Hanoi (VNA)꧂ – Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh onAugust 20 chaired a nationwide teleconference linking with the 63 cities andprovinces on the development of labour market in a flexible, modern,sustainable and globally integrated manner.

He said the Vietnamese Party andState always pay attention to labour market and consider human resources one ofthe three strategic breakthroughs for socio-economic development. After switching to the strategy of safely and flexibly adaptingto and effectively controlling the COVID-19 pandemic, the domestic labour market hasgradually recovered, making important contributions to socio-economicdevelopment. The rate of employment keeps rising while that of unemployment drops,he said, adding however that challenges remain ahead. According to him, the labour market has yet to keep pace with the economic structure transition as well as industrialisation, modernisation,digital transformation and global integration. He attributed that to the lack of policies related to marketquality management, regulations on labour standards and relations, and limitedconnectivity between domestic and foreign labour markets. At the same time,education-training has yet to meet requirements for workforce development,especially in hi-quality and new fields. The leader added that the socio-economic recovery anddevelopment programme is underway at a total cost of 340 trillion VND (14.7billion USD), or nearly 4% of the gross domestic product, focusing on healthcare, social welfare, support for enterprises, infrastructure and administrativereform to create a safe and transparent business environment, thus attractingmore investment and generating more jobs. To have hi-tech industries, hi-quality workforce areneeded, he said and called for attention to training and salary reform,continuing to perfect laws up to international standards committed by thecountry, developing a system of labour market information, employment servicecentres, vocational training establishments and social welfare net. The PM suggested building a modern and transparent labour marketgovernance system, pooling resources to build multi-layered labour marketforecast system at the provincial, regional and national level, diversifyingcredit sources to generate jobs in service of digital transformation,particularly for vulnerable persons in remote and mountainous areas. He noted that the Government recently held a conference onhousing support with an aim to build at least 1 million houses for workers andlow-income earners by 2030. It is a must to tackle difficulties in linking vocational trainingwith enterprises, as well as offer incentives to workers for skill improvement,he said. On the occasion, he expressed his hope that international organisations will continueoffering financial support to Vietnam and share their experience in labourmarket management. PM Chinh directed the Ministry of Labour, Invalids andSocial Affairs to work closely with other ministries, agencies, localities, associationsand businesses to collect feedback at the event and soon submit to him forconsideration./.