Prime Minister: Labor productivity is a measure to assess the level of development between countries.

Employees are allowed to present their own initiatives, opinions, and ideas; to make suggestions, recommendations, and solutions to better perform assigned tasks. When respected by the business, employees will be more confident, dedicated, and work with higher efficiency.

This morning (May 26), the Forum "Improving National Labor Productivity by 2024" organized by the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor (VGCL) in coordination with the Government, took place at the Military Industry-Telecoms Group (Viettel) - a typical unit in improving labor productivity. VietNamNet reported the event live. Attending the forum were Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh; Chairwoman of the National Assembly's Committee on Social Affairs Nguyen Thuy Anh; Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung; Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung; Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son; President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor Nguyen Dinh Khang; Vice President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor Ngo Duy Hieu; Permanent Deputy Head of the Central Mass Mobilization Commission Pham Tat Thang; Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Tran Sy Thanh. In addition, the forum was also attended by leaders of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, a number of Party committees, National Assembly Committees, the Government Office , leaders of a number of localities, a number of enterprises... and a large number of union members from many enterprises across the country.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attends the Forum "Improving national labor productivity by 2024"

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh will speak at the forum.

At the forum, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh will speak and convey the message of improving labor productivity to workers and businesses nationwide.

Delegates attending the forum "Improving national labor productivity by 2024"

Speaking at the opening of the forum, President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor Nguyen Dinh Khang said that on the occasion of Workers' Month 2024 and towards the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Vietnam Trade Union (July 28, 1929 - July 28, 2024), the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor organizes the Forum "Improving National Labor Productivity in 2024". The forum is an opportunity for trade union officials, union members, civil servants, public employees, and workers to promote their roles and responsibilities in proposing, recommending, and contributing solutions to promote national labor productivity. This is also an opportunity for trade union officials, civil servants, public employees, workers, experts, managers, and business owners to exchange and discuss the current state of Vietnam's labor productivity, the causes and bottlenecks of labor productivity, and propose and recommend solutions, including solutions to promote the role of workers in improving national labor productivity. The President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor hopes to receive sharing and evaluation from the head of the Government. He also suggested that the delegates focus on discussing feasible solutions to improve national labor productivity.

President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor Nguyen Dinh Khang delivered the opening speech at the forum.

Speaking and discussing at the forum, Dr. Nguyen Tu Anh, Director of the Department of Economic Forecasting and Analysis - Central Institute for Economic Management, shared some macro information about Vietnam's labor productivity. According to Mr. Tu Anh, national labor productivity is a measure of the country's economic activity. According to data from the World Bank, Vietnam's labor productivity in 2022 was 20.4 thousand USD, only 11.4% of Singapore's level; 35.4% of Malaysia's; 64.8% of Thailand's; 79% of Indonesia's... However, looking closely at Vietnam's economic structure, the majority of Vietnamese workers work in the informal sector and households. The number of workers working in the enterprise sector accounts for only 29.2% of the workforce in 2022. However, this workforce generates 60% of GDP for the economy, of which the private sector is 10%, the FDI enterprise sector is 20%... "With the number of workers working in the enterprise sector generating 60% of GDP for the economy, we see that the labor productivity of workers in Vietnamese enterprises generates 53,582 USD/person. This is about 30% compared to Singapore, not 11.4%", he emphasized. To improve national labor productivity, the Director of the Department of Economic Forecasting and Analysis said that it is necessary to continue implementing synchronous solutions, improving the business environment, increasing access to resources such as land, capital, knowledge, labor, reducing costs of complying with administrative procedures, improving the management efficiency of the state apparatus to develop the number of enterprises faster and increase the scale of enterprises. The focus of economic policy for the 2021-2030 period should focus on the manufacturing and processing industry because this is the driving force for promoting labor productivity of the entire economy. Only when the labor productivity of this industry increases will there be additional income to spend on the service industry. Thereby increasing labor productivity in the service industry, or in other words, labor productivity in the service industry is a derivative of the manufacturing and processing industry. Along with that, implementing solutions to improve labor productivity within the industry such as supporting the formation of large enterprises, "leading cranes" based on the existing potential of current enterprises. This is to lead the industry to develop along a supply chain owned by Vietnamese enterprises such as automobile manufacturing, electronics, information technology, financial banking, agricultural, forestry and fishery processing, steel, etc. At the same time, promoting labor shift from low-productivity areas to high-productivity areas, from the informal sector to the formal sector with solutions such as: Taking better care of workers' lives with social housing policies; supporting regardless of household registration for workers' children in studying, accessing, and providing medical services, etc. Mr. Tu Anh also noted the need to enhance the role of the Trade Union to truly be the support of workers in stabilizing their lives in the place of migration; harmoniously handling labor relations issues; ensure legitimate benefits for workers but also ensure long-term benefits for investors. Ms. Phung Thi Hanh, a worker at Hanoi Shirt Factory - Garment Corporation 10, shared her thoughts on improving workers' qualifications. Recalling the time in 2010, Ms. Hanh said that when she turned 18 and entered Garment 10, she was very happy but also very worried and bewildered. "As a new worker, having never been to a training school, I really admired my seniors. I told myself that I would definitely be able to do that and more. I realized that I needed to observe and learn every day, always thinking: How to increase productivity and improve skills", Ms. Hanh said.

