Research Results on the Implementation of Training and Development Policies for Human Resources in the Diplomatic Sector

is a cost of living regime applied uniformly to cadres and civil servants working for the same term in Vietnamese agencies abroad; those holding higher positions enjoy a higher cost of living index.

During their tenure at Vietnamese agencies abroad, cadres and civil servants shall be paid by the State for housing, electricity, water, and fuel; shall enjoy living expenses, some allowances, subsidies, and some other regimes provided by the State budget according to the provisions of this Decree; shall enjoy 40% of their current salary and leadership position allowance, seniority allowance exceeding the framework (if any) in the country; and shall continue to pay social insurance as when working in the country.

Regarding the living expenses, the living expenses of cadres and civil servants working for a term at Vietnamese agencies abroad have 3 minimum levels: 400; 450 and 500 USD/person/month. The minimum living expenses will be considered for adjustment when the consumer price index in the country where the Vietnamese agency abroad is headquartered increases by 10% or more or when the economic and financial conditions of the State allow. The living expenses index applied to Vietnamese agencies abroad is determined according to the system of standard titles and diplomatic positions of cadres and civil servants at Vietnamese agencies and the domestic salary coefficient. Regarding the allowance and subsidy regime, it is implemented as follows: Ambassadors and Heads of Vietnamese representative agencies abroad who are assigned by competent authorities of the Party and State to work concurrently in other countries or international organizations in other countries are entitled to a concurrent regional allowance of no more than 15% of the minimum living expenses. In cases where Vietnamese agencies abroad do not have enough cadres and civil servants according to the approved payroll, cadres and civil servants assigned by competent authorities to hold concurrent positions shall receive an allowance of no more than 15% of the minimum living expenses. Cadres and civil servants working for a term in areas during times of war or serious epidemics that threaten life shall receive an allowance, the maximum level not exceeding 30% of the minimum living expenses. Cadres and civil servants working for a term who must work at night or work overtime shall be arranged to take compensatory leave or receive overtime allowance according to current regulations. Female cadres and civil servants working for a term shall receive an allowance.

5% of the minimum cost of living monthly. The highest cost of living index is 250% and the lowest is 80%.

Some other regimes: Officials and civil servants working for a term at Vietnamese agencies abroad are paid by the State for the following amounts: Money for purchasing work clothes and essential items during their term of office; Airfare and 50 kg of baggage allowance beyond the regulations of the Aviation Department when leaving Vietnam for the working area and when returning home at the end of their term. Ambassadors and Heads of Vietnamese representative agencies enjoy business class airfare standards when arriving at the area for the first time and when returning home at the end of their term; when presenting credentials and greeting the end of their term in countries where they are concurrently serving and when traveling on business with officials of the host country or organized by the Diplomatic Corps. If traveling by train, they are entitled to first class ticket standards; Medical insurance abroad according to current regulations; Business travel allowances when traveling on business in the host country or in other countries according to current regulations. Officials and civil servants working for a term at Vietnamese agencies abroad are exempted from or have their import tax reduced for personal assets and vehicles brought back to the country at the end of their term in accordance with current law (for cars, the State's regulations in each period apply).

Regarding the regime of diplomatic spouses: Officials and civil servants working for a term at Vietnamese agencies abroad with the title of First Secretary or higher, Heads of Vietnamese agencies abroad who do not hold diplomatic positions, and officials and civil servants enjoying an overseas living allowance equivalent to the living allowance of First Secretary or higher are entitled to the regime of spouses covered by the state budget. The spouse of an Ambassador is entitled to 125% of the minimum living allowance; the spouse of a Consul, Minister Counselor, Counselor and Head of a Vietnamese agency abroad who do not hold diplomatic positions are entitled to 110%; the spouse of a First Secretary and officials and civil servants with a living allowance equivalent to First Secretary or higher are entitled to 80%. The spouse of an Ambassador or Head of a Vietnamese representative agency, when arriving in the host country to take up work and returning home by plane at the end of their term, is entitled to the standard airfare.

Business class plane. If traveling by train, the standard ticket is first class. The wife/husband is entitled to the medical examination and treatment insurance regime abroad like officials and civil servants working abroad and other regimes (uniform standards, air tickets, baggage allowance, etc.) according to current regulations. In addition, the wife/husband is entitled to a monthly allowance of 5% of the minimum living expenses prescribed in Clause 5, Article 7 of this Decree. The wife/husband who is an official or civil servant receiving a salary from the state budget during the time of enjoying the wife/husband regime at Vietnamese agencies abroad is entitled to 40% of the current basic salary in the country and is entitled to continue paying social insurance. The wife/husband who is not an official or civil servant but has participated in compulsory social insurance before going abroad is entitled to continue paying social insurance according to the provisions of the law on social insurance. The spouse of a state official or civil servant who has completed his/her term of office shall be accepted back to work at the old agency and shall be entitled to a salary increase in accordance with the regulations of the governing agency on the basis of general regulations of the State.

