VietNamNet Bridge – The HCM City People's Council on September 27 approved a pilot project on the implementation of the urban administration to submit to the Government and the National Assembly for consideration in the Congress session in October.

 VietNamNet Bridge – The National Wage Council has agreed to the plan on raising the regional minimum wage from 2014 by VND250,000-400,000, or 15-17 percent. This has caused a big headache to both businesses and workers.

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The complicated administrative procedures, the harassments by the local officials to businesses’ operation and the under-the-table fees have been cited as the biggest barriers leading to the grade falls in the provincial competitiveness index (PCI).

Schools have been told to compile documents and have enough textbooks for teaching and learning by 2015. However, a lot of schools complain that the task is beyond their means.

Since state owned schools provide different education quality, parents have to spend big money in “under-the-table fees” to obtain the seats at prestigious schools for their children.

Parents have been warned that it would be very difficult to enroll in primary schools this year because of the sharp increase in the number of students to begin going to school.

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International schools could be the ideal places for children to learn English, but they make light of science subjects. State schools can provide good learning environment, but the curricula are too academic.

The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has stated that it would restructure the training establishment network and stop the “university bubble.”

2012 was an unlucky year of the Vietnamese education, when a lot of incidents occurred.

A paradox has been existing in the labor market: a lot of university graduates cannot find jobs, while businesses still lack workers because the candidates cannot meet their requirements.

General schools have complained that their students freely have caressing manners right in the classrooms. Meanwhile, Vietnamese students nowadays believe that this is the right way of showing feelings in the modern times.