Building comprehensively developed Vietnamese people, discovering, training, attracting, and using talents

Prof., Dr. LAI QUOC KHANH
University of Social Sciences and Humanities,
Vietnam National University, Hanoi

1. Introduction

In the process of national development, the people always play a central role, are the creative subject, and the key driving force. The idea of “taking people as the root” has been affirmed by our Party throughout many Congresses, especially at the 13th National Party Congress. In the context of Industrial Revolution 4.0 and the increasingly deep globalization trend, building the Vietnamese people is not only a strategic task, but also an urgent requirement for the country to develop rapidly, sustainably, and enhance its position in the international arena.

Along with that, discovering, training, attracting, and using talents becomes a breakthrough, both to effectively promote human resources and to create a foundation of knowledge - creativity - innovation for the future of our country. However, current practices pose many challenges in terms of mechanisms, policies, environment for talent development, and human-oriented value systems. Therefore, researching, evaluating, and proposing solutions to build comprehensively developed Vietnamese people, while discovering and using talents, is of great significance in concretizing the Party’s guidelines and policies, contributing to realizing the aspiration to develop a prosperous and happy country.

2. Content

2.1. The 13th Congress’s policy on building comprehensively developed Vietnamese people; focusing on discovering, training, attracting, and using talents

Throughout the revolutionary process, the Communist Party of Vietnam has always attached great importance to the human factor in general and to talents in particular. Entering the period of renovation, faced with the urgent demands of reality, our Party attaches even greater importance to the task of comprehensive human development, including discovering, training, attracting, and using talents. The Party’s policies on these issues have also been increasingly developed and improved, expressed in the Documents of the 13th National Party Congress.

On building comprehensively developed Vietnamese people

The 13th Congress did not stop at the issue of “building comprehensively developed Vietnamese people”, but raised the issue at a higher level, which is “comprehensively developed Vietnamese people”, affirming that building “comprehensively developed Vietnamese people is gradually becoming the center of the socio-economic development strategy”(1), while emphasizing: “building comprehensively developed people and building an advanced Vietnamese culture, imbued with national identity so that Vietnamese culture and people truly become an endogenous strength, a driving force for national development and national defense”(2). Compared to previous Congresses, the 13th Congress for the first time linked the issue of “promoting people” with “human development” and with ensuring “human security”, while setting the goal of “improving the quality of life and happiness index of Vietnamese people”(3).

The Congress did not specifically state the qualities and capacities that need to be developed in Vietnamese people(4), but set a broader requirement: “Focus on researching, identifying and implementing the construction of a national value system, a cultural value system and human standards associated with preserving and developing the Vietnamese family value system in the new period”(5), with a framework of qualities and capacities including: knowledge, ethics, aesthetics, life skills, physical fitness, and stature.

To carry out the task of comprehensive human development, the 13th Congress promoted the role of culture, emphasized the role of education and training, pointed out the need to “build, develop, create the most favourable social environment and conditions”(6), focused on social development management, and considered these as solutions for comprehensive human development.

The Congress not only addresses the aspect of construction (“building”) but also emphasizes the aspect of struggle (“fighting”), , focusing on: “criticizing, fighting, repelling the bad, the evil, the backward, opposing wrong views and behaviors that harm human culture and lifestyle”(7); “Gradually rising to overcome the limitations of Vietnamese people; building Vietnamese people of the new era, closely and harmoniously connecting traditional values and modern values”(8).

On evaluating, attracting, training, and using talents

The 13th Congress’s policy on talent has the following main points:

In terms of types, the Congress mentioned talents in the field of science and technology, including intellectuals; talents in the team of cadres, civil servants, and talents in human resources in general.

Regarding the stages of human resource work, the 13th Congress clearly pointed out the stages of attracting, selecting, recruiting, nurturing, training, using, promoting, and treating human resources appropriately.

