Hanoi (VNA) – Human resourcesdevelopment has been seen as the key to developing the marine economysustainably as well as managing, using and protecting maritime resources inVietnam, as these sectors require a large and skilled labour force.

However, Vietnam faces a shortage ofmanpower, with low quality and an imbalanced labour structure, according to theVietnam Administration of Seas and Islands.

Additionally, managers lack professionalskills and the number and quality of researchers has remained limited.Therefore, marine scientific and technological outcomes have failed to meetexpectations.

Given this, over the past ten years, Vietnamhas paid attention to human resources development in maritime affairs.

Deputy Minister of Natural Resources andEnvironment Tran Quy Kien said ministries and localities have focused personneltraining on oil and gas, navigation, fishery and tourism.

He stressed the need to establish maritime trainingand research institutes in coastal cities, along with education and healthestablishments and houses for officials working in coastal and island areas.

The Ministry of Education and Training hasalso reviewed its training programme in service of the sea-based economy, and helpededucational institutions launch suitable programmes.

There are 20 sea-related majors offered by92 educational institutions nationwide.

Joining these efforts, the Ministry ofLabour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) has added 15 occupations relatedto the marine economy to the key training list, including nine at theinternational level, eight at national and three at regional level.

The MoLISA has teamed up with the Ministryof Agriculture and Rural Development to launch two vocational trainingprogrammes and another programme that improve skills for captains and chiefengineers in coastal regions.

Vocational training institutions in coastal localitieshave also been built and upgraded, with 90 colleges, 133 schools and 454centres. Many of them offer majors in the marine economy.

About 30,000 people in 28 coastal localitieshave been trained in the fishery sector.

Personnel training in tandem with scientificresearch has focused on seafood, navigation and oil and gas.

To meet the demand for workers, manytraining institutions have widened their programmes in marine affairs.

Apart from major educational institutionslike Da Nang University, Hue University, Nha Trang University and VietnamMaritime University, others have added the marine economy and management totheir curricula.

Several others such as the Vietnam NationalInstitute of Maritime Medicine and Hai Phong University of Medicine and Pharmacyhave also completed frameworks of maritime medical training programmes at bothgraduate and post-graduate levels.

The Vietnam Academy of Science andTechnology and some universities have offered majors in maritimescience-technology.

The navigation sector has partnered withuniversities and training institutions nationwide in personnel training,developing a workforce of 44,000 seamen.  

The quantity and quality of workforce in thevessel registration sector has been improved towards standards set by the InternationalMaritime Organisation and the International Association of ClassificationSocieties.

Also, Vietnam has placed importance oninternational cooperation in maritime human resources development recently, aimingto become a strong sea-based nation. -VNA