Vietnam Today

On October 31, in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and President of China Xi Jinping witnessed the signing of 13 documents by departments, ministries, branches, and central and local authorities during the former’s official visit to China. The two General Secretaries also discussed substantive cooperation, agreeing that it is necessary to strongly promote and improve the efficiency of cooperation in economic endeavors.

Addressing the National Assembly on October 28, Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung said Vietnam is short of workers, especially high-quality human resources, which leads to low workplace productivity. Informal labor still accounts for a high proportion of the workforce, while labor mobility and human resources transformation are low.

The 19th meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee for Economic-Commercial and Scientific-Technological Cooperation on October 28 was co-chaired by the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) and the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs to discuss solutions to boosting bilateral economic cooperation. As of September, South Korea had 9,438 investment projects in Vietnam with total registered capital of $80.5 billion, ranking it first among countries and territories investing in Vietnam. Bilateral turnover reached $78 billion in 2021, up 18.2 per cent compared to 2020. South Korea is Vietnam’s third-largest export market and second-largest import source.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam has directed ministries, branches, and localities to work closely with the Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC) to speed up the promulgation of an open data list, to organize the development of plans, and to implement open data disclosure. According to the Ministry, open data is now attracting attention in many countries and territories.

National Assembly (NA) deputies have said at the legislature’s ongoing session that it is necessary to quickly adopt radical solutions to resolve human resources shortages, especially in the fields of health and education; conduct research to increase base salaries; and introduce price restraints. Addressing the NA, Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra said the shift by civil servants from the public sector to the private sector is contributing to restructuring in the economy.

At a discussion session on October 27 regarding the results of the socio-economic development plan in 2022 and the proposed plan for 2023, National Assembly (NA) deputies lauded the 2022 results but also expressed concern about high but unsustainable economic growth. They also proposed a host of solutions, such as exploiting the strengths of free trade agreements (FTAs) to expand and diversify export markets.