Measures to improve the human resource in Kiên Giang

This paper tries to examine causes of the situation and offer measures to improve the human resource for a sustainable development of Kiên Giang economy in an effort to reduce dependence on natural resource and avoid potential difficulties in future.

Development of The human resource plays a key role in the economic development because a high-quality human resource allows an effective exploitation of other resources, and helps create or get access to new technologies and modern managerial methods needed for improvements in labor productivity and income Realities show that, however, the human resource in Kieân Giang is of poor quality and structure This paper tries to examine causes of the situation and offer measures to improve the human resource for a sustainable development of Kieân Giang economy in an effort to reduce dependence on natural resource and avoid potential difficulties in future Keywords: human resource, economic development, natural resources, technology, income Introduction at present, all countries try their best to make the best use of external resources and at the same time, pay full attention to internal ones of components of internal strength of a country, the human resource is considered as a decisive one experience from developed countries proves the key role played by the human resource (Barro, 2001; Hanushek and Kimko, 2004; and Ding and Knight, 2011; etc.) paying full attention to the development of human resource becomes a condition for economic growth, especially creative thinking, sense of responsibility and professional competence realities in Kieân Giang show that its Economic Development Review - June 2011 human resource human resource is of poor quality (laborers with university degrees represent only a small proportion) and poor structure (most laborers work in farming and fishery sector), and therefore it fails to act as a dynamic of the economic growth the paper, therefore, aims at working out measures to enhance the quality of human resource in Kieân Giang by training local laborers, attracting ones from other provinces and employing them effectively to achieve the aim, we use factor analysis and descriptive statistics to process primary data collected randomly from laborers and managers in Kieân Giang and secondary data from relevant authorities An overview of Kieân Giang human resource Kieân Giang population in 2009 was 1,688,228 persons and its average growth rate in 1999-2009 was 1.2% With a coastal line of 200 km long, fertile soil, abundant source of minerals, and beautiful landscape, Kieân Giang has good potentials for economic development, especially the marine economy favorable natural conditions allows a high personal income in Kieân Giang (us$1,167 in 2009 compared with the national average of us$1,064) In 2009 the share of agriculture in gross output of the province was 44.2% compared with 24% of the manufacturing sector and 31.8% of the service sector the structure of industry has changed favorably in recent years but the change was slow and uneven among industries fast development was found only in sea farming and aquatic product processing while hi-tech industries are totally absent potentials for development are tapped ineffec- * Cần Thơ University ** Kieân Giang College of Economics and Technology Development of tively, which leads to wastes of land; and mineral, marine and tourism resources the economic growth rate is pretty high but not sustainable because it depends too much on natural resources the fishery –provincial key industry- is facing great challenges because of rapid exhaustion of marine resources caused by unruly exploitation these shortcomings come directly from poor quality of the human resource as an agricultural province, the working population of Kieân Giang have a poor education and vocational training, and lack a creative thinking Industrialization and modernization requires a well-trained workforce while the education system of the province is weak and local authorities have no measures to attract well-trained laborers from other provinces with the result that trained laborers accounted for only 25.9% of the provincial labor force in 2009 In addition, habit of relying on natural resources is common among authorities, businesspersons and peasants as well, and as a result, priority is never given to plans to enhance the quality of human resources human resource ing courses only) is on the increase In 2007, there was only 0.04 laborer with postgraduate degree out of 1,000 laborers in comparison with 37.16 laborers with university first degrees; 29.12 laborers with technical secondary education and 135.17 laborers experiencing only short-term training courses these figures in 2009 were 0.43; 37.76; 32.57 and 188.24 respectively, which show that the human resource is of poor quality and slowly improved (taân, 2001) If no measures are taken to improve the situation, Kieân Giang economy will be in the doldrums because it depends totally on exploitation of natural resources by manual labor, which will not only fail to create a basis for a sustainable development but also lead to a “poverty trap” when natural resources are used up as pointed out by studies on natural resource curse (sachs and Warner, 2001; andersen and aslaken, 2008; and Williams, 2011; etc) Human resource development in Kieân Giang Generally, the education and training system in Kieân Giang has failed to meet the market de- Table 1: Trained labor in Kieân Giang (2007-2009) Education Postgraduate degree University first degree Technical high school 2007 Laborer 2008 As % Laborer 2009 As % Laborer As % 342 0.2 346 0.2 379 0.2 31,757 18.4 32,368 16.4 33,063 14.6 24,889 14.4 26,607 13.4 28,515 12.6 Short-term training course 115,526 67.0 137,926 70.0 164,818 73.6 Total 