Regime for diplomatic experts : In addition, the Ministry of Home Affairs drafted a Decision of the Prime Minister on the regime of work responsibility allowances for experts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with allowances at 2 levels of 0.5 and 0.3 compared to the general minimum wage. Ministerial-level experts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are entitled to a work responsibility allowance of 0.5 compared to the general minimum wage; and Department-level experts are entitled to an allowance of 0.3. The work responsibility allowance is calculated and paid with the monthly salary and is not used to calculate social insurance and health insurance contributions and benefits. Experts of any level will receive the work responsibility allowance for that position from the month of recognition of the expert title until the month of dismissal, retirement or job transfer. In case of being transferred to the expert level, they will only receive a higher level of work responsibility allowance from the month of transfer. In case of having received a leadership position allowance, they will not receive a work responsibility allowance.

APPENDIX 6: RESEARCH RESULTS ON IMPLEMENTATION OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT POLICY FOR HUMAN RESOURCES IN THE FOREIGN AFFAIRS SECTOR


1. About training and development

Regarding medium-term and long-term training and development, in current implementation practices, the Diplomatic Academy is assigned to preside over three Government Projects: the Project "Training knowledge and skills for cadres, civil servants and public employees working in international integration in the 2016-2020 and 2021-2025 periods", the Project "Training and fostering knowledge and skills for the team working in people's foreign affairs in the 2021-2025 periods", and the Project "Training in foreign affairs and foreign languages, translation and interpretation for local foreign affairs civil servants in the 2016-2020 and 2021-2025 periods".

Regarding short-term training, in addition to medium-term and long-term programs, there are also a variety of short-term and high-quality specialized programs regularly organized by the units of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, closely following the direction of the Central Government and the common needs of localities. In particular, the form of training and development commonly applied in the industry is on-the-job training.

Regarding on-demand training , this is a form of training and development applied to many local foreign affairs human resources: With the goal of supporting the timely and effective improvement of the quality of cadres working in foreign affairs in localities, the training support programs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for localities are implemented in a variety of forms in the form of Government Projects, Sectoral Projects, targeted training and development programs, and courses designed on demand. Regarding pre-service training, in practice, pre-service training courses are more substantial and of higher quality: The Ministry has carried out many reforms in program content (focusing on skill training, especially writing skills), teaching methods and added many other activities (such as news A at the beginning of the class, visiting and exchanging with some central foreign affairs agencies and units of the Ministry) to increase the interaction and practicality of the course. Regarding on-site training, this is a special form of training and development that the Industry focuses on.

2. Content of training and development programs

Currently, the Ministry is organizing classes with a variety of content, serving different subjects with different learning goals, including:

- Classes serving the rotation work: (i) information update classes for the Heads of the Representative Offices and thematic seminars on the areas for the Heads of the Representative Offices chaired directly by the Ministry's leaders, with the participation of relevant units; (ii) General knowledge update class for officers preparing to go on a term of duty at representative offices; (iii) overseas consular professional class; (iv) overseas accounting professional class; (v) information technology class for officers in charge of IT at representative offices.

- Classes to improve knowledge and skills in foreign affairs and other skills for work: (i) Writing skills and research methods; (ii) Methods and skills for foreign affairs work; (iii) Seminars for foreign affairs work; (iv) Pre-public service; (v) Documents - Archives - Security;

- Program to send cadres for internship at representative agencies to train cadres to serve multilateral work.

Training programs for cadres to practice at representative agencies : For domestic training: The Ministry mainly sends cadres to attend training courses according to the regulations of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Central Organization Committee to serve the work of promotion, appointment, and salary increase such as: Senior and Intermediate political theory; State administrative management of main specialist and senior specialist programs; national security and defense; classes for reserve cadres, etc.

For overseas staff: The Ministry sends staff to participate in long-term courses to improve their academic qualifications such as Masters, PhDs, and short-term courses to improve their knowledge, skills, and expertise.

Regarding foreign languages, with practical English, there are training courses on drafting documents, specialized foreign affairs documents as well as English for foreign affairs communication; advanced foreign affairs negotiations in English...

