VietNamNet Bridge – The recruitment of 500 of the nation's best and brightest to work as civil servants in rural and mountainous communes, will promote development, transparency and equality, said head of the Ministry of Home Affairs' Youth Affairs Department, Vu Dang Minh.

Youth volunteers from the Ha Noi University of Agriculture give guidance on planting rice for farmers in the northern province of Cao Bang. The recruitment of 500 youth to work as civil servants in rural and mountainous areas is believed to promote the country's development and equality.

The project was approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung last September, in a bid to select some of the nation's brightest young minds to work at People's Committees in disadvantaged areas across the country, between 2013 and 2020.

The project aims to improve the quality of human resources in underprivileged communes, promote socio-economic development and contribute to the reduction of hunger and poverty in disadvantaged localities.

Addressing a meeting on the project's implementation, held yesterday by the Government's web portal, Minh reiterated that equal opportunity would apply to all candidates vying for placements.

"It will be difficult for wrongdoing to occur," he said.

He also said that recruitment processes would operate on a strict basis from the point of receiving applications, to classifying them and interviewing short-listed candidates.

"Each Home Affairs Department in every locality will establish a recruitment council and the ministry will send teams to oversee the process," he said.

Selected candidates are expected to undergo a three-month training course and propose a feasible initiative to promote local socio-economic development, he added.

The move aims to ensure the selection of top candidates to develop a qualified base of public servants for each locality, he said.

Both the ministry and local agencies are expected to cross-check recruitment outcomes, with applications already being sent to the ministry and local Home Affairs Departments.

Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Nguyen Tien Dinh said that since 2011, the Government had been working on a project to send 600 selected candidates to the 64 most disadvantaged districts, to work as vice chairpersons of communal People's Committees.

Dinh affirmed the project had provided valuable insights that would assist the implementation of the Government's latest effort to place 500 young candidates in rural areas, he said.

So far, 163 districts in 34 provinces nationwide have lodged their human resource needs with the project's administrators.

However, Dinh admitted the project would not be able to meet all the human resource deficiencies reported by communes, urging them to be proactive in recruiting staff and improving staff skills.

Vice chairman of the northern Ha Giang Province People's Committee, Sen Chin Ly, said that in addition to selecting young people to fill vice-chairpersonships and other staff positions at local People's Committees, the provinces were conducting their own efforts to recruit young, talented candidates.

He also said an increasing amount of young candidates were becoming interested in working in the public sector.

"In addition to their personal desire for a job, young people want to contribute more to the development of their hometown and the country," he said.

He admitted that leadership and civil servants in remote areas had become sluggish and that young, enthusiastic employees would have a positive effect.

Nguyen Anh Dung, 26, from northern Hung Yen Province, is a graduate of the Water Resource University and applied for a position as a commune land management officer in the Kim Boi District of northern mountainous Hoa Binh Province.

"Firstly, I found that I could meet the job requirements and make use of what I had learned at school. More importantly, I wanted to do something to help people living in remote, disadvantaged areas," he said.

Dung's family used to oppose his decision. Instead, they wanted him to get a job in Ha Noi, which was much nearer to his hometown than Hoa Binh Province, let alone easier to live in than in poor, mountainous areas.

"I persuaded my family and got my mother's and grandfather's blessing as they understood the significance of my decision," he said.

Another candidate, Vu Thi Huong, 23, of Ninh Binh Province, said that after graduating from Trade Union University, she wanted to return to her hometown to work.

"The big city can offer more job opportunities for law graduates like me than rural areas," she said. "But I think I can be more helpful to people in my hometown."

VNS/VNN