Hanoi plans to pilot a test-based recruitment for some high civil servant positions this year under the city’s target programme of administrative reform until 2015.

The plan is in line with a city decision to lure talented persons in efforts to improve the quality of civil servants.

Director of the municipal Department of Home Affairs Tran Huy Sang said the procedure might be applied to positions up to deputy director of a municipal department.

“Recruitment would be conducted publicly and transparently to ensure the principles of fairness and competitiveness.”

He added that the city used a test model for recruiting the director of the city’s Department of Planning and Architecture in 2010.

At the test, two deputy directors who were competing were asked to state their plans of action and to defend them.

Under the programme, by 2015, the city aims to employ 80 percent of its civil servants from university graduates.

City authorities have asked the Ministry of Education and Training to introduce a common system to calculate examination results at the end of courses for tertiary and vocational students, according to Sang.

This would help recruiters make fair assessments and select the most suitable candidates.
Statistics from the department show that last year, about 1,300 candidates were chosen for civil servants at commune level and 7,500 others were employed to work for the local education sector.

Nearly 40 students with outstanding marks have been recruited as civil servants in the city since 2009.

Central Da Nang City and northern Quang Ninh province have already applied the test-based recruitment for civil servant positions.-VNA