172,514 100.0 197,247 100.0 226,775 100.0 Source: Report on Program of human resource development by Kieân Giang People’s Committee In fact, changes in quality of human resource in Kieân Giang in recent years have not been remarkable, especially in the army of laborers with university first degree and higher table shows that the army of laborers with postgraduate degrees in Kieân Giang in 2009 rose to 379 from 346 in 2008 (an increase of 9.5%) and 342 in 2007 (an increase of 10.8%) number of laborers with university first degree in 2009 increased to 33,063 from 32,368 in 2008 (2.1% up) and 31,757 in 2007 (4.1% up) It is worth noting that proportion of laborers with secondary and higher education to the labor force is on the decrease while the proportion of poorly-trained laborers (with short-term train- mand the following table shows that in spite of increases in the number of schools, the proportions of pupils and of graduates from high schools to 10,000 persons were on the decrease this situation must be dealt with properly because high school graduates constitute a source of welltrained labor in future Economic Development Review - June 2011 Development of Table 2: School and pupil in Kieân Giang (2007-2009) Indicator General school 2007 2008 2009 492 506 513 Ratio of pupil to 10,000 residents 1,772 1,766 1,723 Proportion of high school graduates (%) 73.92 75.99 59.38 Source: Kieân Giang Statistics Office; Niên giám thống kê 2009 (2009 Statistical yearbook) table shows that number of students and graduates of technical high schools and vocational centers rose steadily in 2007 – 2009; and ratio of graduates to new students was rather high while the ratio of university graduates to freshmen was low, and very much lower in comparison with the population of the province although courses given at Kieân Giang training centers in cooperation with prestige universities were not as excellent as expected human resource governmental agencies in Kieân Giang factor analysis method helps identify the following components of shortcomings of the labor force: f1 = 0,199GIaIQuYetvanDe + 0,170nHaYBen + 0,167lamvIecDoclap + 0,207cHuYennGHIep + 0,264apluc + 0,282GanBo + 0,131tracHnHIem f2 = 0,355tHIcHnGHI + 0,298GIaotIep + 0,294cHuYenmon + 0,442Hocluc f3 = 0,542cautIen + 0,567HocHoI according to managers, love of learning (HocHoI), love of progress (cautIen), and ability to learn (Hocluc) are main shortcomings of surveyed laborers, along with ability to adjust to work (tHIcH nGHI), people skill (GIao tIep), expertise (cHuYenmon), sense of attachment (GanBo) and ability to deal with pressure (apluc); while sense of responsibility (tracHnHIem), and ability to work independently (lamvIecDoclap), etc are considered as unimportant lack of love of learning, love of progress, ability to deal with pressure and sense of attachment among laborers will affect badly the produc- Table 3: Student in Kieân Giang (2007 – 2009) 2007 Level Newly admitted 2008 Graduate Newly admitted 2009 Graduate Newly admitted Graduate University* 1,316 276 1,841 542 2,300 935 Three-year college 1,404 642 1,574 716 2,256 782 Technical high school 1,999 1,422 3,431 2,291 2,514 2,545 19,769 20,036 22,400 22,135 26,892 26,447 Vocational training Source: Report on Program of Kieân Giang human resource development Note: (*) in cooperation with universities from other provinces the army of university graduates in Kieân Giang is poor in terms of both quality and quantity to evaluate it more exactly, we have interviewed randomly 137 graduates who are working in Kieân Giang none of them graduated with honors, three of them ranked excellent (2.2%), 63 good (46%) and 71 medium (51.8%) these data show that Kieân Giang is badly in need of competent laborers the analyses allow a conclusion that the provincial labor force is poor and full of shortcomings to identify them, we have interviewed randomly 91 managers of companies and Economic Development Review - June 2011 tivity in Kieân Giang in a long term because poor and changing performance of labor force makes it difficult for authorities to carry out long-term training programs In addition, the army of managers in Kieân Giang also reveals shortcomings a random survey of 89 managers (44 executives in governmental agencies and 45 managers in companies) shows that of 44 executives as civil servants, only three of them (6.8%) had postgraduate degrees; 38 university first degrees (86.4%); two three-year college degrees (4.5%) and one high school degree (2.3%) as for corporate managers, one of them Development of (2.2%) had postgraduate degrees; 33 university first degrees (73.3%); three three-year college degrees (8.9%); four high school degrees (8.9%); and four had no formal training (8.9%) the data prove that human resource development in Kieân Giang has not been carried effectively regardless of various policies and plans adopted by the provincial government, such as plan 23/KH-uBnD approved on may 9, 2006 to train postgraduate labor in foreign universities in 2006-2015; resolution 44/2007/nQ-HÑnD dated July 1, 2007 on the program of human resource development up to 2020; plan 42/KH-uBnD dated July 19, 2007 on development of education and training service up to 2010 and directions for 2010-2015 period; Decision 1381/QÑ-uBnD made on aug 2, 2007 by Kieân Giang people’s committee on the plan to train vocational teachers up to 2010; Decision 34/2007/QÑ-uBnD dated aug 17, 2007 on the program of human resource development up to 2020; plan 50/KH-uBnD dated July 21, 2008 to train 50 masters/doctors and 200 young experts to hold high positions in future in 2008-2015; Decision 621/QÑ–uBnD dated march 17, 2008 on the list of occupations and professions of top priority for Kieân Giang socioeconomic development; and Decision 1726/QÑ-uBnD dated July 16, 2009 to form a management board for