Vietnam plans concerted push to attract talent for state agencies

The plan, scheduled to land on the prime minister’s table by October for reviewing, will propose specific policies and solutions to complete the system of legal documents, create a legal basis for the detection, training and retaining of talented people with talents for state agencies and organizations at both central and local levels.

Within this month, the ministry will hold several conferences to collect opinions from ministries, departments, and provincial administrations for the plan.

It will also send delegations to several localities including the northern port city Hai Phong, Da Nang City which is the biggest metropolis in central Vietnam and the Mekong Delta's Long An Province for field research from now until year end.

In amendments to the Law on Cadres and Civil Servants submitted to the National Assembly last week, the ministry already added provisions for the purpose of detecting, attracting, retraining, using and rewarding talented people. The assembly will consider the amendments later this year.

According to a report released in January, Vietnam has not done a good job of attracting and retaining talents for public service compared to other countries in Southeast Asia.

The country stood in 92nd place in the Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI), an annual report compiled by international business school INSEAD with The Adecco Group and Tata Communications, measuring 125 economies across the world.

Vietnam, classified in the lower-income group, scored 33.41 out of 100, only above its neighbor Cambodia in Southeast Asia, and poor and/or conflict-torn nations like Egypt, Pakistan and Yemen.