Ms. Phung Thi Hanh, worker at Hanoi Shirt Factory - Garment Corporation 10

From the first days of 200-300 products/day, after 5 months, Ms. Hanh was able to sew 700-800 products/day. “But for me, that was still not enough. I always felt that I could do more. So, I learned how to control my time with the goal of increasing the productivity of the next hour by at least 5% compared to the previous hour. More than a year later, I was the leader in productivity at the unit with 1,400 products/day, reaching 150% compared to my colleagues at the same stage,” she said. Up to now, Ms. Hanh has always been the worker with the highest productivity and income in the Enterprise, for many consecutive years achieving the title of Excellent Worker, Excellent Union Member, Emulation Fighter and Exemplary Worker. Ms. Hanh also proactively shared, guided and spread the good practices she had learned to her friends and colleagues. At the forum, Ms. Hanh made a number of suggestions to the Government and ministries and branches. Specifically, the Government needs to research and issue policies to support training for businesses that employ a lot of workers, especially new workers. “From the actual operations at May 10, we workers see that businesses with kindergartens, medical centers, and May 10 vocational colleges will help workers have enough conditions to develop themselves, feel secure in their work, and contribute to increasing labor productivity. We hope that the Government will have policies to replicate this model for businesses that employ a lot of female workers,” Ms. Hanh suggested. Mr. Mai Thien An, Head of Production Department of Intel Products Vietnam Company (HCMC) said that training industrial style, raising awareness and discipline of workers are important factors contributing to improving labor productivity, especially in the context of the 4.0 industrial revolution, which places high demands on specialization and compliance with procedures in the production process.

Mr. Mai Thien An presented a paper.

Enterprises that want to improve product quality and brand require workers to have good education, skills, soft skills and work ethic. Workers who want to increase their income must have good professional skills, attitudes, awareness and work ethic. However, in reality, many workers are still not really interested in and prioritize training, raising awareness, organizing discipline and industrial style. Some common problems are: Although it is a multinational company, with the majority of its staff being Vietnamese, Intel Products Vietnam Company also encounters some problems in awareness, organizing discipline and industrial style similar to other enterprises. To overcome this, Mr. An said, the company has trained employees in industrial style and work ethic through many activities. Specifically: Organize training and share knowledge about laws, labor regulations, company regulations for employees, train knowledge about labor safety and hygiene; organize meetings and dialogues with employees to listen and fully respond to their comments. The company also shares and reminds employees of real-life situations about industrial style and labor discipline, helping employees understand and be able to apply them in practice at work. In addition, the company promotes and publicly commends and rewards good examples; builds support processes and a system to control compliance with discipline at work... To improve labor productivity, Mr. An recommends that there should be more forms of teaching and equipping employees with industrial style right from when they are still in school; consider appropriate career guidance because each different profession requires a different industrial style. In addition, financial regulations need to provide grassroots trade unions with sufficient resources to invest and spend on training, propaganda, and rewards for industrial style and labor discipline. Mr. Nguyen Dinh Thang, Chairman of the Trade Union of Industrial and Export Processing Zones (IPZs) in Hanoi , shared his speech on the movement of skill competitions, skilled worker competitions, theory review, and skill training for workers, contributing to improving labor productivity.

