Improving labor productivity is an important, urgent, strategic task.

Attending the forum were: Chairwoman of the National Assembly's Social Committee Nguyen Thuy Anh; Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung; Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son; Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung; President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor Nguyen Dinh Khang; leaders of central ministries, branches and provinces and centrally run cities; especially 450 delegates representing 11 million union members, more than 18 million workers and laborers nationwide.

According to the General Statistics Office, in recent years, Vietnam's labor productivity has continuously increased, reaching 4.8% in 2022 and 3.65% in 2023. On average, in the period 2011-2020, Vietnam's labor productivity growth rate reached 5.29% per year, contributing significantly to increasing the efficiency of production, business, and socio-economic development of the country. However, this increase has not met the requirements and is still lower than that of other countries in the region.

At the Forum, the Prime Minister, leaders of central and local ministries, branches, experts, workers and laborers exchanged and discussed the current state of Vietnam's labor productivity, causes, bottlenecks and proposed and recommended solutions to promote Vietnam's labor productivity.

Sharing about her efforts to become a leader in productivity, with 1,400 products/day, reaching 150% compared to her colleagues at the same stage at Garment Corporation 10, Ms. Phung Thi Hanh proposed that the Government and ministries and branches study and issue policies to support training for businesses that employ a large number of workers, especially new workers; and have policies to replicate this model for businesses that employ a large number of female workers.

Believing that, in order to improve labor productivity, enterprises must practice industrial style, raise awareness and labor discipline for workers, especially in the context of the 4.0 industrial revolution, Mr. Mai Thien An, a member of the grassroots union of Intel Products Vietnam Co., Ltd., headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City, suggested: There should be more forms of teaching and equipping industrial style for workers early on to become "habits, ways of thinking, ways of working" while still in school, considering orientation at appropriate levels; having financial regulations allowing grassroots unions to have enough resources to invest and spend on training activities, propaganda, and rewards for industrial style and labor discipline...

Ms. Vu Thi Mai, Human Resources Director of Viettel Military Industry and Telecommunications Group, said that in 2023, the labor productivity based on the revenue of the whole Group will be more than 4.1 billion VND/person/year. She said that to achieve the above results, there are two important factors: human resources and technology, in which the quality of human resources is decisive in promoting and improving labor productivity. In addition, there are policies and mechanisms to create motivation, encourage innovation, increase labor productivity and give development opportunities to workers...

After 10 presentations, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh asked questions and discussed with union members, workers, and laborers about 6 factors that determine labor productivity: Love work, love the profession; always learn, improve knowledge and skills; comply with discipline, build a healthy, equal, and safe working environment; always innovate; workers are treated appropriately in spirit and material; The Government, Trade Unions, and related entities must build a good labor ecosystem. Throughout that process, people must be the center, resource, driving force, and goal of development and increased labor productivity; not sacrifice progress and social justice to pursue mere economic growth.

Conveying the best wishes of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong to the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor and all workers nationwide, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh highly appreciated the report of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor and the frank, enthusiastic, responsible, and practical comments of delegates, representatives of workers and enterprises, including many constructive and very positive comments, clearly reflecting the bottlenecks, difficulties, and obstacles in improving labor productivity; proposing good models and good practices; especially proposing and recommending profound and specific solutions.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that labor productivity is a comprehensive economic indicator of special importance; it is one of the most important measures to evaluate and compare the development level between countries, as well as between sectors and localities within each country.

Citing the arguments of the great communist leader Karl Marx and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman on labor productivity, the Prime Minister emphasized that world economic history proves that labor productivity is the decisive factor in the success or failure of each country and nation in the development process. In today's world, increasing labor productivity is one of the most important factors for developing countries to strive to rise up, towards rapid and sustainable development, and escape the middle-income trap.

The Prime Minister said that our Party and State always pay special attention to labor productivity and focus on solutions to increase labor productivity. Increasing social labor productivity is one of the main targets set in the Party Congress Resolutions.

To concretize the policies according to the Resolution of the Party Congress, the Government and the Prime Minister have issued and organized the implementation of mechanisms, policies, strategies and plans related to improving labor productivity. In particular, on November 8, 2023, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 1305 approving the "National Program on increasing labor productivity to 2030" with the goal that by 2030, labor productivity will become an important driving force for rapid and sustainable growth, effectively exploiting the opportunities of the fourth industrial revolution.

