Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính takes a group photo with Vietnamese young people at the dialogue held on Wednesday in Hà Nội. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI – During a dialogue with youth in Hà Nội on Wednesday, Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính emphasised the vital role young people play in national development, stressing that they must be at the forefront of progress in all areas.

The video conference, attended by leaders from various ministries and government agencies, as well as youth representatives from across the country, focused on the theme of "building a high-quality young workforce to meet the demands of the Industry 4.0 era."

The Prime Minister's remarks underscored the Party and State's commitment to investing in the country's youth and empowering them to become powerful in national construction and defence.

With the dialogue connecting 63 cities and provinces nationwide, the event provided a platform for young people to engage with leaders and contribute their ideas towards building a brighter future. 

At the dialogue, the Prime Minister, representatives from the Ministry of Home Affairs and several ministries and central agencies answered opinions and requests from the youth.

About 3,000 participants, representing more than 20 million young people nationwide, participated in the event.

The discussion focused on training knowledge and skills for young Vietnamese to reach out to the world, training the mind, body, and soul of young people, and creating the best conditions for young people to start businesses and renovations.

Speaking at the event, Minister of Home Affairs Phạm Thi Thanh Trà said the dialogue showed the Party and State’s great attention and responsibility to the youth.

It aims to give youngsters a chance to speak out on their proposals and aspirations, enabling the Government to roll out solutions to settle difficulties facing them, ensuring the rights and interests of the youth in the building and implementation of policies and laws relating to them.

In reply to questions about the Government's important decisions for building high-quality young human resources in the digital era, Minister of Education and Training Nguyễn Kim Sơn said the quality of education played a vital role in the issue.

The educational sector has been innovated from general education to higher education, he said.

In general education, many new competencies and skills have been compulsory, such as computer science, foreign languages, life skills, and communication skills.

The competencies of future labourers must be formed from the early years of school.

Universities are strengthening the field of information and technology, artificial intelligence, big data and many other majors related to the 4th industrial revolution.

In the new curriculum, universities have enhanced connections with businesses. Students need to acquite the ability in information technology, foreign languages and many other soft skills, he said.

PM Chính said the Party and State always put young people first in fostering and promoting human resources.

To help Vietnamese students to be on par in terms of capacity and intelligence with their international peers, Chính said the most important is the passion, enthusiasm, and persistence of young people.

Apart from studying and improving professional knowledge, he noted that young people must study foreign languages, which helps open doors to the world.

Responding to questions about the Government's solution to support young workers to be retrained and equipped with necessary skills when participating in the current labour market, the PM said that our country aims to be a developed, high-income country by 2045.

The market economy must follow the laws of the market, including the law of competition and supply and demand.

“The role of the State is to have a mechanism to regulate the labour market and have policies to support unemployed workers such as vocational guidance and job retraining, especially for young workers," PM Chính said. "Besides, young people should choose occupations that require high skills and adaptive to the market changes.”

The leader asked the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs to study and develop mechanisms and policies to create conditions for people with disabilities to participate in the national construction and development.

Regarding housing policies for young workers, Chính said the Government had directed the Ministry of Construction to finalise the project on building at least one million social housing apartments for low-income earners and industrial park workers in the 2021-2030 period.

This would bring more accommodation choices for young people.

In reply to questions about supporting young people's entrepreneurship and innovation, the leader said the Party, State and Government had promulgated many mechanisms and policies to build incubators and innovation ecosystems, prioritise capital, transfer science and technology, and train human resources.

The establishment of the National Innovation and Creativity Centre and the global network of Vietnamese scientists are among the results.

Regarding solutions to promote investment from overseas Vietnamese youngsters, Chính said overseas Vietnamese people are an integral part of the country, and the Party, State and people highly appreciate the contributions of overseas Vietnamese to the common cause of the nation.

At the end of the dialogue, PM Chính called on the Vietnamese youth to pioneer in learning, making self-improvement, improving their mettle and will; working, doing business, making innovation in the Industry 4.0 era; safeguarding national independence, socialism, sovereignty, and territorial integrity; and promoting integration into the world so that international friends can see that young Vietnamese do not fare worse than any others in terms of wisdom, virtues, sentiment, and sincerity.

He also appealed to the young to take the initiative in fighting corruption, negative phenomena, and hostile forces, especially harmful information and distortions against the Party, State, and regime achievements.

The Prime Minister presented awards to ten outstanding young faces and ten promising young faces of Việt Nam in 2022. – VNS