Regarding mechanisms and policies for talents, the 13th Congress set out the requirement to “have a breakthrough mechanism to attract and utilize talents”(9), “create a breakthrough in... attracting and using talents”(10), “effectively implement policies on training, fostering, attracting, using and rewarding... talents”(11); “Continue to renovate mechanisms and policies, improve the quality of attracting and training talents”(12).

To effectively implement and to move towards renovation and create breakthroughs in mechanisms and policies for talents, the Congress pointed out comprehensive solutions, from “strongly arousing the spirit of patriotism, the will of national self-reliance, the strength of great national unity, and the aspiration to develop a prosperous and happy country. Promoting the combined strength of the entire political system and culture, the Vietnamese people”(13), to applying a system of solutions simultaneously with solutions to build a team of intellectuals, build a team of cadres, civil servants and develop high-quality human resources, including solutions on education and training, science and technology, emphasizing the need to protect talents, and to screen and replace those who no longer maintain good qualities.

2.2. Results of implementing the Party’s policy on building comprehensively developed Vietnamese people, focusing on discovering, training, attracting, and using talents since the 13th Congress

Achievements in building comprehensively developed Vietnamese people

First of all, in terms of issuing implementation documents, the results of implementing the Party’s policies are reflected in the issuance of many important documents, both at the central and local levels, such as: Decision No. 1909/QD-TTg dated November 12, 2021 of the Prime Minister approving the Cultural Development Strategy to 2030; Decision No. 1660/QD-TTg dated October 2, 2021 of the Prime Minister approving the school health program for the period 2021-2025; Decision No. 2214/QD-TTg dated December 28, 2021 of the Prime Minister approving the program to implement the movement “All people unite to build a cultural life” for the period 2021-2026; Instruction No. 93-HD/BTGTW dated February 1, 2023 of the Central Propaganda Department; and so on.

Implementing the Central direction, many provinces and cities have issued very specific and practical implementation documents. These documents have brought the Party’s policy on comprehensive human development into life, contributing to creating changes in social life, promoting the comprehensive development of the Vietnamese people.

In practice, the Party’s policies have contributed to creating positive changes in the comprehensive development of the Vietnamese people. This is clearly seen when comparing Vietnam’s human development index in recent years. On January 6, 2022, for the first time, Vietnam published the Human Development Index Report for the period 2016 - 2020. During this period, Vietnam’s HDI index increased by 0.024 with a growth rate of 3.52%; an average annual increase of 0.87%(14).

On September 9, 2022, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Vietnam released the Global Human Development Report (HDR) 2021 - 2022. According to the report, Vietnam’s Human Development Index (HDI) in 2021 was 0.703, up two places in the global rankings, to 115/191 countries. The report stated that Vietnam has been in the high human development group since 2019 and has made steady progress on all three aspects of the HDI since the 1990s(15).

Regarding physical development, according to the announcement of the Vietnamese Government, the average life expectancy of the Vietnamese population in 2020 is 73.7 years old (an increase of 0.1 years compared to 2019: 73.6 years old). According to statistics from https://www.worldometers.info, the average life expectancy of Vietnam is 75.77 years old (both male and female); of which females are 79.85 and males are 71.73, ranking 84th in the world. This is a high level compared to the general level of developing countries and has a low average per capita income. According to the results of the 2019 - 2020 Nutrition Survey report, the height of Vietnamese men is currently 168.1 cm, and women is 156.2 cm. Compared to 10 years ago, young men increased by 3.7 cm, while women increased by 2.6 cm. Among Southeast Asian countries, the height of Vietnamese people currently ranks behind Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. According to the average height table of countries in the world based on research by NCD Risk Factor Collaboration, the height of Vietnamese people ranks 153rd out of 201 countries/territories worldwide(16).

