HCM City Mayor Nguyen Thanh Phong said at a workshop on developing human resources with international qualifications, held days ago, that the city is taking steps to build a smart city with smart people, using facilities and technological achievements to improve work efficiency and life quality.

eveloping a workforce meeting international standards will be the key task of the city for the immediate time.

Deputy Minister of Education and Training Le Hai An said HCMC is a special urban area with an important position in the country. The city and Hanoi are the training centers for highly qualified human resources nationwide.

HCMC Party Committee’s Secretary Nguyen Thien Nhan said the international human resource development program for the next 5-10 years will be submitted to the 2020-2025 HCMC Party Congress.

Deputy Minister of Education and Training Le Hai An said HCMC is a special urban area with an important position in the country. The city and Hanoi are the training centers for highly qualified human resources nationwide.

Emphasizing that HCMC must have workers meeting international quality, Nhan said productivity in HCMC is three times higher than the average level of the country, and the city needs to lead the country in economic development.

“If HCMC cannot lead in terms of human resource development, it won’t be able to lead in economic development,” Nhan said.

Nhan, citing a report in Germany which says that new careers born in the last eight years need a higher number of jobs than the old careers disappearing in the automation era, affirmed that there was no need to worry about losing jobs.

“If Vietnam has good manpower, we will master all things related to automation,” he said.

According to Le Hong Son, director of the HCMC Education and Training Department, there are many problems in training human resources. It is difficult to enroll students who have English skills good enough to follow international-standard curricula.

The number of joint training programs between Vietnamese and foreign schools remains modest. Meanwhile, as there is no framework and orientation for higher education internationalization, and most universities in Vietnam have to ‘do while learning’ in cooperating with foreign schools.

Vu Hai Quan from the HCMC National University said if the city wants to have good human resources to serve socio-economic development, it needs to place orders with training establishments.

Quan went on to stress that it is necessary to improve the efficiency of teaching and learning English. “University students are bad at English. I hope that English teaching will begin soon at general school so as to satisfy the needs of the society,” he said.

Nguoi Lao Dong quoted Nhan as saying that HCMC plans to choose Singapore as its strategic partner in upgrading the city’s education to meet international standards.

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