Talent development in Vietnam hinges on reforming official assessment

As Vietnam pursues new national development goals amid increasingly demanding tasks, developing, attracting and making effective use of talent has become particularly important. Talented individuals are a key force in driving innovation, strengthening national competitiveness and creating fresh momentum for the country’s development.

According to experts and scientists, talent attraction and development must be rooted in practical needs and aligned with political tasks and the country’s development requirements at each stage. It’s imperative to address bottlenecks in the assessment, selection and deployment of officials to ensure that those with genuine ability are properly identified and placed in positions where they can make the greatest contribution.

Assessment must focus on competence and actual performance

Examining shortcomings in the current system of official assessment, Nguyen Ngoc Son of the National Assembly’s Committee for Science, Technology and Environment argued that the evaluation of talented individuals and those with genuine capabilities remains insufficiently substantive to serve as a reliable basis for assigning them suitable roles.

According to him, assessments still rely largely on procedural compliance and general criteria for measuring task completion, rather than on actual work outcomes, tangible deliverables and the value each individual brings to their area of expertise.

As the state apparatus undergoes streamlining, with Vietnam moving towards establishing job-position frameworks and competency standards for specific roles, Son cautioned against applying generic competency frameworks. Instead, requirements should be clearly defined for each position, taking into account the functions, responsibilities and operational realities of individual agencies and organisations.

“Identifying talented people is already a challenge, but an even greater one is arranging, assigning and deploying them in ways that allow them to make the best use of their abilities. This must go hand in hand with appropriate incentive mechanisms to attract and retain such people.

“Many sectors and countries are competing to attract highly qualified personnel. Therefore, developing a set of criteria for this purpose in Vietnam would provide an important foundation for more effective talent attraction, deployment and development,” he explained.

Beyond identifying talent and placing the right people in the right positions, an effective talent policy also requires clear, consistent and practical mechanisms to ensure that policy orientations are translated into tangible results.

Dinh Van Minh, former director of the Legal Department at the Government Inspectorate, stressed that the implementation of policies plays a decisive role in realising the Party Central Committee’s orientations on fundamental and comprehensive reform of personnel affairs, as well as talent development and utilisation. Sound policy directions must be translated into appropriate decisions, supported by the necessary regulations and instruments to make them work in practice.

“These orientations and policies must be institutionalised through sound regulations, with appropriate tools put in place to assess and screen officials, as well as attract and make effective use of talent. This should be reflected in the documents and regulations issued by the Party and the State.

“Ultimately, the country’s sustainable development in line with its chosen path depends, to a significant extent, on how well these policies are implemented. After all, good or poor outcomes in practice are closely linked to the quality of the contingent of officials and their capacity to translate policies into action,” Minh noted.

Long-term planning is key to developing future leadership

Alongside improvements to the mechanisms for assessing, selecting and deploying officials, talent development must be incorporated into a long-term strategy for building a capable leadership and management workforce. With Vietnam targeting development milestones by 2030 and a vision towards 2045, personnel planning must address not only immediate demands but also prepare human resources for future challenges.

This requires early and systematic plans for training, professional development and succession planning, extending beyond the current term to subsequent ones. Each term should bring measurable improvements in workforce quality, leadership capacity and organisational performance.

Such efforts will also lay the groundwork for a streamlined apparatus that operates with greater efficiency and effectiveness, meeting the country’s development requirements in the new era.

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