On discovering, training, attracting, and using talents

Along with implementing the policy of comprehensive human development, the Party and the State have issued many documents to promote attracting, training, and employing talents. Implementing the full-term working program of the 13th Central Executive Committee, the 4th, 5th and 6th Central Conferences have issued documents, giving specific guiding views related to talent work, such as: Conclusion No. 21-KL/TW dated October 25, 2021; Resolution No. 27-NQ/TW dated November 9, 2022; Resolution No. 28-NQ/TW dated November 17, 2022; Conclusion No. 50-KL/TW dated February 28, 2023 of the Politburo, etc. On the State side, there is Resolution No. 76/NQ-CP dated July 15, 2021 of the Prime Minister; Decision No. 297/QD-BNV dated April 28, 2020 of the Minister of Home Affairs promulgating the Plan to develop a national strategic project to attract and utilize talents, etc. At the local level, many provinces and cities have developed action plans to implement the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress, resolutions of the National Assembly, the Government, etc., paying great attention to the issue of attracting, training, and using talents.

In practice, in all areas of social life, more and more talented people have appeared, from leaders, political managers, to educators, scientists, students, artists, cultural activists, businessmen, etc. This group of talents has contributed to the historical achievements of the renovation period. In terms of talent work, many localities and units have been successful in attracting, training and promoting talents, such as Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics, Hanoi National University, etc., contributing to affirming that the Party’s policies and guidelines, most directly those of the 13th Congress, are very correct, while providing many valuable lessons that need to be summarized.

Limitations in building a comprehensively developed Vietnamese people

Reality shows that the comprehensive development of Vietnamese people has not reached the desired level, the current human development index is still at an average level compared to other Southeast Asian countries; many goals in phase 1 of the Master Plan for the development of physical strength and stature of Vietnamese people in the period 2011-2030 have not been achieved; the average life expectancy of Vietnamese people has increased, but the healthy life expectancy is low(17), etc. It can be seen that the task of building comprehensively developed Vietnamese people is facing specific problems: (1) The criteria system of comprehensively developing Vietnamese people plays a target role for guidelines, policies and solutions that have not been clearly defined; (2) Guidelines, policies and solutions for comprehensively developing the Vietnamese people are not complete, synchronous, and corresponding to the criteria for comprehensively developed Vietnamese people; (3) The awareness and participation of many subjects, including Vietnamese people themselves, have not met the requirements; (3) The role of fields such as literature - art, education - training, science - technology in the comprehensive development of Vietnamese people has not been fully promoted; (4) The necessary social environment for the comprehensive development of Vietnamese people has not been created; (5) Negative phenomena in society are affecting Vietnamese people, hindering and distorting the comprehensive development of Vietnamese people; (6) The negative side of the market economy, media and the international integration process are having multi-dimensional impacts, including negative impacts on the development process of Vietnamese people.

On discovering, training, attracting, and using talents

Although Vietnam’s talent strategy has achieved certain results, it is not commensurate with the potential and does not meet the requirements of national development(18). The quality of talent is not high(19). The number of talents in various fields of social life is not large, and the distribution structure is uneven. There are fields with a large concentration of talented people, such as education-training, science-technology, etc., but there are fields, especially those in material production, where the appearance of the talent force is unclear and difficult to count up. Even in fields with a large concentration of talent, compared with many countries in Southeast Asia, Vietnam still lags far behind, such as the ratio of lecturers with doctoral degrees, professorial titles, and associate professors to the total number of university lecturers, or the average ratio of international publications per university lecturer is still low.

There are many challenges facing the talent strategy in Vietnam today, such as: The criteria for identifying talent are not clearly defined; The remnants of traditional communitarianism are still restraining the individual factor, hindering the community’s recognition of talented individuals, as well as eliminating the motivation to assert and express themselves of outstanding individuals. The way of thinking still focuses too much on the public sector, leading to unreasonable mobility of talent between the public and private sectors, thereby leading to confusion in the development and implementation of related policies(20).

