Universities, colleges and vocational schools should coordinate with foreign direct investment (FDI) businesses to teach skills in line with their development strategies, said participants at a seminar held in Hanoi on March 6.

At the March 6 seminar, participants discussed solutions for improving Vietnamese workers’ skills to meet foreign investors’ requirements in the future, according to the Radio the Voice of Vietnam online newspaper.

According to a survey which was jointly conducted by a Vietnamese labour institute and Manpower group, Vietnamese workers lack in soft skills, including teamwork, communication and adaptation to new circumstances.

Institute of Labour Science and Social Affairs (ILSSA) Director Nguyen Thi Lan Huong said they questioned 100 FDI businesses in six provinces and cities, focusing on three fields – consumer products, electronics and automobile assembling.

Since Vietnam integrated into the global economy FDI businesses have played an increasing role in promoting economic growth, generating jobs for workers and taking the lead in technology and human resource management.

Thus their human resource development orientations may create new trends and forecast development for the future labour market, the survey finds.

It also points out a worrying trend that some FDI businesses attract workers from their rivals, instead of training their workers.

The results of the survey indicate that FDI businesses have not been largely affected by the economic crisis as more than half of them are still going strong and only 5% have suffered from losses.

Most FDI businesses have invested in technology and more complicated production processes, but they prefer recruiting unskilled workers on low expenses. This may prevent business operations in the future.

The Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) reported that the total newly committed FDI to Vietnam reached 21.6 billion USD in 2013, up 54.5 percent year-on-year.

Though the FDI flow in the initial months of the year was significantly modest, industry insiders expect the activity to increase in the coming months. This is based on the recent actions of foreign investors who are sanguine about the prospects of doing business in Vietnam .

According to forecast by leading economists and business professionals during a recent online discussion by the newspaper Bizlive, the strong FDI flow into Vietnam will continue in the 2015-2020 period as multinational groups are lining up to partner with the nation on a host of projects.

Experts said Vietnam is rated among the top investment destinations in the globe, largely thanks to its young, hardworking and large population, and solid economic growth rate.-VNA