Aging & Wisdom Quote by Nong Duc Manh

The line has the tidy pragmatism of a party-state veteran trying to sound both pro-growth and pro-youth without conceding anything unpredictable. Nong Duc Manh opens with a seemingly commonsense premise - “everyone wants to work and work more” - a moral claim disguised as a sociological one. It flatters diligence as a national default, quietly shaming anyone left idle as an exception. In a single stroke, unemployment becomes less about policy failure and more about an unmet channeling of virtue.

Then comes the pivot: “But in fact…” That phrase is doing political work. It reframes the problem from desire to infrastructure: not whether young people are motivated, but whether the system provides “conditions.” The subtext is classic developmental-state rhetoric: the government doesn’t promise jobs as a right so much as it promises an environment in which the capable can be “used” effectively. Notice the narrowing: not all youth, but a “young generation” with “sufficient capability.” Merit is invoked as a sorting mechanism, a way to justify prioritization and to avoid the thornier conversation about those who are capable but still excluded by geography, patronage, or a mismatched education-to-labor pipeline.

Context matters here: Vietnam’s long push to modernize, industrialize, and absorb a large, youthful workforce into manufacturing and services while maintaining political stability. “Create conditions” is intentionally elastic - it can mean vocational training, foreign investment zones, credit, or simply tighter coordination between ministries. It also preserves plausible deniability: if outcomes lag, the state can claim conditions are being built; if individuals struggle, capability becomes the quiet culprit.