the plan 23/KH-uBnD to help experts to postgraduate studies in foreign universities, etc these shortcomings come from some incorrect view on importance of human resource development among provincial leaders with the result that effort and outlay on education and training are limited and misused In the coming years, the provincial authorities should work out and implement properly policies on human resource development and preferential treatment towards well-trained labor to make the best use of existing potentials Effort to attract well-trained labor attracting well-trained labor from other provinces and cities is also a good measure to improve the labor force quality this effort depends totally on vision taken by leaders of the province If they recognize the importance of human resource, their behavior towards the talents will attract them to Kieân Giang In recent years, many policies have been adopted by the provincial gov- human resource ernment to attract well-trained labor the following are some of them - Decision 12/2007/QÑ-uBnD dated feb 6, 2007 on allowances of vnD20 million for professors, 15 million for associate professors, 20 million for doctors, 10 million for masters, million for graduates of excellent rank, million for graduates of good rank and million for graduates of medium rank - Decision 12/2009/QÑ-uBnD dated feb 18, 2009 on incentives for experts from other provinces: (a) an initial allowance of vnD20 million for masters, specialized physicians of second level; (b) an initial allowance of vnD30 million for professors and doctors who teach in subjects and courses that universities and colleges in Kieân Giang cannot give such policies, however, are not attractive enough because they only offer some financial support without paying attention to other factors affecting laborers’ decision In addition, these policies reflect a favor-giving manner instead of a wish to develop a high-quality labor force for local economic growth competent laborers tend to protect their freedom and think carefully before making decision on offers they receive by asking questions about job descriptions, working environment, promotion prospects, living conditions, and corporate culture, and so on apparently, Kieân Giang policies on external sources of labor cannot answer satisfactorily these questions that is why few people ventured to take offers from Kieân Giang because they did not know how they could manage when initial allowance was used up and other opportunities were gone the situation is presented in table Table 4: Sources of labor in Kieân Giang (2007 – 2009) By expertise Source Inside Kieân Giang Outside Total High school College UniMaster Doctor versity 206 122 194 12 23 55 0 218 145 249 Source: Survey of 91 organizations in Kieân Giang Economic Development Review - June 2011 Development of table shows that 91 surveyed organizations have recruited 218 high-school graduates (206 from Kieân Giang and 12 from external sources); 145 college graduates (122 and 23 respectively); 249 university graduates (194/55); and three masters and six doctors from local sources It is worth noting that they could not recruit masters or doctors from external sources this problem can only be solved by understanding factors affecting laborers’ decision on their workplace to clarify the problem, we surveyed randomly 144 laborers with university first degree By applying factor analysis importance of factors affecting their decision is as follows: f1 = 0,163tHunHapcao + 0,335cvonDInH + 0,335DunGnGHe + 0,289nanGcaotrInHDo + 0,344moItruonGtot f2 = 0,284DeXInvIec + 0,275DanHtIenG + 0,447GanGIaDInH + 0,471tHanGtIen results show that tHanGtIen (promotion prospects) produces the biggest effect on laborers’ decision, followed by GanGIaDInH (being near to home), and moItruonGtot (good working environment), etc the weakest effects are from DeXInvIec (being easy to get job), DanHtIenG (corporate prestige) and tHunHapcao (starting high salary) thus, the job offer is much more attractive to well-trained laborers if it provides a good working environment, promotion prospects and convenient location provincial authorities should pay more attention to these aspects Measures the above analyses show that the breakthrough in effort to enhance the labor force quality is to adopt a right conception of the key role of human resource in economic growth In addition, the habit of relying on natural resources must be broken one of measures to achieve this aim is to impose heavy severance taxes with a view to forming a habit of protecting and using rationally natural resources severance tax payment could be used for developing the education and training system and technologyintensive industries to secure a sustainable development in future moreover, provincial authorities must pay more attention to tasks of training, attracting and employing the labor force Economic Development Review - June 2011 human resource a Training: - Increasing investment in facilities for training and expanding the network of schools should be included in an overall plan to beef up and enhance quality of general education service In addition, the provincial government should consider establishing a Kieân Giang university; and expanding and upgrading the community college, college of Health care, and college of economics and technology - allowing participation of private sector in education service: one of difficulties facing the education authority is the shortage of fund that is why the participation of other sectors in education service becomes so necessary to secure a good and effective participation, Kieân Giang authorities should adopt new policies to support non-public schools and encourage participation of private persons in establishment of schools according to the master plan worked out by the state - enhancing quality