

12-13 February - Prosperity Initiative hosted a visit of the Tripura Bamboo Project, based in the north eastern Indian state of Tripura. Through IFC, the government, private sector and development representatives from Tripura requested a meeting with Prosperity Initiative to learn more about the Mekong Bamboo programme's work with the bamboo industry in Viet Nam.

25-27 February. In response to an invitation by the Australian mining company Oxiana Limited, Prosperity Initiative went on a scoping mission to Sepon District, Savannakhet Province, Lao PDR.

Four members of Prosperity Initiative's Sector Feasibility and Mekong Bamboo teams spent 3 days in Sepon with senior managers of Oxiana to discuss potential collaboration on developing the local bamboo industry there.