Mr. Nguyen Dinh Thang, Chairman of the Trade Union of Industrial and Export Processing Zones (IPZs) in Hanoi

Mr. Thang said, imbued with the teachings of President Ho Chi Minh "Competition is patriotism, patriotism requires emulation and those who emulate are the most patriotic", in recent years, the Trade Union of Industrial Parks and Export Processing Zones in Hanoi has organized and launched patriotic emulation movements among workers. These include the emulation movements "Excellent workers", "Creative workers", "Green - clean - beautiful, ensuring occupational safety and hygiene", striving to achieve the title "Excellent workers", "Creative initiatives" of the Capital... In particular, the emulation movement "Reviewing theory, practicing skills, competing for skilled workers" initiated and launched by the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor and the Hanoi City Labor Confederation has attracted a large number of workers and employers to actively participate. Thereby bringing practical efficiency, contributing to improving labor productivity, product quality and building a team of highly skilled workers, meeting the requirements of international integration and globalization, contributing to realizing the aspiration of developing a prosperous and happy country. In the coming time, in order for the emulation movement "Reviewing theory, practicing skills, competing for skilled workers" among workers to bring about practical efficiency and have a wider spread, Mr. Thang suggested maintaining and expanding the skilled worker competition in provinces and cities where there are many workers with the participation of the government and employers. Enterprises need to pay more attention to investing in time, facilities, and funds to organize skilled worker competitions to improve labor productivity, product quality and train high-quality human resources. Ms. Truong Thi Thu Ha - Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Joint Stock Company (BSR) sent to the forum the message "Each worker must constantly promote initiatives and improve techniques to achieve high labor productivity". Ms. Ha said that, growing up from the creative labor movement, many workers of the company directly involved in production have risen to become excellent technical officers, managers, foremen, and shift leaders; becoming good workshop managers, regional directors, and managers at the unit, marking the maturity of the working class in the new era - the Ho Chi Minh era.

Ms. Truong Thi Thu Ha - Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Joint Stock Company (BSR), Vietnam Oil and Gas Group

The company has formed an effective working culture, in which the creativity of each employee is a very important pillar. This is truly a lever for each employee to develop all potential, break through with intelligence and courage to participate in promoting production development, improving labor productivity, product quality, and is the driving force for BSR's development on a new journey. In the most difficult and challenging times, thanks to the spirit, inner strength, creativity and outstanding efforts of each employee, the company has maintained its production and business activities and successfully taken advantage of opportunities at key moments, bringing results with many records in revenue, profit, output and safe working hours in 2022 and 2023. Mr. Phan Tuan Anh, Chairman of the Trade Union of Honda Vietnam Company , said that the democratic regulations are well implemented, the proposals and recommendations, the legitimate and just rights of employees are resolved promptly, satisfactorily, publicly and transparently by the employer... are factors that create trust, thereby motivating employees to work better, promoting higher labor productivity. Employees are allowed to put forward their own initiatives, opinions and ideas; make proposals, recommendations and solutions to better perform assigned tasks. When respected by the company, employees will be confident, want to contribute, and work with higher efficiency. The democratic working environment in the company has created a mechanism for union members and employees to be free and protected when contributing ideas, improving work processes, increasing performance, promoting increased labor productivity, maintaining harmonious, stable, progressive labor relations and employee engagement.

Mr. Phan Tuan Anh, Chairman of Honda Vietnam Company Union

He also emphasized corporate culture. According to him, the success of Honda Vietnam today is the process of developing and maintaining a long-term and sustainable corporate culture based on three philosophies: Basic beliefs, Company principles and Management policies. Corporate culture encourages employees to be diligent, proactive, dreamy, creative, open, frank, enthusiastic, behave fairly, trust each other, use time effectively, and build a scientific working style. Maintaining corporate culture, always putting employees at the center, paying attention to training and developing human resources, has, is and will create motivation for employees to strive to contribute and improve labor productivity. He recommended that the Government have specific regulations and sanctions on handling employers who do not fully implement democratic regulations in enterprises. He also suggested that the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor increase the organization of forums, conferences, and specialized topics for grassroots unions and employers to participate in sharing difficulties and exchanging experiences in building a safe working environment, building democratic regulations and corporate culture. Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Lan, working at the Institute of Workers - Trade Unions, Vietnam General Confederation of Labor , sent to the forum a lot of information about "A satisfactory salary, bonus, and welfare regime is an important driving force to promote labor productivity improvement". According to Ms. Lan, all workers are interested in wages, especially those with low incomes. Reality has confirmed the close and proportional relationship between wages, bonuses, and welfare with work motivation, satisfaction, and dedication to work.

