Salary reform for both public and private sectors

According to the program of the 6th Session of the 15th National Assembly, at the question and answer session on the morning of November 8, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh answered questions from National Assembly deputies.

In response to the question of delegate Van Thi Bach Tuyet (Ho Chi Minh City) about the issue of salary, the Prime Minister said that this is an issue of concern to the Party and the State, because it both regenerates the labor force and motivates officials, civil servants and workers to participate in the economic and social development of the country.

Recently, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, resources are limited, leading to difficulties in implementing salary reform. The Government has tried to allocate, increase revenue, reduce expenditure, and save money to have 560 trillion VND to spend on salary reform.

At the same time, in parallel with the reform of state sector wages, we also reform non-state sector and enterprise wages. According to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, in the coming time, the Government will continue to complete job positions, streamline the payroll associated with improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the political system, and save on expenses to ensure salary sources for workers.

Answering the question of delegate Cam Thi Man (Thanh Hoa) about solutions to rectify the situation of fire and explosion, the Prime Minister stated that doing a good job of propaganda on fire prevention, fighting, rescue, and raising people's awareness is very important; focusing on the leadership and direction of Party committees; strengthening the effectiveness and efficiency of state management of all levels of government; and continuing to invest in infrastructure.

Pay special attention to planning, construction, standards, criteria; participation and involvement of people, residential groups, socio-political organizations in fire and explosion prevention and fighting; modernize core fire prevention and fighting forces...

Questioning the Prime Minister, delegate Ly Tiet Hanh (Binh Dinh) said that Resolution 27-NQ/TW of the Central Committee on building a team of intellectuals in the period of promoting industrialization and modernization of the country assigned the Government to promptly direct the institutionalization and implementation of the goals and tasks of building a team of intellectuals.

However, this content has not yet been institutionalized. The delegate asked the Prime Minister to let him know when the tasks assigned by the resolution will be implemented.

Responding to the delegates, the Prime Minister frankly said: “We accept our shortcomings in this matter. If we have been assigned a task but have not completed it, we must accept our shortcomings, review, handle responsibilities and focus on completing the assigned tasks. We will lead and direct the ministries and branches. The Prime Minister himself and the Deputy Prime Ministers in charge must join the ministries and branches.”

During the question and answer session, delegate Pham Thi Hong Yen (Binh Thuan) asked: According to the report of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs and statistics, currently, the proportion of the labor force with informal jobs nationwide accounts for over 65% and is up to over 30 million workers. The National Assembly's Resolution also requires the Government to have solutions for this situation. The delegate asked the Prime Minister to let her know what effective solutions the Government has had to put this resource into socio-economic development and recovery, as well as help workers access the country's social security policies?

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that the first thing is to create livelihoods for the people. “To create jobs, we must promote production and business, especially in the industrial sector, shifting labor from the informal sector and rural areas to urban areas. In addition, we must restructure the agricultural sector to increase labor productivity. Regarding social security, we must do a good job of social security and support each other,” said the Prime Minister.

The Government is focusing on developing concrete solutions to implement the Party's guidelines and policies and the laws that have been issued in order to bring them into practice and thereby solve the problem of labor and employment. This is an important issue and will continue to be directed in the coming time.

Regarding the question of institutional reform, the Prime Minister said that it is necessary to create harmony and rationality in implementing strategic breakthroughs, in order to remove institutional obstacles, thereby creating resources, developing infrastructure systems, creating competitiveness for goods, reducing logistics costs...

Regarding cost reduction for businesses, the Prime Minister admitted that currently administrative procedures are still cumbersome, causing increased costs for businesses. In addition, the attitude of a number of cadres, civil servants and public employees in handling work is still pushing things around, afraid of responsibility...

“We must strengthen propaganda work, ensuring spiritual and material benefits for officials and civil servants. On that basis, they are guaranteed the assigned tasks and responsibilities to perform better. In addition, we also have solutions on education and propaganda to raise awareness of personal responsibility to family, business, and society in handling administrative procedures and request ministries and branches to review procedures,” the Prime Minister stated the handling direction.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that the fundamental solution to this problem is still to promote the sense of responsibility, the capacity of officials, and to cut down on administrative procedures and increase sanctions. “We must specify to organize and implement well, in the spirit of promoting the responsibility of leaders as well as comrades, officials, civil servants and public employees performing this task, resolutely implementing according to the direction of the Party and the provisions of the law.”