HCM CITY — Despite strong growth potential rooted in its river culture and green economy, the Mekong Delta’s tourism sector faces a persistent paradox: businesses can recruit workers with relative ease, but struggle to retain them amid low incomes, limited training and weak career prospects.

Alongside agriculture and fisheries, tourism has been identified as one of the Mekong Delta’s sectors with substantial room for growth, rooted in its riverine ecosystem, indigenous culture and green economy. 

However, this promise has yet to translate into stable employment pathways for much of the local workforce, reinforcing long-standing challenges in labour retention across the sector.

This reality reflects deeper issues in the labour market, workforce quality and support mechanisms for private enterprises in the Delta.

At the recent seminar on “Developing private enterprises in the Mekong Delta in the spirit of Resolution 68-NQ/TW”, jointly organised by the Academy of Politics Region IV and the Cần Thơ City Political School, Võ Nguyễn Minh Thái, representing Cantho Eco Resort in Phong Điền commune in Cần Thơ City, said that while the region’s tourism workforce is generally sufficient in number, it lacks stability and professionalism.

According to Thái, businesses can recruit staff relatively quickly, but employee turnover is common, especially among younger workers. 

Many see tourism jobs as temporary options rather than long-term careers in which to invest skills, accumulate experience and commit themselves. 

As a result, businesses are constantly recruiting and retraining, driving up costs and affecting service quality.

The causes go beyond income levels. They also stem from the characteristics of the region’s tourism sector, which is dominated by small and micro-sized enterprises with limited financial resources. 

Such firms find it difficult to offer clear career pathways, long-term remuneration policies or working environments competitive with major tourism hubs such as HCM City, Đà Nẵng or Nha Trang.

Meanwhile, local tourism training remains overly theoretical and insufficiently aligned with business needs, forcing new recruits to be retrained from scratch.

From a broader regional perspective, MSc Ngô Thị Hương Giang of the Academy of Politics Region IV noted that the human resources challenge facing private enterprises in the Mekong Delta is not an isolated issue, but rather a reflection of the region’s overall labour market conditions.

The Delta has an abundant labour force, but workforce quality remains below development requirements. 

Currently, only about 26.5 per cent of workers in the region have received formal training with qualifications or certificates, significantly lower than the Red River Delta with 37.14 per cent and the Southeast with 28.19 per cent. 

This gap highlights major limitations in skills, craftsmanship and adaptability, particularly in the context of digital transformation and growth model innovation, Giang said.

In terms of income, average monthly earnings in the Mekong Delta in the first quarter of 2024 stood at around VNĐ6.9 million (US$260), well below the Southeast with VNĐ9.5 million and the Red River Delta with VNĐ8.9 million. 

Low income levels not only reflect limited labour productivity and job quality, but also fuel outward labour migration, especially among young and skilled workers.

Imbalances between the supply and demand of skilled labour, coupled with constraints in technology adoption and digital transformation, are making it difficult for private enterprises to improve productivity and job quality. 

As climate change increasingly affects the Mekong Delta, the challenge is not merely to create more jobs, but to develop a high-quality workforce capable of participating in green, circular and digital economic models.

Giang therefore called for closer alignment between human resource training and the actual needs of businesses, promoting a “local authorities – educational institutions –enterprises” linkage model, with priority given to key sectors such as logistics, agro-processing, tourism and climate change adaptation. 

Developing high-quality human resources, she stressed, is not only an economic solution but also a social one, helping to improve job quality and lay the foundations for sustainable development of the private sector in the region.

Private economy

From an institutional perspective, Dr Trần Hữu Hiệp, vice chairman of the Mekong Delta Tourism Association, underscored the particularly important role of industry associations in developing private enterprises and training human resources in line with Resolution 68-NQ/TW on private sector development. 

Given that most businesses in the region are small and micro-sized, associations should be regarded as intermediary institutions, acting as bridges between the State, enterprises, training providers and the labour market.

Associations have advantages in understanding the practical needs of businesses, enabling them to contribute to the development of occupational standards, organise short-term training programmes, and enhance management, digital and sector-specific vocational skills. 

In tourism, associations can coordinate training, standardise service quality and connect enterprises with universities and vocational institutions both within and beyond the region.

However, to fulfill this role, Hiệp argued that the position of associations must be more strongly institutionalised in policy formulation and implementation, alongside mechanisms for regional coordination, to avoid fragmented and piecemeal activities. 

Associations should be seen as a form of “soft institutional support” helping private enterprises enhance competitiveness, with human resource training and development as a central pillar.

Sharing Cantho Eco Resort’s experience, Thái said the business has taken a different approach to recruitment and retention, placing on-the-job training and the working environment at the centre. 

The company prioritises hiring local workers, focusing more on attitude, ambition and adaptability than on fully formed skills at entry. 

During employment, staff receive direct training in vocational skills, service style and communication with tourists, gradually building professional competence.

Beyond training, Thái emphasised the importance of corporate culture and harmonious labour relations in retaining staff. 

The company strives to create a stable working environment, strengthen dialogue between management and employees, and promptly understand workers’ concerns and aspirations in order to adjust work organisation. 

When employees feel respected and see opportunities for learning and long-term development, they are more likely to stay, even if material conditions are not especially attractive.

According to Dr Nguyễn Thị Tuyết Loan, Principal of the Cần Thơ City Political School, developing private enterprises in the Mekong Delta is not merely an immediate requirement but a strategic task linked to the region’s long-term growth model amid digital and green transitions and deeper integration. 

While the private sector has made important contributions to growth, employment and the budget, structural constraints, such as small business size, low labour productivity, shortages of high-quality human resources and weak participation in value chains, remain major bottlenecks to sustainable development.

Resolution 68-NQ/TW has introduced a new policy framework and development mindset, emphasising institutional improvement, a better investment and business environment, innovation and enhanced human resource quality. 

For the Mekong Delta, applying Resolution 68 must be closely tailored to regional conditions, with a focus on infrastructure, logistics, regional linkages and human resource training aligned with real business needs.

When these solutions are implemented in a coordinated manner, the private enterprise sector will be better placed to overcome existing paradoxes, including the challenge of an “easy-to-find, hard-to-retain” workforce, and truly become a key driver of growth for the Mekong Delta in the new phase of development. — VNS