In the view of the need to enhance mutual understanding and to achieve more efficient cooperation between Indochinese countries and Japan, SPAF set up a project titled VIP Invitation Program in 1993. Up until June 1997 SPAF either invited or sent under this program a total of 23 groups of VIPs to Japan and to third countries, of which 14 delegations were from Vietnam.

Over the last several years, the situation in Indochina region has been undergoing dramatic changes, which have caused quite a number of high-ranking policy-makers and planners from the region to go overseas in search of ideas on how to meet the immense development needs of their countries. Given this circumstances, the VIP Invitation Program was modified to be more responsive to the new demands. Renamed the People Exchange Program in the fiscal year of 1995, it allows a much wider range of people to be invited to Japan. It also provides for sending Japanese experts to Indochinese countries on an ad hoc basis.

In April 1997, SPAF invited four Laotian officials from the Lao Customs Department to study Japan's advanced customs procedures in Osaka and in Kobe. This was a part of the Funds assistance to Laos, which has been focused on the forthcoming membership for ASEAN. In July 1997 a Vietnamese delegation led by Mr. Phan Dien, Head of the Central Committee of the Communist Party was invited to Japan in order to study Japan's political and educational systems. The Fund also had a pleasure to invite a delegation from Myanmar Institute for Strategic and International Studies in October 1997.