Viet state workers to get salary hike
HANOI - Vietnam's poorly paid bureaucrats will receive a pay rise this year after an
additional US$232 million (S$403 million) was allocated to the salaries budget, the
government said yesterday.
Nearly six million state employees, from street sweepers to ministers, will benefit
from the hike.
The rise, approved by the National
Assembly in November, is effective
from this month and will result in
minimum monthly salaries rising
from 210,000 dong (S$24) to
260,000 dong.
The 3,550 billion dong in additional
funds will supplement the existing
salary budget of around 36,000
billion dong.
Aid donors to the communist nation
have long pushed for a salary
increase in the public sector arguing
it will help reduce endemic
corruption, which they say is
triggered in part by state employees
needing to supplement their meagre
salaries.
Surveys frequently rank Vietnam
among the most corrupt countries in the world.
Agence France Presse - January 11, 2003.
|