HANOI, April 7 (Xinhua) -- A huge number of Vietnamese pharmaceutical university graduates flock to foreign pharmaceutical companies or private medicine companies, leading to a shortage of qualified druggists at state institutions.

    The shortage of pharmacists became more serious after a recent announcement by the Vietnamese Health Ministry that drugstores should all comply with Good Pharmacy Practice (GPP) standard by 2011, according to the Vietnam News.

    Of the GPP-standard requirement for drugstores is that they employ a druggist with a professional certificate. Vietnam, home to 41,000 rural dispensaries, 17,000 dispensaries in city hospitals and medical clinics, and 9,000 private drugstores nationwide, turned out some 800 pharmaceutical graduates in 2007, the newspaper said.

    Vietnam's current proportion of 0.2 druggists to 10,000 people is well below the 1.5 by 2010 targeted by the country. This means that many district-level hospitals find it difficult to recruit druggists.

    Nguyen Anh Tuan, pharmaceutical representative for a Japanese medicine firm in Vietnam, said there were two main reasons for the shortage of pharmaceutical students. "First, they have fewer opportunities for seeking a job than medical students because Vietnam's pharmaceutical sector hasn't developed," he said.

    Low income was another reason. Graduates from pharmaceutical universities mainly worked as bottle cleaners or administrative staff at hospitals, while foreign firms offered higher training and better salaries, according to Tuan, a manager who has spent 10years working for foreign medical companies.

    Tuan, who earns a net salary of 2,000 U.S. dollars a month, said his classmates at state institutions are paid much less.