Vietnam has a huge shortage of human resources to cope with pressing
urbanisation and climate change issues, a national conference was told
on Dec. 6.
The conference, telecast live in Hanoi , Da Nang and HCM City ,
agreed that the natural resources and environment sector needed to
recruit another 800-1000 people each year.
The current
figure, as provided by the Ministry of Natural Resources and
Environment, is about 45,600 workers, including those working at State
corporations, industrial parks and localities.
The report
says there is an imbalance in human resource structure among different
sub-sectors. For example, those involved in land management account for
55 percent of the total number while those involved with water resources
and hydro-meteorology stay at a low 1 percent.
Under
State management, the sector is a newly merged group of seven
sub-sectors—land, water resources, geology, environment,
hydro-meteorology and climate change, mapping and maritime.
The ministry says these sub-sectors mostly deal with complex and
sensitive issues related directly to the rights of people and
enterprises.
"While human resources are needed to
accomplish the sector's strategies, they are not sufficient to ensure
their quality in the future," said the Minister of Natural Resources and
Environment Pham Khoi Nguyen at the conference.
"There are many shortcomings in training and using the sector's human resources," he added.
According to the ministry's report, most training institutions focus on
technology and techniques rather than management's understanding of
specific sectors.
Some topics have not been added into
training programmes resulting in staff shortages at central and local
levels. In addition, there are few cadres trained in advanced science
and technology.
The reports also find that co-operation on
education and training with other countries remains spontaneous - the
country does not yet have an effective way of attracting more young
applicants to natural resources and environment courses.
Speaking at the conference, UNDP Country Director Setsuko Yamazaki
suggested Vietnam turn the climate change challenges into an
opportunity by opting for "green growth" and investing in human
resources.
"In order to achieve green growth, the country
requires a cross-sectoral and cross-ministerial approach to the human
resource development plan," she said.
The 800 or so
viewers at the telecast, including representatives of international
organisations and central bodies, agreed with five measures for human
resource development and training.
They include focusing
on training under a modern approach and international integration. There
would be policies to encourage students to learn about
hydro-meteorology, mapping and mineral geology.
More
investment will be poured into developing natural resources and
environment training institutions to have more laboratories and
libraries. The country hopes to build at least three universities with
international standard, specialised facilities by 2020.
The conference's discussions were expected to help the ministry finalise
the draft strategy on human resources development and training from now
to 2020./.
