Speeding up the rural industrialization and modernization in the
development strategy of Vietnam has been considered as a very important task in
the CPV and Vietnamese State’s agenda, given its contribution into the success of
the country as a whole. The rural area in Vietnam has the comparably lowest level
of development, has accounted for 70 per cent of the national population, 76 per
cent of labour forces, and has contributed up to 25-27 per cent of the nation’s
GDP. The development of the rural area has gone along with the quality of the
commune-level cadres who are the core forces of the grass-roots political system
where it deals with daily life of the mass. The capacity and the effectiveness of the
commune-level cadres have a direct impact on the development of rural area in
Vietnam.
In this study, we focus our analysis on a gap that is the current relationship
between the quality of commune-level cadres and the rural development in
Vietnam. Our research questions include:
– What are the characteristics of commune-level cadres in Vietnam in terms of
ethnic, age, gender, number of working years in the area, previous position,
number of working years holding the current position, the qualification and
education level.
– To what extent that the quality of the commune-level cadres has an impact on
the rural development in Vietnam (specifically, household’s living standard,
economic and social infrastructure)
– What are the implications in order to upgrade the quality of the commune-level
cadres in the rural industrialization and modernization in Vietnam?
In order to answer the above research questions, the study applies
correlation and regression analyses. Data mainly comes from the Vietnam Living
Standards Survey in 2006. In our model, the commune-level cadres include
commune president/vice-president, head/deputy head of police section and the
head/deputy head of cooperative.
The quality of the commune-level cadres is assessed basing on the following
information:
– The highest certificate on technique, administrative management, or political
background
– Educational level (number of years of schooling)
– Characteristics on ethnic, age, gender, number of working years in the area,
previous position, number of working years holding the current position, the
qualification and education level.
Information on the economic and social infrastructure is:
– Living standard: Income (expenditure) per capita at the commune level
– Economic infrastructure (electricity, road, school and medical units at the
commune level)
– Social disorder
The regression results show that:
– With regard to commune chairpersons, political degree and degree of
college or higher are important for increasing household living standard. Degree of
college or higher has a stronger affect than political degree of various kinds over
per capita real expenditure.
– With regard to commune leading cadres, the percentage of leading cadres
with college degree or higher plays a more important role than the one of other
kinds of degrees. The percentage of leading cadres with college degree or higher
seems to be the unique factor among the similar indicators that can increase the
household living standard.
– Age of commune chairperson has a positive impact on household living
standard. However, the impact is inversed at a certain age.
The study ends with some policy recommendations on (1) training and (2)
absorbing young cadres.