Ms. Pham Thi Thu Lan - Deputy Director of the Institute of Workers and Trade Unions, Vietnam General Confederation of Labor

“Even though workers want to stick with a company, they cannot stay with it forever when the salary is low. This explains why the job-hopping rate is high, 8-12%/month in industries with a large workforce,” she emphasized. Ms. Lan analyzed that in economic relations, job-hopping to find a job that suits one’s skills, qualifications and maximizes one’s capacity is normal, but job-hopping purely to find a higher salary for a similar job is an unnecessary waste. A business has 1,000 workers but in a month 100 workers continuously come in and out. This business will have to spend a lot of time, effort, money and human resources on recruitment advertising, organizing interviews, procedures, records, documents and training... while these costs can be completely saved to invest in increasing productivity. The productivity of other factors all depends on the labor factor. For unskilled workers, the desire to invest in and innovate modern machinery, equipment and technology becomes meaningless. However, learning also requires motivation. When workers are still busy earning a living for their families, learning for themselves is not a priority. Without advanced education, Vietnam will not be able to upgrade the value chain and keep up with the digital and green transformation trends in the global economy. International experience shows that increasing productivity in the coming period cannot rely on continuing on the path already taken, but requires a transformation of the model and economy along with a transformation of employment, workforce and skills. To successfully implement this synchronous transformation, salary, bonus and welfare policies play an extremely important role. In the proposals sent to the forum, Ms. Lan said that it is necessary to establish a satisfactory minimum wage. The Trade Union wants the Government to direct the National Wage Council to study and establish a satisfactory minimum wage, so that wages are truly a driving force for productivity growth. In addition, she also proposed increasing social insurance coverage, promoting gender equality in income, housing, school and hospital welfare policies, attracting responsible foreign investors; legalizing responsibilities in the supply chain of large enterprises... "Assets are important, but legacy is even more important. The economy can create many assets to leave to future generations, but the legacy of mechanisms, institutions, policies and social floors on wages, income, health care, education, social security and other social aspects will be much more valuable," Ms. Lan sent a message. Ms. Vu Thi Mai, Human Resources Director of the Military Industry - Telecommunications Group (Viettel), said that maintaining high labor productivity is one of the important bases for the Government to decide to issue a separate decree on wages for Viettel. This is also an important premise that helps Viettel achieve the achievements it has today. In 2023, the labor productivity according to the revenue of the whole Group is more than 4.1 billion VND/person/year. At some telecommunications and digital technology units, this figure is more than 9 billion VND/person/year, equivalent to advanced enterprises in the world in the same field (Orange-France, Telefonica-Spain).

Ms. Vu Thi Mai, Human Resources Director of Military Industry and Telecommunications Group (Viettel)

From practical implementation, representing Viettel, Ms. Vu Thi Mai shared some solutions to promote labor productivity with 3 main pillars: Human resources, Tools and Policy mechanisms. Firstly, the quality of human resources is decisive in promoting and improving labor productivity. Viettel focuses on selecting suitable personnel in all 3 aspects: Knowledge, skills and attitude. The recruitment or appointment of managers at all levels, in addition to capacity and achievements, also requires cultural compatibility. Thanks to that, Viettel always selects personnel who are not only good at expertise but also have the spirit of commitment and dedication. Secondly, strong digital transformation, applying the latest technologies in production and business activities such as AI, big data analysis. At Viettel, systems and tools are built consistently and synchronously so that everyone from leaders to each employee can use them. Direct sellers through the mBCCS application (customer care and sales management application) can know their assigned targets, sales results and income levels. Managers can rely on accurately updated business data to make timely decisions. In customer care activities, AI virtual assistants have been put into use through KYC video calls to authenticate customers with nearly 10 million calls, tens of millions of automatic customer responses 24/7, helping to save about 60 billion VND per year. Even in industries previously considered traditional such as postal services, Viettel has put into operation a smart sorting system, using AGV self-propelled robots to contribute to increasing output by 3.5 times, shortening delivery time and optimizing up to 60% of human resources. Third, build policy mechanisms to motivate, encourage innovation, increase labor productivity and give development opportunities to employees based on 5 main factors: Working environment; culture of assigning difficult and challenging tasks so that employees have the opportunity to commit and demonstrate their desire to contribute to the organization and society; salary and bonus mechanisms, appropriate to their capacity and achievements so that employees can work with peace of mind; focus on training and development activities, especially through job rotation; create a personal development roadmap so that employees have the opportunity to advance. Immediately after the sharing of Viettel's HR Director Vu Thi Mai, Permanent Vice President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor Ngo Duy Hieu asked Ms. Mai to share more about Viettel's labor productivity compared to the general productivity of Vietnamese workers. Ms. Mai said that compared to the general labor productivity of Vietnamese workers according to statistics in 2023 of 200 million/person, Viettel's figure is 4.1 billion VND/person, while the labor productivity in the industry according to the announcement of the Ministry of Information and Communications in 2023 is an average of 2 billion VND/person. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh delivered a speech concluding the forum and conveyed the message to union officials, union members and workers nationwide.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh speaks at the forum.

