The National Assembly on June 8 discussed a draft resolution on piloting specific policies to develop HCM City. One of the issues that caught special attention was the policy on attracting and retaining talented staff.

Thach Phuoc Binh, a deputy from Tra Vinh, proposed that the Ministry of Home Affairs needs to design a policy on determining the payroll for the whole country, while allowing HCM City to determine the number of employees at different levels, depending on local conditions. 

This would help settle the problem of the shortage of civil servants and the workload for officers.

As for communes in populous districts which are under rapid urbanization, it is necessary to determine the wage funds based on the efficiency of work in association with the HCM City budget.

Dinh Ngoc Minh, a deputy from Ca Mau, said it would be better to allow HCM City to issue a regulation on recruiting and paying civil servants in compliance with the budget revenue increase. 

Only when the city has a reasonable recruitment and pay policy will it be able to recruit officers who are both qualified and ethical. 

Meanwhile, Ha Sy Dong from Quang Tri, said decentralization and authorization between the government and HCM City is needed, and between HCM City and its districts. 

The decentralization should be applied not only to civil servants and public employees, but also to planning, construction, land, science and technology, culture, society and population management.

Also, it is necessary to give HCM City a special policy to serve science, high technology and, digital transformation and issues related to the development of the country's leading high technology center.

Nguyen Thi Ngoc Xuan, a deputy from Binh Duong, suggested that HCM City needs to have a long-term policy to attract and foster talents from afar, and this should be done early, starting with high school students.

She said Israel is an example for Vietnam to consider. Israeli fourth graders begin to learn to code and 10th graders to encrypt and prevent hackers, and some preschools even teach computing skills and robotics.

Xuan stressed that HCM City has opportunities and the capability to pioneer in attracting talents if it has outstanding policies in investing in education, science and technology. This will help build the city into a high-quality human resources development center in Vietnam and ASEAN.

Thu Hang