Hanoi - Communist Vietnam has ordered state officials to stop playing computer games at work and drinking alcohol at lunch, officials said Friday. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung issued an instruction Thursday calling on state officials to make more efficient use of their working hours, according to Nguyen Van Tien, chief inspector of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs.
The instruction states that "state officials are not allowed to play games during working hours or to drink beer or wine prior to or during working hours, nor during lunch on working days."
The document acknowledges that a large number of state officials are wasting time on the job.
"If you go to restaurants on the streets of Hanoi, you'll find out what the real situation is, how some state officials use their working time," Tien said.
"Using working time for personal purposes is not common in my office, but in other offices, there are some people who drink and play games during working hours," said Hoang Tuan Anh, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
Computer games are a widespread distraction for workers in Vietnamese offices, particularly in the public sector. One-player games with titles like Line, Jewelry, and Fish Frenzy are the most popular diversion.
Some workers are also known to dabble in violent, online multiple player games such as Swordsman and Half-Life.
"I have seen many state officials playing games during working hours," said Le Cong Hoa, an officer at a private construction consulting company in Hanoi.
Hoa said the problem was the bureaucratic mentality in government offices.
"They play because some of them have a lot of free time at work. If they are not assigned to do anything, they don't do anything," Hoa said.
Vietnam's economy made a rapid transition from a state-run command system in the 1980's to a largely private, free market system by the early 2000's.
In recent years, however, momentum has slowed. The state has promised to take many of its large companies public, but has hesitated since the recent initial stock offerings of Vietcombank and the beverage maker Sabeco failed to raise as much cash as expected.
Workers in state firms widely complain of low salaries and poor work incentives. In recent months, five top officials at the State Bank and in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs quit to take jobs as private consultants.
