Graduates to become vice chairs

In a bid to inject youth and vigour into the running of rural communities, 559 university graduates from 20 provinces have been selected and trained to become communal vice chairman in 62 poor districts.

The announcement was made on the e-Government web portal on Friday a year after the project to recruit young and talented ethnic minority individuals to improve local people's livelihoods in 600 communes was launched.

Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Nguyen Tien Dinh, the project's director, said civil servants and central Government and local officials had worked closely with the Vietnam Youth Union to select the right persons for the right jobs.

"More than 1,700 candidates were considered for the positions, of which just 559 were selected," Dinh said.

"The 559 successful candidates have been trained. Of those selected, 224 (from 13 provinces) have been certified and appointed vice chair persons at communal people's committees."

Although they have only been in their posts for two months, these young leaders have quickly integrated into the local communities, according to Dinh.

He added that just weeks into their new five-year terms, these young vice chair persons had already won the hearts and minds of the communal leadership and local people. He said some had introduced innovations in crop production and advised local farmers on growing alternative crops.

The northern mountainous province of Cao Bang has already trained 44 young leaders to run 44 communes. Each district party committee has assigned a specific committee member to give guidance to the new vice chair person, Nguyen Hoang Anh, chairman of the Cao Bang Provincial People's Committee, said.

Dinh added that when the new vice chairs' five-year-term was over, they could reapply to stay in their post.

"The Government will facilitate conditions for these young talented intellectuals to further contribute to the nation," Dinh said.

Among the 559 new recruits, 379 majored in agriculture, forestry, irrigation, land management, environment, agriculture and rural development, economics, finance and accounting. A further 115 were trained as teachers, engineers and IT experts, while the remaining 65 majored in culture, law and administration.

Just over 38 percent of the new vice chairs are ethnic Kinh, 15.92 percent Tay, 12.7 percent Muong and the remaining 6.26 percent mostly Mong.

This project, which is expected to cost about VND200 billion (USD10.25 million), will run until 2020.