Human resource quality: Factor to attract foreign capital, VCCI

04 Aug '08

6 min read

The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) on July 1 released the Annual Report - Vietnam Business 2007 in Hanoi. Themed & ldquoLabour and Humans Resource Development,&rdquo led by Dr Pham Thi Thu Hang, director of Enterprise Development Institute, the report focuses on the improvement of Vietnam&rsquos business environment in 2007 - a year with big changes in record foreign direct investment capital attraction, import and export revenue equalling 160 per cent of GDP and the high growth of enterprises.

Human resources: An important factor to attract investment The focus is on the appraisal of Vietnamese labour market and human resource quality in several important sectors like food, garment, construction, tourism, banking, insurance and the foreign investment sectors.

Dr. Vu Tien Loc, Chairman of VCCI, said: Main contributors to the report are the competence of Vietnamese businesses from 2000 to 2006 in the five major areas of labour, finance, technology, market access and foreign direct investment, the analysis of labour situation and human resource development compared with labour impacts on important sectors and the introduction of strategic solutions to develop human resources.

These are valuable not only for enterprises but also for policymakers. This is the first time the labour issue in foreign-invested sector has been tematically studied to point out the importance of labour and human resource development.

Impacts of human resource quality on development Vietnam has a strong labour force. According to the employment and unemployment survey in 2006, Vietnam had 45.6 million working people, a rise of 1.03 per cent against 2005.

Of this sum, people at the working age of 15-55 years old for women and 15-60 years old for men, accounted for 94.2 per cent and people at the age of 15-34 made up for 45.46 per cent. In general, Vietnamese workers still live in rural areas.

Urban labourers took up only 25.37 per cent. One of the worst points was the unsui labour structure. According to this report, the Vietnamese garment and textile industry held a great competitive advantage with its low-paid labour force.

However, workers in this sector were short of working ss and were incapable to work in high competing environment. The allocation of technicians, commercial officials and business managers was irrational.

There was a wide divide in salaries and working conditions. Labour disputes were quite serious and productivity was generally lower than rival countries.

The workforce in the construction sector was constituted by more than 2.1 million people in 2005, accounting for nearly 5 per cent of the total labour force. Weak mechanisation was attribu to the labour structure.

Workers were unfamiliar with modern equipment and vulnerable to workplace accidents. The roles of career associations are not satisfactorily promoted.

Tourism is an interdisciplinary sector thus, workers must be trained in both tourism knowledge and other fields such as culture, language, economics, finance, architecture, geography, driving, reporting.

According to the report, there was a clear imbalance in allocating the tourism labour force. The southern region keeps 50 per cent, the north 40 per cent and the central region 10 per cent. Meanwhile, the central region has many world cultural heritages, beautiful beaches and mountains together with a diverse cultural tradition.

In the banking sector, the establishment of new banks caused a labour war. The drainage of governance talent was a threat to the operation of credit organisations. Lers lacked capable officials in management positions.

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