of the army of teachers: there must be policies to encourage teachers to enhance their performance by offering preferential treatment and incentives because it is the army of teachers that undertake the task of providing potential laborers with knowledge and work ethic b Attracting laborers from other provinces: as analyzed above, the decisive factor in the effort to attract well-trained labor is the vision adopted by the leadership the provincial government, therefore, should notice such solutions as: - creating an open and favorable working environment: Important aspects of this task are (1) good working conditions; (2) business autonomy provided that it is compliant with principles; and (3) an increasingly improved living standard - assigning important tasks to the talents, respecting personal competence, developing young generations, and struggling against the cronyism when employing laborers and deciding on promotion - looking for excellent students from Kieân Giang: as for excellent students, scholarship could be offered to help them continue their postgraduate studies at home or abroad Besides financial support, other forms of help, such as a dormitory for Development of students from Kieân Giang and bus tickets to home towns at summer vacation and teát festival, are also desirable c Employing the labor force: training and attracting well-trained labor are very difficult but they can quit Kieân Giang for better-paid jobs if their skills are not employed properly full attention must be paid to the following aspects when employing the well-trained labor: - establishing a mechanism for receiving and assigning tasks to employees according to their skills and expertise, and only promoting persons whose competence is equal to the task - Downsizing could be considered as a measure to recruit competent laborers, along with selecting candidates for high positions by holding competitive examinations or elections - evaluating work performance regularly in order to discover shortcomings, thereby taking action to deal with them (replacing the laborers in question, or sending them to refresher courses, etc.) - assessing the laborers through their performance instead of working hours to encourage them to tap their potentials to the full Conclusion the only way to a sustainable development is to enhance the quality of human resource like other provinces in the mekong Delta, Kieân Giang is rich in natural resources, which allows a high personal income but also leads to heavy dependence on natural conditions for economic growth the provincial government has tried its best to find measures to deal with the situation in recent years policies adopted by Kieân Giang authorities, however, are not really effective with the result that the proportion of high-school graduates fell, the army of well-trained laborers could not increase, and structure of labor is not as reasonable as expected because of lack of efforts from both local authorities and the public moreover, university graduates from Kieân Giang are reluctant to return to their home province for jobs because the Kieân Giang economy depends too much on seafarming, seafood processing and cement industries human resource while policies on labor from external sources ended in failure because they could not meet demand of skilled laborers to enhance the Kieân Giang labor force quality, the paper offer the following measures: (1) Breaking the habit of relying on natural resources; (2) Disseminating a right view on importance of the human resource among leaders of the province; (3) making more investments in development of the network of schools and army of teachers; (4) creating an open and fair environment for laborers; (5) selecting candidates for high position through examination or election; (6) making necessary adjustments based on regular evaluation of labor force quality; and (7) assessing laborers through their performance instead of working hours these measures, when carried out effectively, can enhance the quality of human resource, thereby ensuring a sustainable development for Kieân Giang economyn Reference Andersen, J & S Aslaken (2008), “Constitutions and the Resource Curse,” Journal of Development Economics 87, pp 227–246 Barro, R (2001), “Human Capital and Growth,” American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings 91(2), pp 12–17 Ding, S & J Knight (2011), “Why Has China Grown So Fast? The Role of Physical and Human Capital Formation,” Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 73(2), pp 141–174 Hanushek, E & D Kimko (2004), “Schooling, Labor-Force Quality, and the Growth of Nations,” American Economic Review 90(5), pp 1184–1208 Sachs, J.D & A.M Warner (2001), “The Curse of Natural Resources,” European Economic Review 45, pp 827–838 Tân, T.M (2011), “Giải pháp nâng cao chất lượng nguồn nhân lực cho phát triển kinh tế ôû Kieân Giang”, (Measures to enhance the quality of human resource of Kiên Giang), unpublished Master thesis, Cần Thơ University Williams, A (2011), “Shining a Light on the Re- source Curse: An Empirical Analysis of the Relationship between Natural Resources, Transparency, and Economic Growth,” World Development 39(4), pp 490–505 Economic Development Review - June 2011 ... of training, attracting and employing the labor force Economic Development Review - June 2011 human resource a Training: - Increasing investment in facilities for training and expanding the network... with them (replacing the laborers in question, or sending them to refresher courses, etc.) - assessing the laborers through their performance instead of working hours to encourage them to tap their... potentials to the full Conclusion the only way to a sustainable development is to enhance the quality of human resource like other provinces in the mekong Delta, Kieân Giang is rich in natural resources,