According to the Prime Minister, despite improvements, Vietnam's labor productivity remains low. In the 2021-2023 period, the labor productivity growth rate was lower than the set target of 5.5% per year. In absolute terms, Vietnam's labor productivity remains low compared to other countries in the region; the gap in labor productivity and development levels between regions and areas is still quite large...

Analyzing the situation and context in the coming time, the Prime Minister requested the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, all union members, workers, trade unions at all levels, the business community, and ministries, branches and localities to join hands to focus on implementing: 3 promotion, 3 pioneering, 3 breakthroughs to contribute to promoting labor productivity growth.

In particular, the “3 boosts” include: Boosting the completion of the legal framework, creating a favorable investment and business environment, promoting development, strongly promoting the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation; boosting the mobilization and effective use of all resources for development; boosting the implementation of strategic breakthroughs in human resource development, especially high-quality human resources associated with innovation to create a foundation for increasing labor productivity.

The “3 pioneers” are: Pioneering in digital transformation, green transformation, developing circular economy, sharing economy, knowledge economy, emerging industries and fields, creating momentum to promote socio-economic development; pioneering in international integration, taking advantage of all opportunities, promoting different potentials, outstanding opportunities, competitive advantages to improve production and business efficiency; pioneering in emulation movements to increase labor productivity, promoting initiatives in management, production and business organization, technical innovation, strongly promoting initiatives to increase labor productivity.

The Prime Minister proposed implementing “3 breakthroughs” including: Breakthrough in human resource development, especially high-quality human resource training and vocational training; breakthrough in science and technology, innovation, especially in emerging industries and fields; breakthrough in the working environment, ensuring green, clean, beautiful, ensuring the legitimate rights and interests of workers.

Regarding the key tasks and solutions to increase labor productivity, the Prime Minister requested to prioritize promoting growth - considering this as the foundation for increasing labor productivity, paying attention to macroeconomic stability, controlling inflation, ensuring major balances; promoting strategic breakthroughs in institutions, infrastructure, especially human resources associated with science, technology and innovation; focusing on improving the quality of education and vocational training at all levels, grades, sectors and fields, ensuring the training of human resources with reasonable quality, quantity and structure; promoting the transformation of labor structure from informal to formal, from low-productivity agriculture to higher-productivity industry and service sectors; promoting industrialization and modernization; increasing the proportion of industrial, service and agricultural industrialization sectors.

The Head of Government requested the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor to promote the role of a representative organization, especially the role of participating in social management, acting as a bridge to carry out policy dialogue activities, sharing experiences on increasing labor productivity; coordinate with the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs to research and propose the development of a program to support and develop vocational skills for workers. The General Confederation regularly exchanges and dialogues with the business community, investors and workers and recommends appropriate solutions; focus on negotiating, dialogue, signing and implementing collective labor agreements; promote propaganda and mobilize workers to improve their professional qualifications and working skills; innovate reward work, strongly promote initiatives to increase labor productivity.

The Prime Minister requested the business community to further promote the role of enterprises - the main entity creating material wealth for society; strongly apply science and technology, increase labor productivity, increase value rather than increase working time of workers; pay attention to the material and spiritual life of workers; focus on training and retraining; create a safe and clean working environment; have a salary and bonus regime for workers with many initiatives, high productivity, and good quality.

For workers and laborers, the Prime Minister wishes to further promote the role of workers, constantly improve and self-study to improve qualifications, skills, expertise, experience, and adaptability; enhance sense of responsibility, dynamism and creativity, improve productivity, quality, and work efficiency; innovate working style, awareness of law compliance and labor discipline; improve knowledge and working skills.

Emphasizing that improving labor productivity is an important, urgent, strategic, and long-term task of the entire political system - the shortest way for our country to catch up with developed countries in the region and the world, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh hopes and believes that, with the spirit of "Vietnam Trade Union accompanies the Government to improve national competitiveness and sustainable development of the country", Vietnam Trade Union, all union members and workers nationwide will join hands, join forces, and strive with the whole country to successfully achieve the strategic goal of making our country a developing country with modern industry and high average income by 2030, and a developed country with high income by 2045...

On this occasion, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh awarded 95 union members, workers and laborers with high labor productivity and outstanding achievements in labor production.