ILO Helps Vietnam to Promote Stable Labour Force

 

The Deputy Minister of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs Le Huy Dong said the high-grade labour force in Vietnam is able to meet 30-40 per cent of the demand of State-owned enterprises. Vietnam is exporting its labour to demanding markets but it is facing difficulties in seeking a qualified labour.

 

According to the figures from the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs, Vietnam had an additional eight million new labourers in the latest five years. Unemployment and semi-unemployment in rural areas are still an existing challenge in Vietnam and will remain so in the following years. To create jobs is difficult but it is harder to create stable jobs, especially in an emerging economy such as Vietnam.

 

The trade liberation process will affect the competitive capacity of domestic enterprises, which have to compete with other domestic enterprises and foreign ones. The severest competition is for labour quality exposed through working skills, working levels, working senses, working style and working disciplines. To have a quality workforce, according to the Cooperation Framework, ILO will assist the employment promotion programme of the Government via the National Employment Settlement Programme. The National Cooperation Framework for Promoting Work is considered the currently most important agenda of the ILO to head for the target of “Creating more humanitarian and efficient job opportunities for men and women in the condition of freedom, equality, safety, security and human dignity.”

 

In five years of implementation, the cooperation programme will be flexibly adjusted to the changes of the country and of the three-side partners (Government, labourers association and employers). The preferential activities will be produced every two years and will be clearly announced in the Action Programme of the ILO as well as annual activity plans of the three-side partners. Resources will be distributed from the regular budgets of the ILO every two years.

 

This stable employment programme will have more effects and influences on the employment orientation and will surely generate higher incomes for labourers, who will have more options in seeking jobs and working environments and can promote their creative capacities and working disciplines in their career.

 

As equipped with high working skills together with higher working consciousness and responsibility, labourers certainly will have chances to seek desired jobs and earn high incomes. If we successfully organise working skill training courses, both at the school, in the working place and in the society, we will overcome existing difficulties.

 

Manpower and worker supplying enterprises should regularly renovate themselves. Other countries also experience this process. Vietnam has passed the initial phase and is entering the higher development process and gradually holding the master of high technologies. For example, the Intel Corp’s investment in a new chip testing and assembling factory will bring new technologies to Vietnam and the labour force must be upgraded to meet the requirement of the Intel Corp. To do this, the cooperation between enterprises and the Government is needed to define the labour demand to introduce suitable training structures to grasp our desired technologies.

 

Once joining the WTO, Vietnam will undergo numerous challenges, especially in the labour market. During that period, the preparations of the Government are crucial, especially State management. To improve labour quality, the Government needs flexible institutions to protect labourers and ensure social welfares. Or in other words, how need employees and employers adjust to cope with challenges and meet the requirements of the new market?

 

I think the Vietnamese Government, the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs, the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry have exposed their actions toward this issue. This showed the labour relation, labour subject and related issues are ready to be adjusted to match the challenges of the WTO entry. I think the Vietnamese labour market is one of the top most preferential issues in the coming years. The important point is how the legal system of Vietnam and the Vietnamese labour quality are?

 

 

Vietnam needs to focus on training more suitable jobs for the youth. The ILO has cooperated with the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs to carry out the project of “Better jobs for the youth” to instruct several career skills for them. However, it does not mean all training careers will bear sweet fruits. We should consider whether training professions match the new labour market. 

 

ILO also cooperated with the Ministry of Education and Training to organise the Programme “What do you know about your business?” for junior high school students. We help them understand that they are not only labourers but also employers in the future. We would like to further strengthen cooperation with the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs to apply this programme with ILO tools at vocational schools. The target is to improve the results of the vocational works for trainees at Vietnamese schools by the end of this year.