‘Panning sand for gold’, or finding and retaining talents, has been a concern of Party leaders for years.

More than 2,000 valedictorians from universities have been honored in Hanoi. Of these, 55 took jobs as civil servants at state agencies in Hanoi and five of them resigned after some years of working.

In HCM City, many excellent experts said ‘goodbye’ to state agencies, which once welcomed them with the hope that they would help create a breakthrough for the city’s development. They left after the pilot program on attracting talents ended and the experts began receiving regular salaries like other civil servants.

Hanoi valedictorians 

With its geopolitical position and great advantages, Hanoi has high-quality human resources from hundreds of universities who locate there.

Hanoi accesses them by assigning the local department of internal affairs to join forces with the city’s Youth Union to honor excellent students, who come first at graduation exams every year. 

More than 20,000 such graduates have been honored over the last 20 years. They are invited to undertake important posts at state agencies in Hanoi through an exceptional way: they don’t have to attend any entrance exam or competition.

In accordance with the Resolution 14 of the Hanoi People’s Council on using talents, they can receive one time-paid financial support which is worth a 20-month minimum salary. After two years of working at state agencies, they are sent to postgraduate training courses in Vietnam or abroad. In exchange, they have to commit to work for the city for at least seven years.

However, despite the preferences, Hanoi still finds it difficult to recruit talents. It is estimated that 100 excellent university graduates are honored every year, but only 5 percent of them agree to work for agencies in Hanoi.

From 2013, when Resolution 14 on using talents was released by the city’s People’s Council to 2022, only 55 valedictorians took jobs at state agencies in Hanoi, including 43 civil servants and 12 public employees.

And according to the Hanoi Department of Public Affairs, nine civil servants who were valedictorians moved to other agencies outside Hanoi and five others resigned from their posts.

“The number of excellent graduates recruited is very modest compared with the number of officers needed,” the department concluded, pointing out that policies on attracting talents are not attractive in working environment, income, learning opportunities and job promotions.

The one-time support policy is not attractive enough. Excellent university graduates can get a job without having to attend recruitment campaigns, but they have the same salary scheme as other civil servants.

HCM City loses appeal 

Dr Nguyen Dang Quan, director of a biotechnology center in HCM City, said when the city applied the pilot program on attracting talents, it attracted four experts. But in 2019, when the official policy was applied, it could not retain the experts.

In 2022, the center registered to recruit three experts, but there were no registrants, though the center had contacted experts it had once cooperated with.

According to the HCM City Department of Internal Affairs, in 2014, the city issued Decision 5715 inviting talents to work in key fields in a pilot program which lasted five years. Under the program, 19 scientists went to work in the city.

In 2019, the program entered the official phase with many changes in policy. However, in 2019-2022 the city could not retain the talents: 14 of 19 experts left. The reason was inadequate remuneration.

In 2014-2019, the offer was relatively attractive: Experts could get negotiable pay (no more than VND150 million a month); get profits shared based on products; get financial support to attend seminars; enjoy tax incentives, support in accommodations and entry/exit expenses. 

Meanwhile, in 2019-2022, experts only received initial allowance of VND100 million, earned 1 percent for scientific research funded by the state budget (no more than VND1 billion); got support in accommodation, travel allowance. However, they received salaries like other civil servants (VND13-15 million a month).

Quan said that with the monthly salary decreasing from VND150 million to VND13-15 million, it is really difficult to attract talents.

Ho Van - Quang Phong