There are also translation and interpretation classes in English, French, Chinese, Lao and Khmer and some other foreign languages ​​according to specific local requirements.

Regarding training in state management knowledge and job positions, professional title standards : Domestic training courses are mainly implemented on 04 groups of contents: (i) training according to ranks, civil servant ranks, civil servant promotions and according to leadership and management titles (Senior political theory; Intermediate political theory; Training in national defense and security knowledge for subjects; Training in leadership and management at the Department and Division levels; Training in state management knowledge for Senior Specialist, Senior Specialist, and Specialist programs); (ii) training and updating of professional knowledge; (iii) training in foreign affairs skills and expertise; (iv) improving foreign language proficiency, especially general foreign languages ​​and translation and interpretation skills.

3. Number of people trained

During the period from 2016 to 2018, the Ministry organized nearly 80 different training courses at the Ministry with 4,403 officials attending; introduced and processed procedures for about 400 officials to attend training courses for titles (chief experts, senior experts and national defense and security) and 112 civil servants and public employees were sent to study advanced political theory. In parallel with domestic training, the Ministry sent 269 officials to attend training courses abroad within the framework of agreements, projects and other international scholarship programs.

In 2019, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs chaired and coordinated the organization of 3 training courses abroad and 61 domestic training courses for 8,534 local leaders and officials nationwide, including 33 professional skills training courses, 2 specialized inspection training courses, 6 courses to update knowledge on international integration and 15 seminars and talks at the request of localities on the Free Trade Agreement between the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the European Union (EVFTA), International Law, Consular and Citizen Protection... and other thematic conferences (102); 16 training courses and 06 thematic talks; Send civil servants and public employees to attend 10 training and development programs according to their titles/ranks/grades at training institutions according to State regulations, with a total of 1,589 civil servants and public employees attending, an increase of 30% compared to 2018.

Of the total number of civil servants and public employees trained in 2019, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent 396 officials to attend training courses for positions: 33 for senior political theory; 12 for intermediate political theory; 93 for leadership and management at the Department level, 17 for Division level; 15 for senior expert; 28 for senior expert; 192 for specialist; 06 for national defense and security training. During the year, the number of officials sent to attend leadership and management training courses and state management courses for specialist programs increased dramatically to meet the need for additional certificates before appointment and the new regulations of the Ministry of Home Affairs on the State Management program for specialist levels.

For the group of human resources working in international cooperation in other ministries/departments/sectors , the Ministry of Foreign Affairs mainly plays the role of supporting training and fostering foreign affairs knowledge and some necessary diplomatic skills/professional skills according to practical requirements, as well as implementing a diplomatic knowledge training program for key leaders at all levels in the spirit of Comprehensive Diplomacy.

Figure 25: Scale of regular training as of December 31, 2020



Status

Training methods and levels

Scale by training industry

Total

Industry

III

Block

Industry IV


1

Postgraduate



383

1.1

Dr.



56

1.1.1

International Relations


51

51

1.1.2

International Law

05


05

1.2

Master



327

1.2.1

International Relations


187

187

1.2.2

International Law

80


80

1.2.3

International Economics


60

60

2

Regular university




2.1

International Relations


521

521

2.2

International Law

376



2.3

International Economics


451

451

2.4

International Communications Industry


464

464

2.5

English Language Department


398

398

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(Source: Diplomatic Academy, 2021)

Figure 26: List of permanent lecturers in charge of teaching


(Source: Diplomatic Academy, 2021) Regarding reserve training , by 2021, the Academy had enrolled 11 courses.

International Relations (QHQT) PhD students, 04 International Law (LQT) PhD courses, 21 QHQT Master courses, 09 LQT Master courses, 07 International Economics (KTQT) Master courses, 47 regular University courses, 05 College courses and 23 Intermediate courses. Currently, the Academy has stopped training at the College and Intermediate levels. Human resources in the industry are trained in Vietnamese programs and joint programs to train masters and bachelors of QHQT with Lyon III University of France and Victoria Wellington University of New Zealand.

Regarding the training policy for local foreign affairs personnel , in the 2018-2019 period, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs chaired and coordinated the organization of 29 classes for local leaders and key officials, mostly at the request of the localities, including the training and dialogue program "Economic development in the context of integration" chaired by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Fulbright University participated in teaching for female leaders of provinces/cities under the Central Government in 2018 with the participation of more than 100 delegates, including 35 female leaders.

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