Hanoi (VNA/VNS) - After watching the staff working hard to transportmaterials and products to and from a coffee processing company, Vu Quang Thoasked them why they didn’t think of a way to save time and effort.

The head of the Institute for Workers andTrade Unions was surprised at the answer he got.

“They said, ‘Why do we need to change? In the end, the benefits will go to theboss’s pocket, not ours,” Tho told Vietnam News.

The lack of incentive, initiative and willingness to change is holding back thenation’s labour productivity, Tho said.

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), labour productivityis an important economic indicator that is closely linked to growth, competitiveness,and living standards.

Labour productivity measures the goods and services produced per unit oflabour; more specifically, it measures the GDP produced per unit of labour.

A General Statistics Office (GSO) report said last year that labour productivityper capita was 84.5 million VND (3,730 USD) in 2016, a 5.31 percentyear-on-year increase.

Compared to 10 years earlier, labour productivity has risen by over 60 millionVND. It was 24.1 million VND (1,064 USD) in 2006.

In the past two decades, labour productivity in Vietnam grew at 4.3 percenton average, the highest increase among ASEAN countries, according to the ILO.

However, in comparison with ASEAN states, Vietnam’s aggregate labourproductivity is still near the bottom.

The GSO warned that Vietnam’s productivity growth has been outpaced by Laos,and is only higher than Myanmar and Cambodia in the region.

Nguyen Anh Tuan, head of Vietnam’s National Productivity Institute, saidalthough Vietnam has narrowed the gap with more advanced countries like Japanand Singapore, it remains the same, and in some cases, is being widened withregional economies that are primary competitors, like Thailand, Philippines,and Indonesia.

“Malaysian labour productivity is now more than six times that of Vietnam.Based on each country’s productivity growth target, it would take Vietnam 97years to catch up with Malaysian productivity,” Tuan said.

With less developed economies in the region, the gap is narrowing.

“Vietnam is still more productive than Myanmar but without any changes in thegrowth rate of productivity, Myanmar will soon catch up with us,” said Tuan.

Tho said the inertia mindset of workers is a main factor restrainingproductivity growth.

“Workers don’t feel the need for self-improvement in knowledge and skills toincrease productivity because they feel secure once they land a job,” Tho said.

He said this thinking is particularly common in State-owned sectors due tothe lingering influence of the decades-long ‘subsidised economy’.

 “Some workers even think that they will only work 10 or 15 years and thenretire, so there’s no point to improving skills or increasing productivity.Even if they are given opportunities to attend training, they are not eager toparticipate,” Tho said. “This is an obstacle for innovation.”

Even people in managerial positions are not feeling the need for innovation toimprove productivity, said Terasaki Akashi of Hirayama Vietnam, a company thatoffers consultancy services on renovating working methods for higher productivityin Vietnam-based enterprises.

Akashi said managers are also easily satisfied, as long as the company makes aprofit. They are not aware that without timely changes, their companies willsoon lag behind.

He said they are not aware of what is being wasted in the working process - afactor that holds back productivity, and do not have a thorough understandingof innovative methods, either.

Nakata Akashi, another Japanese expert on labour productivity, wrote in hisarticle published by the Nhan Dan (People) newspaper that he had seenquite a few high-skilled Vietnamese labourers failing to maintain discipline.

“They go to work whenever they like and drop out when they don’t.
“Many ask for leave to harvest rice, join village festivals, go to weddings oreven to go to a hair salon,” he wrote.

Weak teamwork is another problem, he said, citing an experience with a garmentcompany in HCM City where he found workers engaged in different parts of ashirt making process were not aware of their correlation.

“Worker making shirt collars do not cooperate with those making sleeves, whilethose making sleeves do not feel any link with QC (Quality control) staff. Butif sleeves have been completed, while collars are not, the final product cannotcome out, which means nothing for the QC people to check,” he wrote.

He said it is only when workers understand the need to collaborate that theproduction process accelerate and lead to an increase in productivity.

But experts say apart from skills and attitudes, there are other factors behindthe nation’s low productivity. A majority of workers are continuing inlower-value sectors like agriculture-forestry-aquaculture, despite the economicstructural changes over the past few decades.

According to the General Statistics Office, GSO, 41.9 percent worked foragriculture-forestry-aquaculture sector, 33.4 percent work for services and24.7 percent work for industry-construction.

