Ministry to improve its human resources

HCM CITY — The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has set up a plan to develop its personnel resources for the 2011-15 period with a vision to 2020, at a total cost of VND10.6 trillion (US$550 million).

The plan aims to train new officials and staff as well as enhance the quality of personnel resources to meet the ministry's development demand.

The ministry estimates needing an additional 45,000 officials and staff from 2011-15.

Of that figure, 10,000 will work in the environmental sector; 8,000, the land sector; 1,000, the hydrometeorology sector; 3,000, the water resources sector; 3,000, the mineral geology sector; 3,000, the map measurement sector; and 20,000, the sea and island sectors.

The number of new officials and staff from 2016-20 will be cut by 20-25 per cent compared to the figure of new officials and staff from 2011-15.

In 2016-20, the ministry will focus on increasing the number of officials and staff in the sectors of land, water resources, hydrometeorology, map measurement and mineral geology.

It will also focus on training existing and future personnel.

Giang Duc Chung, deputy head of the ministry's Department of Personnel and Organisation, said the ministry's personnel resources had not met the need in quality and quantity.

Very few provincial and municipal departments of natural resources and environment have trained personnel in water resources, hydrometeorology and irrigation.

In several northern provinces such as Ha Giang, Tuyen Quang, Hai Duong and Thai Binh, there are no trained officials in hydrometeorology, mineral geology and water resources.

In addition, there is a shortage of management officials in most sectors.

Professor Truong Quang Hoc, former head of the Science and Technology Faculty of the National University of Ha Noi, said it needed to open new training faculties to meet the personnel demand of new sectors, including climate change and water resource management.

Viet Nam has a total of 78 universities and colleges and 45 intermediate professional schools which provide training faculties related to the natural resources and environmental sectors. — VNS

Related Articles

• 8,000-year-old human remains found in northern cave
• Workshop calls for longer-term plans to audit State entities
• ASEAN's socio-cultural issues promoted at Da Nang meeting
• Banks scramble for mid-level managers
• President attends An Giang provincial Party congress

Organic food shops to open in HCMC

Vegetables pictured at Big C supermarket in Ho Chi Minh City

Photo: Tuoi Tre

A pilot food management project will establish a network of shops selling organic food in Ho Chi Minh City next year, under a proposal submitted to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

All food products, including meat, fish and vegetables, will be produced in a controlled environment, from breeding, feeding and slaughtering to the use of water resources, pesticides and veterinary medicine.

The products will meet the Vietnamese Good Agricultural Practices (VietGap) standards and have packaging identifying them as belonging to the organic food supply chain.

"All production processes will be marked in a way that allows managers to easily trace the origin of a product and to know who is responsible for quality," said Truong Thanh Cong, senior official of the municipal Health Department's Food Hygiene and Safety Division.

Cong said that for a vegetable to meet VietGap standards, it will be checked for 20 factors, from climate, terrain, water resources and seeds to pesticides.

At present, food is produced, processed, distributed and checked by different authorities including agriculture, health, industry and trade.

"The project is set up to link all management levels with the aim of ensuring safe food for customers," said Huynh Le Thai Hoa, head of the division.

The legal framework for the project will be provided the Food Hygiene and Safety Law that took effect on July 1 this year.

"The law doesn't force but encourages every farmer and enterprise to join the chain," Hoa explained.

He believed that by 2015, the project would gain important successes and the model would be replicated throughout the country.

"Customers will only use hygienic and safe foods while enterprises can strengthen their brand names in the market at the same time," he added.

However, Hoa also admitted that at the first stage, the project would face several difficulties due to small production units (households), limited number of organic farms and high costs for VietGap assessment and operation.

"Expenditure for organic food will be high, making it difficult to sell it," he said.

However, with rising concern about the rampant sale of unsafe food, Hoa also felt it was time for the organic food industry to make good.

"We must develop the model to improve the situation. It would help enterprises grow and customers will know where they can buy safe food," he said.

It was a good sign that many food processing companies have expressed their interest in the project and registered to join the chain, he added.

Related Articles

• Int’l beverage exhibition to open in HCMC
• Binh Trieu 1 Bridge reopened to traffic
• New face for Intercontinental Asiana food and drinks
• Victims of food poisoning leave hospital
• Most ice is unhygienic

Organic food shops to open in south

HCM CITY — A pilot food management project will establish a network of shops selling organic food in HCM City next year, under a proposal submitted to the Prime Minister.

All food products, including meat, fish and vegetables, will be produced in a controlled environment, from breeding, feeding and slaughtering to the use of water resources, pesticides and veterinary medicine.

The products will meet the Vietnamese Good Agricultural Practices (VietGap) standards and have packaging identifying them as belonging to the organic food supply chain.

"All production processes will be marked in a way that allows managers to easily trace the origin of a product and to know who is responsible for quality," said Truong Thanh Cong, senior official of the municipal Health Department's Food Hygiene and Safety Division.

Cong said that for a vegetable to meet VietGap standards, it will be checked for 20 factors, from climate, terrain, water resources and seeds to pesticides.

At present, food is produced, processed, distributed and checked by different authorities including agriculture, health, industry and trade.

"The project is set up to link all management levels with the aim of ensuring safe food for customers," said Huynh Le Thai Hoa, head of the division.

The legal framework for the project will be provided the Food Hygiene and Safety Law that took effect on July 1 this year.

"The law doesn't force but encourages every farmer and enterprise to join the chain," Hoa explained.

He believed that by 2015, the project would gain important successes and the model would be replicated throughout the country.

"Customers will only use hygienic and safe foods while enterprises can strengthen their brand names in the market at the same time," he added.

However, Hoa also admitted that at the first stage, the project would face several difficulties due to small production units (households), limited number of organic farms and high costs for VietGap assessment and operation.

"Expenditure for organic food will be high, making it difficult to sell it," he said.

However, with rising concern about the rampant sale of unsafe food, Hoa also felt it was time for the organic food industry to make good.

"We must develop the model to improve the situation. It would help enterprises grow and customers will know where they can buy safe food," he said.

It was a good sign that many food processing companies have expressed their interest in the project and registered to join the chain, he added. — VNS

Related Articles

• Organic food shops to open in HCMC
• Party, State leaders attend school opening functions
• Victims of food poisoning leave hospital
• Int’l beverage exhibition to open in HCMC
• Vietnamese ethnic culture-tourism village to open