The Prime Minister expressed the impression of the stories shared at the forum close to the actual situation, regarding the legitimate rights and interests of workers. "We draw the most common, most favorite through the last statements and get something?", The Prime Minister sent a question to all delegates present at the forum. Answering the question of the Prime Minister, a banking union of the banking industry summarized: "Improving labor productivity is the ultimate and prerequisite goal to bring our country to integrate and shoulder to the region and the world". A union from Vietnam Airlines also stated 5 factors affecting labor productivity, namely: qualifications, capacity and consciousness of workers; Technology and equipment for employees; Working process helps optimize work time and efficiency; Working environment; The motivation to work, including wages, reward, contribute and social welfare. This union emphasizes that if we do all these 5 factors well, we will surely improve labor productivity. In addition, it is also important to focus on the younger generation educational element. This trade union expressed his enthusiasm with Uncle Ho's teaching that he wanted to increase labor productivity to do well two factors, good labor spirit and good working skills. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh expressed his sharing with the presentation and the comments at the forum. Through the proposals and recommendations, the Prime Minister has re -generalized 6 things in common on increasing labor productivity, namely: Love, love labor; Always learn, promote knowledge and skills; Comply with the discipline of labor safety and building a healthy and equal working environment; Always innovative innovation; Satisfactory treatment of material spirit, especially wages and social welfare, reward and honor workers; Government, trade union and related entities must build good labor ecosystems. "Throughout being a human, the center, the subject of increasing labor productivity. People are both a resource, a driving force and a goal of development and labor productivity. We do not sacrifice social progress, do not sacrifice social security, do not sacrifice the environment to run after a simple growth," the Prime Minister emphasized. Speaking at the forum, the Prime Minister highly appreciated the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, which has chosen the right topic, very necessary, very necessary and has a particularly important meaning for the rapid and sustainable development of the country in the current period. The Prime Minister highly appreciated the report of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor and the opinions of frank, enthusiastic, responsible and practical speech of the delegates, representatives of workers and businesses. In particular, there are many constructive comments, very positive, clearly reflecting the bottlenecks, difficulties and obstacles in improving labor productivity; offer many good models, good ways; Especially propose and propose profound and specific solutions. The Prime Minister requested ministries, agencies and localities to fully summarize the proposals and donations of union members and workers; Focus on reviewing and maximizing to improve the mechanisms, policies and provisions of relevant laws and improve the efficiency of organization and implementation, creating the best ecological environment for workers, promoting the spirit of innovation and patriotism. The Prime Minister asked the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor to study, absorb and have specific solutions for opinions related to functions, tasks and competence to implement in the coming time.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh took a photo with the participants

The head of the Government emphasized that labor productivity is a particularly important general economic indicator - one of the measures to evaluate and compare the development level among countries, as well as among the fields and localities in each country. The world economic history proves that labor productivity is a decisive factor for the success or failure of each nation and nation in the development process. The great communist leader Karl Marx has affirmed that labor productivity is the guarantee for the victory of this social order for another social order. Recently, the Economist who won the Nobel Prize in Economic Prize Paul Krugman summarized: "Productivity is not everything but it is almost all." In today's world, increasing labor productivity is one of the most important factors for developing countries to strive to rise up, towards fast and sustainable development, escaping the average income trap like our Vietnam.

Thu Hang - Vu Diep - Le Anh Dung

Vietnamnet.vn

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