|
Improving human resources will speed up FDI disbursement
Poorly-developed local human resources is one of the barriers hindering the effective disbursement of foreign direct investment (FDI) capital, despite Vietnam attracting record sums of FDI.
In the first nine months of this year, Vietnam recorded its highest-ever level of FDI disbursement - 8 billion USD. However, this represents only 14 percent of the total 57 billion USD of FDI attracted during this period, according to the Foreign Investment Department under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
Despite an abundant labour force, foreign companies complained about a shortage of highly-qualified and skilled workers, which hinders the progress of large-scale foreign-invested projects.
According to representatives from Malaysia ’s Berjaya Corporation and the US Intel group, few Vietnamese workers are capable of meeting foreign enterprises’ requirements due to lack of experience and a poor grasp of foreign languages.
To ensure the progress of their projects, a number of foreign-invested enterprises, including Intel, organised a series of in-house training courses for their workers, both at home and abroad.
The Taiwanese Foxconn group, in addition to constructing a human resources training centre, sent their engineers on training courses in Taiwan to ensure the smooth progress of its 5 billion USD project in Vietnam .
Unless Vietnam invests in better human resources and adopts an appropriate economic policy, it will lose its attractive status to foreign investors, making it difficult to narrow the gap between registered capital and capital disbursement.
“It’s high time Vietnam maximises the efficient use of FDI, not the amount,” Vo Tri Thanh, head of the Economic International Integration Department, the Central Economic Institute warned.
Vietnam , recognising the importance of this matter, has worked hard to develop a network of vocational training schools. However, following 20 years of renovation, Vietnam is still unable to meet the demand for well-trained managers by FDI businesses.
Addressing the second Vietnam Economic Forum in Hanoi in late September, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan affirmed that the training of highly-skilled and qualified workers remains one of the Vietnamese government’s top priorities.
The Ministry of Education and Training has completed a proposal to provide advanced training programmes at several universities during the 2008-2015 period.
The Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Welfare has set a target of establishing 120 vocational training colleges and 300 secondary vocational training schools.
VNA
|