The mechanism and policies for discovering, attracting, and using talents have not really made a breakthrough. The viewpoint and determination of the country’s leaders are very clear and strong; the experiences that can be referenced from other countries are also very rich. However, it seems that Vietnam has not yet found its own way of doing things that is suitable for the country’s conditions. The main policies and guidelines that are concerned with Vietnamese talents in general do not pay attention to talents from specific social groups to solve specific problems such as talents of ethnic minorities, talents in religions, etc. At the same time, they do not pay due attention to attracting and using foreign talents.

The social environment that encourages, honors, and motivates the development and promotion of talents has not been created. Competition in attracting and using talents is increasingly fierce, with the advantage belonging to developed countries with strong potential. The participation of the whole society, especially the subjects directly managing and using talents, is not strong enough in all stages of talent work. The motivation to rise up and contribute by Vietnamese people, including those who are talented and have the potential to become talented, has not been strongly aroused.

2.3. Some solutions

Based on the Party’s forecast of the world and national situation in the coming years, the human factor, the talent factor, plays an increasingly important role in the national development strategy, just as Ho Chi Minh instructed: “No matter what, everything is done by people, and from small to large, from near to far, it is all the same”(21), and “our country needs to be constructed. The construction needs talents”(22).

The Party’s viewpoints on comprehensive human development and talent work need to be persistently implemented. However, based on the actual achievements and limitations in comprehensive human development and talent strategy in Vietnam in recent times, there are a number of solutions that need to be considered and emphasized in the documents of the 14th National Party Congress.

Firstly, for the comprehensive development of Vietnamese people.

Continuing to affirm the viewpoint of “comprehensive human development” as stated above, instead of “building a comprehensively developed human being”, it is necessary to emphasize that “comprehensive human development” is a goal of socialism and put “comprehensive human development” in the central position of the “national development strategy”, not just the “socio-economic development strategy”.

Comprehensive human development requires attention to both community human values and individual human values, in which the diversity of individual values is recognized in a harmonious relationship with community values. Fighting individualism is also fighting communitarianism.

Highlighting some basic standards of Vietnamese people in the new era to orient the goal of comprehensive development of Vietnamese people, including standards that reflect Vietnamese identity and common standards of global people.

In addition to the system of human development subjects as mentioned above, it is necessary to emphasize the role of the family, the social environment (learning environment, working environment, social media, digital space), and the initiative and capacity of each individual in development.

In the context of promoting the construction and perfection of socialist democracy and the socialist rule-of-law state of the people, by the people, and for the people, it is necessary to raise the issue of building civic culture and civic ethics reflected in the system of values, standards, and codes of conduct required of modern citizens.

Linking comprehensive human development with national governance and implementing social policies to ensure the coordination of resources and solve related social problems for the comprehensive development of Vietnamese people.

Continue to affirm the role and responsibility of the fields of education-training, literature-arts, physical education-sports, health... for comprehensive human development.

Combining “building” with “fighting” in comprehensive human development.

Secondly, on discovering, training, attracting, and using talents.

Approaching talent from the theory of elite, linking talent strategy with comprehensive human development strategy and national development strategy, in which talent development is a goal of comprehensive human development and a “breakthrough” of national development.

Clearly define a specific system of talent criteria, suitable to the requirements and tasks of protecting and developing the country in the current context of the nation - humanity, nation – international relations, with a variety of types of talent corresponding to the types, nature, fields, areas of operation, personal composition, and so on.

Improve the institutional framework on talent in the direction of increasing authority and responsibility for actors in discovering, training, attracting and valuing talents, taking effectiveness as the main assessment criterion instead of placing excessive emphasis on procedures and formalities; taking valuing and honoring talents as the breakthrough link to create momentum that promotes other stages in the talent strategy.

Clearly define the roles, responsibilities, qualities, and required capacities of the subjects participating in implementing the talent strategy.

Maximize resource mobilization, especially social resources, for talent strategy. Form a culture of tolerance in dealing with talents, taking common goals, common interests, the political regime, and the Fatherland as the fulcrum to gather and assemble talents, while respecting individual values, as long as it does not harm the common goals and common interests.

