Illustrative image (Source: VNA) Held by the Central Institute for EconomicManagement (CIEM) and the Australian-supported Restructuring for a morecompetitive Vietnam (Aus4Reform) programme, the workshop featured discussionson the development of the labour market to promote economic restructuring inthe country.
Deputy Director of CIEM Tran Kim Chung saideconomic restructuring is among the Party and State’s major policies to renew the growth model and improve the competitiveness of Vietnam’s economy.
One of the most important aspects of economicrestructuring is to gradually shift from growth based on an increased quantityof inputs for production to one based on improved workplace productivity andquality, the application of science and technology, and innovation.
To do that, Vietnam must further distributeproduction resources, including human resources, to sectors with strongercompetitiveness, higher productivity, and more substantial contributions toeconomic development, Chung went on.
He noted that the labour market has seen certainimprovements through favourable policies and legal framework for development,increasing workplace quality and competitiveness and creating jobs.
According to CIEM researchers, workers haveshifted from agriculture to the industrial and service sectors, from theinformal sector to the formal sector, from unstable jobs (self-employment,unpaid family labour) to more stable, sustainable, and secure jobs, from simpleoccupations to highly skilled occupations, and from low-productivity sectors toothers with higher productivity.
Worker awareness of social and unemploymentinsurance has also improved greatly, and the proportion of those taking part involuntary social and unemployment insurance has grown considerably.
However, the CIEM study also pointed out anumber of problems in Vietnam’s labour market, including legal documents andpolicies being yet to cover all parties, worker redundancies, low employmentquality, and a serious imbalance in labour supply and demand between regionsand economic sectors.
While informal and unskilled labour stillaccounts for the majority, intermediate institutions and welfare and insurancepolicies remain weak and ineffective, the study found.
Chung held that to boost the labour market inthe time ahead, it is necessary to refine regulations and policies on humanresources training, job creation, and wages, while developing intermediateinstitutions, welfare mechanisms, and social insurance for workers, for amodern and effective labour market to come into being.
Nguyen Tu Anh, an official from the PartyCentral Committee’s Economic Commission, said the wage policy should be amendedin tandem with the development of intermediate institutions, welfaremechanisms, and social insurance, to promote a modern and effective labourmarket integrated into the regional and global labour markets, thereby helpingwith economic restructuring./.
VNA
