Professor and Dr Nguyễn Chí Mỳ, former director of the Hà Nội Department of Publicity and Training speaks to Hà Nội Mới (New Hà Nội) newspaper on the need to create a competitive environment to attract talented people to the civil service.

Preparing personnel for key positions in the Party Central Committee is a very demanding job, isn’t it?

I couldn’t agree more! There are many difficulties, including weaknesses in our personnel preparation. Though we have adopted a strategy of “three age groups” in the leadership, it is not easy to achieve the two objectives; namely that the junior group respects and shows gratitude to the senior group and vice versa and the senior group has confidence in the junior group. That’s why people often refer to the problem of money and relations first and then intelligence.

In my opinion, we need to adopt a good strategy to foster personnel for key positions in the Party and Government.

Recently the Party Politburo issued two decisions, numbers 89 and 90, on personnel work. In your opinion, how will these documents impact personnel preparation?

In my opinion, the two documents should be considered good tools to evaluate potential candidates for future leadership. I’m confident that if these two documents are strictly implemented we’ll have competent and qualified future leaders.

Furthermore, these two documents were released following the release of the Instruction by the fourth Party Central Committee (the 12^th legislature) on the campaign to follow the late President Hồ Chí Minh’s ideology, ethics and lifestyle.

I’m confident these documents will help us overcome shortcomings and challenges in our personnel work.

Are there any links between recent achievements in the fight against corruption and the issuance of the two decisions?

The Party Central Committee declared “there is no forbidden zone” in the fight against corruption or negative phenomena. The recent sanction on a member of the Party Politburo was a vivid demonstration of the Party’s resolve to clean up itself. More important, the Party’s decision won high approval from the general public.

With the issuance of the Decisions No 89 and 90 of the Party Central Committee, coupled with the Instruction issued by the fourth Party Central Committee and other related documents, I’m confident that our personnel work will be on the right path to make our homeland more prosperous and stronger.

Don’t you think we need a good strategy to attract talented people. In your opinion, what should we do to attract these people?

The first thing we have to develop are policies to attract talented people. Our economy is a market economy, so we should pay high regards to their interests, for example, their interest in politics, in their fame and economics. Though our country still faces many challenges and difficulties, we should do what we can to encourage them to contribute to the homeland.  

Don’t you think that an environment of transparency and fair competition are two key factors in attracting talented people?

I couldn’t agree more! Transparency is an important element in all fields of life. In personnel work, it is very essential. Next, is the selection of the best candidate, but the selection process must be open and transparent.

In short, in all positions, including ministers, we should organise a competition to select the best candidate for the position._VNS