Vietnam Targets to Send 75,000 Labourers and Experts to Work Overseas in 2006

In recent years, labour export activities of Vietnam have witnessed several new development steps such as: the increase in the total number of exported labourers and the expansion of labour markets. These have not only helped bring considerable foreign currency but also solve the unemployment situation and raise the people’s income. Therefore, last year can be regarded as a successful year for the labour export industry. VIB Forum interviewed Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hoa, Director of Overseas Labour Management Department about this issue.

 

In the labour export market, there has been fierce competition between many enterprises of labour exporting countries, Vietnamese enterprises have just joined this field and as such haven’t got much experience yet. However, they have tried positively to find orders for labour export and explore new markets. Particularly, they have managed to send Vietnamese labourers to Canada, America, Australia, Italy and many European countries. 

 

In addition, law making was also strengthened. The State has promulgated Decree No.141/2005 ND – CP. So far, the law of sending labour abroad has been researched to submit to the National Assembly. Relevant ministries and Governmental agency promulgated documents on leading labour export operation. Labour export was concentrated and received support by the local authorities.

 

The range of markets has been widened. Moreover, many Vietnamese state-own enterprises have been concentrating on investment and exploration of several programs on importing foreign labour from South Korea, the European Union, America and the Middle East. Particularly, the method of assigning responsibility to labour export provinces has been implementing efficiently. Currently, their local authority recommends most labourers who want to work abroad. Thus, the labour quality has been improved. In 2005, the total number of overseas labourers reached 70,594, higher than the previous plan. In which, there were 22,784 labourers despatched to Taiwan, 12,102 labourers to South Korea, 24,600 labourers to Malaysia and 2,955 labourers to Japan. Their income that was sent to Vietnam recorded US$1.5 billion.

 

True, several Vietnamese labours have broken signed contract and this situation remains a serious issue that has badly affected developing market as well as Vietnamese labourers’ credibility. The Overseas Labour Management Department will coordinate with public media offices and presses to promote both guidelines and laws of the States the labourers are in, in order to improve the awareness as well as to find out and publicly condemn the contract violation cases of both enterprises and labourers and others related to the export sector.

 

Besides, the department also has pointed out some solutions including improving labourers’ awareness and strengthening the model of associating between enterprises and local authorities on labour resources preparation, improving the orienting education of labourers before they go to work, managing and solving raised problems in a timely manner. The State promulgated the Decree No.141/2005 – ND CP on December 11^th 2005 to assign not only responsibilities to relevant offices and organizations but also sanctions of strictly dealing with labourers. I think that with the above solutions, the situation of absconding labourers will be reduced in the coming time.

 

For enterprises, they must identify that this business field is a non-profit one, our government has to create a legal framework and good conditions for them to get all given fees in accordance with law and regulations, but publicly and obviously; For the labourers, they themselves must recognize their own responsibilities and duties including performing the contracts signed with the labour exporters well, thus, the expenses paid by the enterprises will be lower, the lower fees paid by the labourers to work overseas will follow.

 

The fact is that our labour quality is not as high as many cases could not be settled actively by our labourers. Therefore, the expenses paid by our enterprises are accordingly higher than those by ones in other countries. In the coming time, expenses paid for labour export enterprises must be clearly and patiently stated in law, stepping to lower the service costs for the labourers as well as punishing strictly the enterprises breaking the given law and regulations provided by the State.

The 2006 target is to enter 75 thousand labourers and experts to work overseas. Together with maintaining existing markets, enterprises are strongly promoting Europe, America and Western Middle ones. High incomes can be obtained in these markets; highly skilled labourers can be employed in other ones. However, in high income-offered markets, the quality of labourers must be strictly regulated but the number of labourers won’t be high. Generally, we will not chase quantity instead favouring quality and efficiency, and we will develop the quality of labour resources and implement better protection of labourers’ rights.