What breakthroughs does Vietnam need to make to achieve high labor productivity?

To increase labor productivity, Vietnam needs to focus on investing in capital, technology and people.

Recently, the issue of labor productivity has received special attention from the Government and the whole society because it is an important factor affecting national competitiveness and people's living standards. Many opinions say that to improve labor productivity, Vietnam needs to focus on investing in 3 factors: Capital, science and technology and people.

Since 2000, Vietnam has seen significant productivity improvements, increasing by more than 3% per year, with the strongest increases in the industrial and construction sectors. The gap in Vietnam’s labor productivity compared to other countries in the ASEAN region is gradually narrowing. However, the gap in Vietnam’s labor productivity compared to developed countries is still quite large.

Enterprises need to focus on investing in capital, science and technology and improving the qualifications of workers.

Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, Director of the Vietnam Productivity Institute, said: To improve productivity, many countries in the world focus on improving total productivity such as: increasing capital intensity, investing in modern equipment. Vietnam is a developing country, so at this stage, increasing capital plays an important role in economic growth.

However, to develop the economy sustainably and ensure catching up with developed countries, Vietnam needs to focus more on promoting productivity growth through developing science, technology, engineering, labor quality and efficient allocation of resources in the economy.

Mr. Tuan also said that investment in science and technology is the key point, directly proportional to the results of national labor productivity. Vietnamese enterprises are aware of the benefits of investing in technology to help improve product quality, but often face difficulties in capital.

Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan said: “If we have many low-productivity industries, using a lot of labor, and low value, then the labor productivity of the whole society will certainly be low. Therefore, capital intensity must be invested in high-productivity equipment and management skills must be improved, promoting innovation activities in enterprises to have activities that make enterprises proud that they are doing the best, then surely Vietnam's productivity will increase.”

According to economist Nguyen Minh Phong, to increase labor productivity, it is necessary to restructure and focus on industries with high added value. Currently, in the industrial sector, Vietnam still mainly focuses on processing industry, mining industry and basic construction with very little investment in equipment.

The agricultural sector is still mainly manual labor and household production development. The service sector also has low added value. One of the solutions to improve the overall labor productivity of the whole society is to shift the labor structure from low-productivity to high-productivity sectors.

In addition to economic restructuring, improving labor productivity needs to be done through the quality of human resources. For workers, in addition to improving their qualifications and skills, they must be fairly evaluated, paid fairly, and treated fairly. They also need to be encouraged to come up with creative ideas in businesses and agencies. In addition, improving labor productivity needs to be associated with the application of science and technology, promoting market expansion, and promoting the export of high value-added goods:

“In industry, we have had a very correct orientation of strongly supporting the development of supporting industries, especially those that can participate in the global supply chain. Vietnam also needs to strongly develop information technology. Besides, the processing technology and precision technology industries are also very necessary.

The agricultural sector needs to focus on high-tech agriculture and ecological agriculture, including from seeds to technological processes and especially product processing technology. Services should focus on banking, finance, telecommunications, etc., industries that require high technology and create very high values," emphasized expert Nguyen Minh Phong.

One of the factors contributing to increased labor productivity is the laborer. With the same amount of human resources, if there are better means of production, laborers can create more material wealth, increasing labor productivity.

Mr. Duong Duc Lan, Director General of the General Department of Vocational Training (Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs) said that when wanting to increase labor productivity, technology and workers' skills are two factors that are always taken into account.

To have skilled workers, we must go through training: “Workers directly participate in the production and service business process and have a direct impact on labor productivity. We also believe that if vocational training is also given attention and invested properly, it can contribute greatly to improving labor productivity. To date, investment in vocational training accounts for only about 9% of the total budget for education and training.”

Since 2012, the Ministry of Science and Technology has implemented the National Program “Improving productivity and quality of products and goods of Vietnamese enterprises by 2020”. The main content of which is to promote the application of solutions to improve productivity in enterprises.

Along with the synchronous and effective implementation of solutions, especially the completion of market economic institutions, Vietnam needs to focus on training human resources, enhancing scientific and technological innovation, creating motivation to urgently improve labor productivity, competitiveness, develop rapidly and sustainably, and narrow the development gap with countries in the region./.

According to VOV