Hanoi (VNA) – Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue has underlined the criticalimportance of the salary policy, which, he said, is closely related to otherpolicies in the system of socio-economic policies.

He made the affirmation in a recent article onthe plan on the salary policy reform for officials, public employees, civilservants, members of armed forces and employees in enterprises. This plan isone of the three important plans being discussed at the seventh plenary sessionof the 12th-tenure Party Central Committee, which opened in Hanoi on May 7.

Deputy PM Hue, who is also a Politburo memberand chairman of the central steering committee for reforming the salary policy,social insurance and special treatment for national contributors, noted thatthe salary policy directly relates to macro-economic balances, the labourmarket and the lives of salary earners. Its reform will help build a streamlined,clean and efficient political system and strengthen the fight against corruption.

Regarding the targets and road map for the implementationof the salary policy reform, he said in the public sector, the basic wage hasbeen adjusted upwards from 2018 to 2020 in line with the National Assembly’sresolutions so that it is not lower than the consumer price index (CPI) and inconformity with the country’s economic growth rate.

From 2021 to 2025 and with a vision to 2030, anew salary regime will be applied for officials, public employees, civilservants and members of armed forces in the whole political system from 2021. 

The country targets that in 2021, the lowestwage of officials, public employees and civil servants will be equivalent tothe average lowest pay level in the business sector. By 2030, it is expected tobe equivalent to or higher than the lowest salary level in the region with thehighest pay of the business sector.

Meanwhile, from 2018 to 2020, the region-basedminimum wage in the enterprise sector is set to be raised in accordance withthe socio-economic development situation, businesses’ payment capacity, andworkers’ living standards so that the minimum wage will be able to meet basicneeds of workers and their families, Deputy PM Hue noted.

From 2021 to 2025 and with a vision of 2030, theState will increase the region-based minimum wage periodically basing onrecommendations of the National Wage Council. It will not directly intervene inbusinesses’ wage policy from 2021.

By 2025, it will manage employees and salary inState-owned enterprises by assigning fixed salary costs associated withproduction and business tasks to enterprises. It will gradually move towardsonly assigning production and business tasks to companies from 2030.

In his article, Deputy PM Hue also clarifiedseven tasks and solutions to reform the salary policy, especially drasticallycarrying out financial and budgetary solutions to create resources for thesalary policy reform and effectively implementing the resolutions on continued re-organisingthe political system and reforming the system and operation efficiency ofpublic non-productive units, which were issued at the sixth plenary session ofthe 12th-tenure Party Central Committee.

The Deputy PM added that Vietnam’s salary policyhas been reformed four times, in 1960, 1985, 1993 and 2003. 

In the public sector, the wage has been improvedstep by step, helping to improve living standards of salary earners. The basicsalary has been raised 11 times since 2003, from 210,000 VND to 1.3 million VNDper month, surging by 519 percent, which is higher than the CPI growth of208.58 percent in the same period.-VNA