The city has not been able to attract excellent students or young scientists to state agencies since 2018 because of the unattractive salary policy, a report from the HCM City Department of Home Affairs to the municipal People's Committee said. 

The report reviewed the plan that began five years ago to recruit excellent graduates and young scientists to state agencies under Decree 140 issued in 2017 by the Government.

Decree 140 sets very high requirements on the people who are recruited. In addition to being excellent university graduates, the students must have a good academic record at the high school level and must have won prizes at competitions for excellent students in the subjects of math, physics, chemistry, biology, informatics, philology, history, geography and foreign languages.

Among the requirements are a master's degree or a doctorate degree, degrees for level I-II specialist, resident doctor, or level I-II pharmacist.

This group of people only needs to apply for recruitment to receive a double salary.

After five years applying this policy, the city could not recruit anyone. In addition to the impact of the pandemic, the Department of Home Affairs explained that not many people qualify under Decree 140 requirements. 

Moreover, excellent graduates and young scientists have many opportunities to receive scholarships at home and abroad. They often give priority to studying and improving their professional qualifications, and are not interested in working for state agencies.

In addition, it is difficult for state agencies in the city to compete with non-state organizations and enterprises in terms of income and promotion opportunities when attracting high-quality human resources. 

According to the Department of Home Affairs, the standard and cost of living in Ho Chi Minh City are very high compared to other localities. The city needs to improve the remuneration policy to attract this group.

To remove difficulties, in a new draft to replace Resolution 54, Ho Chi Minh City proposed that the National Assembly allow the HCM City People Council to decide on the conditions, process, and income levels to recruit highly qualified students for civil servant and public employee jobs.

Previously, the Department of Home Affairs said that since 2019, it has not attracted any new talented people even though it wanted to recruit 20 positions. The main reason is income policy.

In early 2022, Hanoi announced a draft policy to attract high-quality human resources. Accordingly, excellent university graduates who win prizes in competitions will be considered for admission to the city’s state agencies, and will be supported up to 120 million VND and sent to post-graduate training courses.

Ho Van