Hanoi (VNA) – Personnel and personnel work hold a decisive role for thesuccess of the revolution, said General Secretary of the Communist Party ofVietnam (CPV)  Central Committee NguyenPhu Trong at the Party Central Committee’s seventh plenary session on May 7.

In his opening remarks at the session, theParty leader stressed that the Party always pays special attention to personnelwork to meet requirements and tasks of each period of revolution.

He said the Party has made sound decisionson personnel and personnel work, and resolutely directed the implementation ofpolicies and measures, thus bringing about important results, which is a keyand decisive factor for great and historical achievements in the nation’srenewal process.

However, the General Secretary pointed toseveral outstanding shortcomings and weaknesses in personnel and personnelwork.

The personnel contingent of the politicalsystem is large in number but not strong, resulting in both redundancy anddeficiency of officials in many places.

The structure of officials in terms of sectorsand aspects is not reasonable, with a lack of connectivity between different sectorsand levels, and a lack of competent managers and leading scientists andexperts, Trong said.

He also noted that several leading andmanaging officials, including those at strategic level, had low prestige andstayed aloof from the people. Some got involved in corruption, wastefulness andgroup interests. Many officials holding leading and managerial positions tookadvantage of loopholes to commit wrongdoings for their own interests, causingState asset losses and serious consequences.

The phenomenon of “buying” positions is slowto be addressed and curbed, he said, noting that those shortcomings are one ofthe reasons for the under-expectation development of the country and theerosion of public trust in the Party and State.

The Party chief stressed the need to paymore attention to building of a contingent of officials, especially those atthe strategic level, who are competent, have full capacity and high prestige.

Regarding the project and draft resolutionon personnel work submitted to this plenary session, Trong asked the PartyCentral Committee to carefully study documents, and analyse existingshortcomings and weaknesses to define their reasons, especially subjectivereasons, and then discuss how to address these shortcomings and weaknesses inorder to better the personnel work.

With regard to salary reform, the Partyleader said Vietnam reformed the salary policy in 1960, 1985, 1993 and 2003.Salary in the public sector has been improved step up step, especially inparticularly disadvantaged regions and sectors, helping to promote salaryearners’ living standards. Meanwhile, pay in the enterprise sector has beengradually aligned with the market mechanism under the State’s management.

However, he admitted that there remainnumerous shortcomings. The salary policy in the public sector is stillcomplicated while the wage payment system has yet to suit jobs and positions,which has failed to encourage employees to increase their productivity, workquality and efficiency.

Meanwhile, the basic wage in the publicsector is still lower than in the business sector. It hasn’t met basic needsand has yet to be the main income of many employees. Wage in different types ofenterprises has also failed to create a driving force for labour productivityimprovement and business development, he noted.

General Secretary Trong noted thefundamental prerequisites for salary reform, asking the Party Central Committeeto discuss to reach unanimity in the emergency and feasibility of this time’ssalary policy reform. He told them to specify the viewpoints, directions, alongwith overall and detail targets for each reform period and decide breakthroughand highly feasible measures to soon tackle existing flaws, thus truly creatingmomentum for employees and the whole economy to boost productivity, quality,efficiency and competitiveness.

Regarding social insurance policy reform,the Party chief said social insurance was introduced in Vietnam from 1961, onlyfor the public sector in the centrally planned economy and mainly providingold-age and survivor benefits. Reform of the system to make it align with thesocialist-oriented market economy and international practice only began in1995.

At the fifth and seventh session of the11th tenure, the CPV Central Committee considered and issued conclusionsrelating to social insurance and the provision of wages and allowances fornational revolutionary contributors, he added.

The project reforming social insurancepolicy submitted to the CPV Central Committee at this meeting was built on thebasic of theoretical and practical summaries with a view to promulgating aspecific resolution to make social insurance become a driving force for thecountry’s sustainable development, Trong said.

He asked the CPV Central Committee to seekmeasures to continuously improve social insurance policies in the coming timewhile specifying content of the reform such as expanding social insurancecoverage for all people, ensuring financial balance of social insurance in thelong run, adjusting the retirement age in the new situation, enhancing theconnectivity and support between social insurance policies, inheriting anddeveloping principles of adjusting the relatively independent pension forworking people, and reducing the eligible time for joining social insurance toget pension.

The Party leader reminded to pay attentionto both public and private sectors, working people and retired ones,particularly farmers, needy people and vulnerable groups in the society.

The seventh plenary session of the 12th tenure of the CPV CentralCommittee opened  on May 7. Main issues on the agenda of the six-day sittinginclude the personnel work at all levels, especially at strategic level, salaryreform for officials, public servants, the armed forces, and workers, andsocial insurance policy reform, among others.-VNA