The fact that Vietnam becomes the 150th member of World Trade Organization (WTO) is  not only an opportunity but also a great challenge for Vietnamese enterprises in general and Binh Dinh Province in particular. In order to survive and develop, they must seek for specific competitive advantages of their own. Human resource is considered as an important premise in the severse competion.

An export timber processing workshop of Tien Dat Co. Ltd.

Human resource - a competitive advantage

Production and trading in Binh Dinh Province in 2006 grew regularly. GDP increased roughly 12%. This achievement was a result of investment into infrastructure construction, timely implementation of the provincial investment preferential policies and most of all, the human resource. According to statistics, Binh Dinh now has nearly 1.6 million people. 59.36% of them is in working age (mainly from 18-45 years of age). Wages of workers in Binh Dinh are 15-20% cheaper than in other localities such as Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai Province, Binh Duong Province etc. Realizing this advantage well, Binh Dinh enterprises have been employing handicraft workers in agriculture-forestry-aquiculture processing, mineral processing industry, etc. to lower production cost.

The more Vietnam integrates into the world playground, the harsher competion its industrial products face. Reasonable prices, high quality and uniqueness are the must for a standing in the competitive playground. The Vietnamese enterprises must invest in modern equipments and facilities, qualified and professional staff.

According to statistics, only 25% of available labour force of Binh Dinh now has been trained on vocational skills. Out of them, skilled workers take up 5% ; semi-skilled workers  make up 12% and workers on training account for 8%. This low rate of skilled workers is indeed a big obstacle of Binh Dinh in the context of more and more integration.

Improving quality for human resource   

To help provincial enterprises in taking best advantages of its human resources, Binh Dinh Industrial Zone Management Board organised a workshop in coordination with Ho Chi Minh City MTC Training Profession Engineering College on : “Creating human resource- oriented competitive advantages in the world of integration”. Representatives of nearly 50 enterprises inside and outside industrial zones, leaders of relevant bodies and agencies  participated in the workshop.

Many workshop participants says that high quality human resource plays a important role. Distinguishable variance of the products and services is a kind of decisive factor to competition of the enterprises, of industry and the nation economy. It depends on human innovative capabilitiy. If the capability is waken up, the products will be much more  competitive. So, the enterprises should comprehensively change their old ways of thinking and their policies.  The enterprises are also encouraged to  pay more attention to their recruitment processes and trainings for their staff in order to satisfy requirement of production and business in the integration world.

Most of the attenders agree that the enterprises should issue their own preferential policies to attract skilled labourers. Besides that, each enterprise should co-operate with vocational schools in training and re-training for the labourers for sake of their better performance in work places. In addition,  relevant authorities should strengthen their training tasks for skilled technical staff in order to satisfy requirement of the provincial industry as well as the industrial zones, industrial groups in Binh Dinh. Labourers in commerce and service industries should be trained on professional skills, foreign languages,etc.

• Reported by Ngoc Thai
• Translated by Hong Ha