Speaking at Vietnam Business Forum 2007 in Hanoi yesterday, the domestic and international business community urged the government to increase efforts tackle the shortcomings.

Human resources

Sin Foo Woong, director of the International Finance Organization under World Bank umbrella, said firms in Vietnam were concerned with human resources, citing it as a block to expansion.

Alain Cany, chairman of Europe Chamber of Commerce warned that the skilled labor shortfall in Vietnam was pressing firms to employ staff from ASEAN region, taking skilled jobs away from Vietnamese and destabilizing the labor market.

A representative of the Australian Chamber of Commerce added that a government decree, which imposes a 3 percent cap on the number of foreign employees a company can hire, badly needed revising in light of skilled labor shortages.

The decree also restricted the transfer of new technology and skill sets from overseas.

Dang Duc Dung, deputy chairman of Hanoi Young Entrepreneurs Association said enterprises in both foreign and domestic sectors worried about the skilled labor shortfall in the near term and long-run as well.

The ministries of education and training, labor and social affairs were involved in reforming education and vocational training, but the process was moving at a snail’s pace.

Dung emphasized firms had to invest a lot in human resource training while losing skilled laborers, without access to funding or loans for professional training.

Vo Hong Phuc, Vietnamese Planning and Investment Minister and Martin Rama, acting director of World Bank concluded that the human resource shortfalls is critical, requiring quick response from government.

WTO commitments

Cany from Eurocham said foreign investors were watching to see the depth of Vietnam’s implementation of WTO commitments.

It looked as though Vietnam has delayed allowing foreign investors to perform their rights to import, export and distribution.

The central government issued relevant decrees in February but ministries have not granted any licenses because guidance circulars for the application of those decrees were not available, Cany added.

Fred Burke, head of the working group for manufacturing and distribution said many giant enterprises were expecting to enjoy benefits from the country’s WTO entry.

He added, however, this seemed to be out of their reach due to pending clear guidelines for the implementation of these commitments.

This had made the investment climate less attractive in some cases.

Pham Manh Dung, head of the Legal Department of the Ministry of Planning and Investment said the ministry was in the final stages of drafting a guidance decree for conducting WTO commitments.

The guidelines would be released soon, he noted.

The Planning and Investment Minister pledged in the second half of the year more efforts would be made to improve legal documents on trade and investment.

Legal groundwork

Dominique Scriven, head of Vietnam-focused Dragon Capital fund manager said opaque policies governing the stock exchange stymied enterprises from mobilizing capital.

He cited opacities in the role of underwriting of brokerages, and bond issue of enterprises particularly in the private sector.

Nguyen Hoang Hai, general secretary of Vietnam Association of Finance Investors said the State Securities Commission’s (SSC) compulsory training courses to get securities licenses were inadequate, leaving the sector open to improper development and corruption.

Source: Thanh Nien, VietnamNet