Have forms of struggle, denunciation and strict sanctioning for acts of restraining, obstructing and persecuting talents that cause the country to lose talents.

3. Conclusion

In the context of the profound changes in the world and domestic situation, the concretization and effective implementation of the Party’s policies on human development and the use of talents requires the synchronous participation by the entire political system, along with innovative thinking, drastic, practical, and long-term actions. Thereby, gradually building a generation of Vietnamese citizens with ethics, knowledge, mettle, and capacity for innovation, taking on the responsibility of building and defending the Fatherland in the new era and in the context of global integration.

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Received: June 23, 2025; Revised: July 3, 2025; Approved for publication: July 14, 2025.

Author’s email: laiquockhanh.vnu@gmail.com

Endnotes:

1), (2), (3), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9), (10), (11), (12), (13) CPV: Documents of the 13th National Party Congress, vol.I, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2021, pp.65, 115-116, 202, 143, 116, 65, 143, 110, 115, 142, 160, 34.

(4) The 7th National Party Congress (including the 1991 Platform), the 9th and 11th Congresses (including the 2011 supplemented and developed Platform), and the 12th Congress specifically stated the qualities and capacities that need to be built in Vietnamese people. The 1991 Platform stated: “That is a person with a sense of mastery, a sense of civic responsibility; with knowledge, health and good work; a cultured and affectionate life; a true patriotism and international spirit”; the 9th Congress stated: “Comprehensively developing Vietnamese people in terms of politics, ideology, intelligence, morality, physical strength, creativity, community awareness, compassion, tolerance, respect for human relationships, a cultured lifestyle, and harmonious relationships in the family, community and society”; Platform 2011: “Building Vietnamese people with patriotism, sense of ownership, civic responsibility; knowledge, health, good labour; cultured and affectionate life; true international spirit”.

(14) Read: General Statistics Office: Vietnam’s Human Development Index Report 2016-2020, https://gso.gov.vn.

(15) Vietnam’s Human Development Index (HDI), 1990: 0.482; 2000: 0.588; 2010: 0.663; 2005: 0.684; 2018: 0.697; 2019: 0.703, and has remained stable above 0.7 continuously to date, Read: https://hdr.undp.org.

(16) Read: Le Nga: Vietnamese people’s height increases but is still among the lowest, https://vnexpress.net, June 22, 2025.

(17) The average life expectancy of Vietnamese people has increased, but the number of healthy years is low compared to many countries. The average number of years women live with illness is about 11 years, and men about 8 years. Read: Vo Thu: The average life expectancy of Vietnamese people is more than 73 years, but the number of healthy years is only 64 years, https://vietnamnet.vn, August 10, 2022.

(18) According to the Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI), in 2020 Vietnam ranked 96/132 countries, which is at a low level. If comparing the 2015-2017 period, the average ranking was 71, the 2018-202 period was 73, then Vietnam has dropped in rank. The Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2020, https://insead.edu. In 2021, Vietnam ranked 84th in the world, and by 2022, it returned to 74th in the world, which is still lower than the average of the 2015-2017 period. Read: The Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2021, https://insead.edu.

(19) According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, in 2017, the total number of patent applications and utility solutions of Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam were 3,133, 1,439, and 669, respectively. Currently, about 10% of Vietnamese enterprises still use technology from the 1970s, 30% use technology from the 1980s, and 50% use technology from the 1990s. Read: T. Nhan: Patents in Vietnam are granted to foreigners, https://nld.com.vn, July 20, 2020.

(20) According to data from the Ministry of Home Affairs, in the “wave” of 39,552 people quitting or transferring jobs from the public sector to the private sector in more than two years (from January 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022), the medical sector has 9,680 people. Among those quitting or transferring jobs, there are 653 PhDs, 133 Specialist II doctors, 4,018 Masters, and 1,066 Specialist I doctors. There are 19,637 university graduates.

(21) Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, vol.5, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2011, p.281.

(22) Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, vol.4, op. cit., p.504.