Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc (centre) visit an equipment display booth during a meeting in HCM City yesterday with representatives of workers. VNA/VNS Photo Thống Nhất

HCM CITY — Highly-skilled workers create a chance for competitive development as Việt Nam is intensively and extensively integrating into the world economy, Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc said at a dialogue in HCM City on Sunday with representatives of workers.

Speaking at the 4th edition of the annual meeting, with the participation of workers from seven localities belonging to the country’s key economic region, the Government leader said that "national development does not rely only on capital and cheap labour but also production capacity".

Highly-skilled workers are crucial as they serve as a locomotive for economic development and attract foreign investors. However, they account for only less than 19 per cent of the total workforce and ministries must work out concrete policies to improve this, according to the Prime Minister.

Workers’ representatives said that vocational training had not yet caught up with technological development. As a result, most workers had not received proper training.

Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Đào Ngọc Dung said his ministry advocated conducting vocational training in line with the needs of the labour market, focusing in the fields the society needs, not what the ministry is having. It was also intensifying the connection between training and enterprises that would employ the workers.

For his part, Minister of Education and Training Phùng Xuân Nhạ stressed the connection and highlighted that his ministry advocated increasing the forms of training, aiming to raise the foreign language command and professional skills for workers.

Meanwhile, a representative of the employers pointed to the fact that new recruits cannot start working immediately but need one to two years of further training.

Concluding the dialogue, Prime Minister Phúc affirmed that the Government would continue to work out policies to raise workers’ salaries and other benefits. He urged them to train themselves and keep training for their whole lives, and ordered trade union organisations to pay more attention to workers’ families. — VNS