Thai Quang Trung established the Foundation of the Future (FOF) in Singapore just recently in early 2008. His global experiences in the business of planning humanities and bridging people together have resulted in hundreds of collaboration efforts for the sole purpose of making the world a better place to live in.
Thai Quang Trung studied archeology and art history at the Sorbonne University (1963-1966). A graduate from Science-Po Paris (1965-1968), he pursued further studies in International Law at the Law Faculty-Paris (1967-1969), and doctorate advanced studies in International Relations at the Institute d'Etudes Politiques-Paris (1978-1980).
He was a Rockefeller Fellow in doctorate advanced studies in Humanitarian Law at the Graduate Institute of International High Studies - Geneva (1969-1972). He came to Singapore in 1982, joined the Institute of Southeast Asia Studies (1982-1984), became Research Director of the Information and Resource Center (1985-1995), before joining the Hanns Seidel Foundation in 1986.
Thai Quang Trung's think-tank and leadership capacity building work in Vietnam was initiated in the early 90s, with the first major-platform on ASEAN-Vietnam Interaction for Progress, a four-years dialogue process (1991-1994) which included regional conferences, study missions, study groups and retreats, funded the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and which has significantly contributed to reconcile Vietnam and ASEAN, and shorten the road from confrontation to membership.
The platform was endorsed by leaders from both sides (Anwar Ibrahim was the patron of the project). After Vietnam joined ASEAN in1995, training programmes were developed in conjunction with the ASEAN Secretariat in the various areas of ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (AFTA), Asean Industrial Cooperation Scheme (AICO), Asean Investment Area (AIA), Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI), ASEAN-China Free Trade Area, in order to facilitate and accelerate Vietnam's integration into the grouping.
In the last five years and in conjunction with Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Directorate of Technical Cooperation –training projects have been implemented in the fields of Free Trade Agreement (FTA), Negotiation Skills, Urban Planning and Environmental Management, University Leadership and Management and e-Government. Parallely, under Thai Quang Trung's impulse, other capacity building projects in the field of management of transitional economy have been and are being implemented with the Hanns Seidel Foundation's support.
As Vietnam's economic performance has adversely impacted on its environment, Thai Quang Trung has given high consideration its environment, Thai Quang Trung has given high consideration to capacity building projects in the field of environment protection, heritage conservation and urban planning. A five years project was developed in1990 in the field of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in conjunction with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (MOSTE) and the Center for Environment Protection and Sustainable Development, with training at the central and provincial level with a special focus on EIA on foreign-investment projects. Under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) two specialized platforms have been initiated, the first one on Environmental Law Enforcement and the Judiciary System (since 1999) with training programme for judges, prosecutors, lawyers, journalists and NGOs; the second one Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM) and The Kyoto Protocol, with funding coming from various sources, including World Bank, ADB\, NORAD. He was instrumental for the first Master-Plan for Phu Yenprovince and Urban Design for Tuy Hoa South, a project endorsed by PM Phan Van Khai and with government funding.