AOTS Journal 2018 AUTUMN No.13 (ENGLISH)

11/18

9No. 13 AUTUMN 2018Prof. Shiraki focused on such subjects as ‘keeping core personnel as the most critical challenge in HRM when starting rst operations’ and ‘most fundamental thing to recruit better personnel and make them stay in the original workplace is to keep competitive labor conditions.’ He also touched upon the following points:Mr. Hoang, touching upon ‘strength’ of the labor force in Vietnam as young, active and able workers to absorb and apply technologies as well as the low level of personnel costs, mentioned its ‘weakness’ that Japanese corporations ought to know in advance as follows:As more Japanese corporations today are globalizing, Vietnam is increasing its importance as a destination of Japanese investment. On the other hand, Japanese expatriate corporations in Vietnam need to secure and nurture excellent personnel locally in order to make prots under smooth labor-management relations. This year’s international symposium, held in March 2018, invited lecturers and panelist with profound experience and offered an inspiring forum for all Japanese corporations either already operating in or planning to move to Vietnam on such human-related issues for smoother operations as how to nurture and employ local personnel as well as communication between labor and management.Part One: Keynote LecturesDr. Mitsuhide Shiraki, professor of the Faculty of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University, and Mr. Hoang Van Anh, Deputy Director General of the Membership and Training Dept. of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), gave lectures on ‘Characteristics of the labor situation and labor-management relations in Vietnam,’ respectively.Part Two: Panel DiscussionWith the subject of ‘Challenges for Japanese expatriate corporations in Vietnam for labor-management relations and HRD,’ Prof. Shiraki, as moderator, and Mr. Hoang were joined by an expert on the Mekong region economies and executives from two Japanese expatriates in Vietnam as panelists.Report of International Symposium: Symposium on Labor Situation in Vietnam: Challenges for Japanese Expatriate Corporations on Labor-Management Relations and Human Resource Development Dr. Mitsuhide ShirakiMr. Hoang Van AnhThis symposium was organized as part of a training scheme to deal with labor-management relations and human resource management practices in Japan for personnel of employer’s organizations as well as corporations from different countries. AOTS has been conducting this scheme at the behest of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. For details of this program, please visit the following page: https://www.aots.jp/en/project/eocp/index.html‘It seems to be critical to involve employees together with their family members when it comes to consider labor conditions and environment in Vietnam. Great impact is known for such events as sports day or company tours by involving employees’ family members as well. For instance, an employee comes to you and says, “I want to quit working at this company,” then his or her family or relatives try to discourage the employee to quit by saying, “What’s the matter with you? What are you going to do by quitting such a good working place?” and thus indirectly they are helping the stability of employees in Vietnam.’ (Excerpt from his keynote lecture)‘Education and training in general in Vietnam are not ready to cope with industrialization and modernization processes as well as changes in the environment to enter global business and therefore not able to respond to the required needs for HRD; consequently, the quality of the labor force is not high at present. Competitiveness in terms of personnel is also lacking due to insufcient development of systems to secure and administer better personnel in addition to reward them. (Excerpt from his keynote lecture)Should more foreign corporations enter the Vietnamese market and employ local personnel, we would see a shortage in the appropriate labor force. Such a situation would require those corporations to provide education.’ (Summarized from panel discussion)