The productivity of workers in the industry-construction and service sectors ishigher, said Nguyen Anh Tuan of the National Institute of Productivity.

It is the low labour productivity of the agriculture-forestry-aquaculture (33million VND per labourer) sector that has dragged down the overall nationalproductivity, he said.

Moreover, Vietnam is often involved in processes that do not add much to thevalue chain, Tuan pointed out.

“For example, we grow rubber trees to export latex but we don’t make gloves forexport, which brings much more money,” Tuan said.

The slow application of science and technology is also hindering Vietnam fromboosting its labour productivity, said Tho ofthe Institute for Workers and Trade Unions.

According to a recent Global Innovation Index compiled by the WorldIntellectual Organisation, Vietnam ranks 71st among 141 economies and4th among ASEAN countries in terms of technology innovation.

More than half the Vietnamese enterprises are still using old and backwardtechnologies, especially small-scale ones.

Since application of advanced technology often costs a big sum of money, manyinvestors, both domestic and foreign, are still reluctant to invest.

“They still choose to utilise the cheap labour force that is still available inVietnam to generate profits.

“But this choice will soon be challenged with the Industrial Revolution 4.0,”he said.

Resolution 5 adopted last November by the 12th Party Central Committee hasmade increasing labour productivity one of the three pillars for achieving anew growth model for the country, besides growth quality and increased competitiveness.

The resolution has set the target of increasing productivity by 5.5 percent peryear, and to have 30 to 35 percent of enterprises engage in innovativeactivities every year in the 2016-2020 period.

It also envisages that Vietnam narrows the productivity and competitivecapacity with ASEAN-4 countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand)in the coming years.

To achieve these ambitious targets, multiple measures have to be takenwith concerted efforts made by both the State and businesses, expertssaid.

However, Tho reiterated that the most important thing is to change the mindsetof workers.

“Labour productivity should be made an ethical issue for every worker,” hesaid, citing the example of Japan, where workers are famous for their unceasingefforts to do better at work.

He said this can be done by increasing activities to honour and reward labourproductivity, like contests for high-skilled and other measures to encourageinnovation.

Such activities have already been in place but the Government should “make themnational activities for boosting labour productivity,” Tho said.

The movements or campaigns should also be conducted at companies to raise theawareness of both managers and workers, said Terasaki Akashi from HirayamaVietnam.

It is also important that companies nurture an environment in favour ofcreativity and innovation by having a system to frequently praise and rewardgood innovation ideas, something that is common in Japan.

If a worker shows good initiative, he or she should be publicly complimented bythe managers. The worker’s achievement should also be reflected in personalannual evaluations and be considered a factor for salary increments.

“Such a system is still not popular in Vietnam, both in private and publicsector,” Tho said, adding that ensuring good salary and benefit policies forworkers is another crucial factor to motivate workers.

Amidst the exponential pace of science and technology development, all expertsagreed that innovation and technology change is necessary.

But they warned that it will only work with simultaneous improvement ofworkers’ knowledge and skills.

To that end, “it is important to improve the quality of the education system,both general education and technical and vocational education and training”, Thosaid.

Tuan agreed, noting that many enterprises are unable to use modern machinesthey have bought because there are not enough skilled workers to operate them.

However, he said education and training should not only rely on the generaleducation system. “Each company should also have its own in-house trainingsystem to develop workers’ skills.

“The general system cannot deliver for all types of work. Companies should definerequirements for each position and conduct appropriate in-house trainingprogrammes.

“Before a worker starts a job, he or she should receive mentoring with detailedinstructions,” he said.

At the national level, Tuan said the Government should further enhance thestructural shift that has happened over the past decades to promote thedevelopment of industries with high labour productivity.

“This would attract more workers from lower value industries like agricultureto higher value ones like manufacturing and services, generating an impetus forthe society as whole,” Tuan said.

Apart from a general solution to increase productivity for the whole economy,the Government should focus on particular solutions for each industry as eachof them has its own hurdles, he said.

This should most importantly apply to spearhead industries with big advantagesand development opportunities, he said.

Tho agreed, saying The Government should invest without reservation forachieving new productivity levels in some key industries, for exampleinformation technology or machinery manufacturing.

“This will act as a stimulant, spreading the spirit of increasing productivityto the whole economy,” he added.-VNA