ASEAN nations should further strengthen their cooperation and seek solutions to develop a workforce that meets newly-arising needs of the market.

Vietnamese Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung made the call while addressing the second ASEAN Human Resources Conference themed “Human resources for economic recovery and sustainable development” in Hanoi on May 25.

He underlined the role of the development of human resources in raising labour productivity, boosting growth, and improving the living standards.

The Deputy PM also stressed the importance of raising the quality of labour forces through long, medium and short-term measures relating to education and vocational training.

Commending ASEAN’s increasingly robust cooperation through the implementation of the ASEAN Charter based on the politic-security, economic, and socio-cultural pillars, Hung underscored the significance of human resource development in the master plan to build the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community.

The aim of the ASEAN human resource development strategy is to improve the capacity of the bloc’s human resources through each member country’s programmes and common programmes of the entire bloc, Deputy PM Hung emphasised.

Developing a high-skilled workforce is also a target of the ASEAN Economic Community, which has already been elaborated in ASEAN Charter, he said.

Hung affirmed that in its industrialisation and modernisation process, the Vietnamese Government has given special attention to the development of human resources.

He referred to the government’s adoption of a host of strategies, programmes, and policies on education, training, and vocational training.
as well as its implementation of numerous projects and investments in these fields.

Vietnam has also enhanced cooperation with other ASEAN nations and countries around the world to improve the quality of its human resources, the Vietnamese government official said.

He noted that after the economic crisis, countries around the world are giving more attention than ever to the training and development of human resources for real recovery and sustainable development.

This ASEAN human resource development conference is an important forum to cooperation and development within ASEAN and that between ASEAN and its partners towards an ASEAN Community by 2015, Deputy PM Hung said.

Addressing the opening session, Minister of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan stated “ Vietnam always attaches importance to human resources and regards it a reflection of prosperity of every single nation.”

Currently, Vietnam has 48 million people at working age, representing 56 percent of its 86 million population. 51 percent of the country’s workforce are in rural areas and about 40 percent of have undergone training.

According to Minister Ngan, Vietnam plans to improve the quality and efficiency of labour use, reduce the workforce in the agricultural sector to below 50 percent, and increase the percentage of workers in the industrial and service sectors.

She targets to provide vocational training for 1 million rural labourers a year through 2020.

At the conference, ASEAN officials focused their discussions on managing human resources in service of economic recovery and development, developing ASEAN competency based occupational standards and an efficient occupational skill strategy for ASEAN.

They adopted a recommendation on human resource development, which is expected to be put in the declaration of the 17 th ASEAN Summit, slated for October, 2010.

On the occasion, the Vietnamese Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs and the Cambodian Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training signed a cooperation agreement to improve the legal system on labour, vocational training, social welfare, and the training and development of human resources./.