Labour exports in fine working order

illustration photo

International Cooperation Service Joint Stock Company (CICS) director Tran Ngoc Hien said businesses won many labour export contracts for 2011 from developed countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US, Finland and Sweden.

The foreign partners also offered prospective labourers going to work abroad good working and living conditions and attractive wages, he said.

Deputy head of Overseas Labour Management Department under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Cong Hai said from December, 2010 labour export firms enjoyed good news that a number of foreign markets welcomed Vietnamese labourers with lots of preferences and support policies such as Poland and  Belarus in East Europe, Libya and Angola in the Middle East and Africa.

Besides, Hai said Vietnam’s traditional labour export markets also offered Vietnam high figures such as Taiwan would receive up to 28,000 Vietnamese workers, Malaysia 11,000, South Korea over 8,000, Japan 6,000 and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) around 5,000.

As with South Korea, Vietnamese labourers represent over 40 per cent of total overseas labourers in this country. Vietnamese workers generally get good appraisals from their foreign employers who offer them relatively high incomes averaging VND17 million ($821.2) per month.

Around 5,000 Vietnamese workers were chosen by South Korean employers in January 2011, of whom more than 1,600 were either completed legal setup stage or left the country.

This year, South Korea prioritised recruiting labourers to work as seamen or in manufacturing, agriculture, construction fields which are mainly performed by men. Therefore, women labourers only account for around 10 per cent of the total.

Potential markets for Vietnamese women labourers are Taiwan and Malaysia with nearly 60 per cent of the labourers do the housework and over 40 per cent engage in production and manufacturing.

“With auspicious figures unveiled right from early 2011 we expect to surpass 2011 labour export target of 87,000,” Hai said.

He noted that to ensure sustainable development, vocational training schools needed to foster training based on market demands, focusing on hi-tech areas.

In the coming period, the Overseas Labour Management Department will establish an export training facility in central Thanh Hoa province which is funded by UAE on a scale of around 500 trainees  per cent .