Party Central Committee plenary session to look at personnel issues

The seventh plenary session of the Communist Party of Vietnam's Central Committee

In his opening remarks, Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong noted the importance of the meeting, which takes place at the middle of the 12^th tenure in the context of the country’s strong development and new opportunities for the cause of the renovation policy.

However, the general secretary pointed out several outstanding shortcomings and weaknesses in personnel and personnel work.

The personnel contingent of the political system is large in number but not strong, resulting in both redundancy and deficiencies of officials in many places.

The structure of the body of officials is not reasonable as there is a grave lack of connectivity between different sectors and levels as well as a chronic lack of competent managers and leading scientists and experts, Trong said.

He also noted that several leading and managing officials, including those at strategic levels, had low prestige and were unknown to the people. Some were involved in corruption, wastefulness, and the propagation of group interests. Many officials holding leading and managerial positions took advantage of loopholes to commit wrongdoings, causing losses to state assets and serious economic consequences.

Regarding the salary reform, he admitted that there remain numerous shortcomings. The salary policy in the public sector is still complicated, while wage levels are generally considered too low at all jobs and positions, which has failed to encourage employees to increase their productivity, quality of work, and efficiency.

Meanwhile, the minimum wage in the public sector is still lower than in the business sector. It does not meet basic needs and as such is not the main income of many employees. Wages at different types of enterprises have also failed to create a driving force for labour productivity improvement and business development, he noted.

General Secretary Trong noted the fundamental prerequisites for salary reform, asking the Party Central Committee to discuss and reach a consensus on the salary reform.

He requested the plenary to specify the directions, along with the overall and detailed targets for each reform period and issue breakthrough and highly feasible measures to tackle existing flaws soon, thus truly creating momentum for employees and the whole economy to boost productivity, quality, efficiency, and competitiveness.

In addition to the personnel and salary reform, another issue to be discussed during the six-day meeting is the social insurance policy reform.

General Secretary Trong asked the Communist Party of Vietnam’s Central Committee to seek measures to continuously improve social insurance policies in the coming time, while specifying the contents of the reform, such as expanding social insurance coverage for all people, ensuring the financial balance of social insurance in the long run, adjusting the retirement age, enhancing connectivity and support between social insurance policies, as well as tackling issues around social pension.