Labour productivity remains low

Labour productivity in Vietnam has seen recent year-on-year improvement, yet remains low compared with regional countries.

The country's labour productivity has increased by 3.7 percent annually since 2005, reaching about 74.7 million VND (3,340 USD) per labourer, according to recent statistics.

However, data from 2013 showed Vietnam's productivity was about one eighteenth that of Singapore, one seventh of Malaysia's and nearly one third of Thailand's, Director of the General Statistics Office Nguyen Bich Lam told Vietnam News Agency correspondents.

Vietnamese workers are far from catching up with workers from other developed countries in the region, he added.

The GSO Director attributed the shortcomings to outdated technologies, a slow shift in the economic structure, inadequate training (accounting for 81.8 percent of the total labour force) and ineffective use of educated workers.

Moreover, a majority of Vietnamese workers are from the agriculture-forest- fishery sector, accounting for 46 percent of the total labour force. They are unskilled workers or work in seasonal and unstable jobs, generating low added value, only 18 percent of the GDP.

Vietnam has undertaken great efforts to improve its legal framework and administrative reform in a bid to enhance the effectiveness of State management of the economy, Lam said.

He called for more efficient allocation and use of national resources to increase labour productivity and the economy’s competitiveness.

The official also attached significance to enterprises, saying that enterprise labour productivity holds a key role in enhancing the labour productivity of the entire economy.

Lam cited a survey as saying that the labour productivity rate of the firms engaging in import-export or research and development activities is 19-35 percent higher than those operating in other fields.

Enterprises with more employees and better-educated managers also have higher labour productivity, he said, adding that businesses with between 50 and 99 employees record highest labour productivity, which is 50.6 percent higher than the micro-small-sized group.

He called for incentives to encourage enterprises to join the global market and apply advanced production technologies to enhance their labour productivity.

The Government, ministries and sectors should consider enhancing labour productivity to be a top priority in improving the competitiveness and sustainable development of the economy, he said.

A national committee on labour productivity should be established to manage the implementation of relevant regulations at levels, he added.-VNA