The representative of Foxconn Group signs a memorandum of understanding with the province’s leader on investing in some projects in Nhon Hoi EZ.

In Vietnam, hi-tech projects, which have been mainly invested in two ends of the country, are much attractive to big brands; whilst, the attraction of hi-tech projects has still face difficulties in the central province of Binh Dinh.

The attraction of hi-tech projects in Binh Dinh has been given great attention recently. Since the Nhon Hoi Economic Zone was set up, many investors have come here to seek opportunities for the hi-tech investment projects.

Foxconn Group, for example, signed a memorandum of understanding with the provincial leader to invest some projects worth nearly 1 billion USD in Nhon Hoi EZ on July 2007.

“Rolling out the red carpet” is always one of the top strategies. However, it’s not easy to make the red carpet attractive and to satisfy investors. We must, thus, focus on investing in not only the infrastructure but also highly qualified manpower.

Most localities, even HCM City, are now facing the severe shortage of highly qualified manpower. According to the Intel Asia’s personnel manager Collin Trang, Intel required 1,200 highly qualified engineers and technical workers last year, but it couldn’t recruit enough workers.

Intel Asia planned to look out for the human resource at universities and colleges and they will be retrained after being recruited.

The shortage of high-tech manpower in Binh Dinh is more severe. The statistics showed that this issue in the central key economic region is hotter than the northern and southern key economic regions

Binh Dinh is one of provinces having potential for the high-tech industry development thanks to an area of 240 ha in Nhon Hoi EZ, which is planned to be used for high-tech projects.

From now on, policies for vocational training, orientation, and human resources usage must be paid special attention, let alone the training matching the demand of enterprises at universities and colleges.

Also, the training program is required to be changed, aiming to keep up with the global development; investigation and forecast are needed for the training matching the demand of enterprises.

Alongside these, the training for the potential hi-tech industry must be implemented in advance of any available hi-tech projects.

The talent attraction policy is also a practical solution for the development. It’s hard to persuade investors if the province is not capable of meeting the human resources. Such a policy will create favorable conditions for talents and experts, particularly overseas Vietnamese, to contribute to the province’s socio-economic development.

• Nhat Dung