His recommendation was made at a national conference on vocational training, job generation and labour export in Hanoi on May 10.

Mr Dung said the current integration process has brought Vietnam a lot of advantages, including capital, market and management experience from developed countries. However, the country is facing challenges in this process such as cumbersome administrative procedures and unskilled labour force, which hinder investment inflows and efforts to meet the requirements of the labour market.

He quoted the latest statistics as saying that about 65 percent of Vietnamese people (equivalent to 53 million) are of working age, but more than 20 percent of them have experienced vocational training courses. He said the low rate of trained workers also gives cause for low productivity and competitiveness of the national economy. 

To overcome challenges in job generation, Mr Dung said local Party organisations and administrations should enhance their leadership in vocational training and job creation in their localities. He underscored the need to socialise vocational training, provide financial assistance to learners and further develop businesses and export processing zones to attract and create jobs for labourers.

Vietnam now has approximately 200,000 businesses and the figure is expected to amount to 500,000 by 2010.

According to the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, about 9.1 million new jobs were generated in the 2001-2006 period with 500,000 of them sent abroad under labour export contracts. The number of skilled workers rose to 20 percent in 2006.