This year, the Department of Overseas Labour under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs aims to send 90,000 labourers abroad to work under contract, while expanding the market for Vietnamese labour to Europe and Australia.
Due to COVID-19 impacts, last year, Vietnam completed only 50 percent of its yearly target in labour export with 45,058 workers sent abroad. Thanks to wide-scale vaccination against COVID-19 and the changes in pandemic control strategies towards adapting to the pandemic, many countries have opened their doors for foreign workers, including those from Vietnam.
Specifically, Taiwan resumed the reception of foreign labourers from February, while the Republic of Korea (RoK) announced that it need 59,000 foreign workers in 2022, and Japan has loosened entry regulations to raise the number of arrivals from 3,500 to 5,000 daily from March.
As of March 15, 2022, Vietnam had sent 2,026 labourers abroad to work under labour contracts, including 451 to Japan, 363 to Singapore, 325 to the Republic of Korea, 248 to Taiwan and 99 to Hungary.
In Europe, nine countries – Poland, Lithuania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Cyprus Republic, Turkey, Slovakia, Belarus and Portugal - have accepted workers from Vietnam. Many labour suppliers are recruiting up to thousands of labourers for jobs overseas. However, labourers are still reluctant to go overseas due to concern over the pandemic, resulting in limited supply.
The Department of Overseas Labour held that the target of labour export for this year is reachable. This year, it will focus on reaching new labour cooperation contracts for markets where workers are paid with high and stable wages, while conducting training for workers and preparing necessary conditions for them to meet the requirements of the host markets.
Besides traditional markets such as Japan, the RoK and Taiwan, the department will try to make inroad into promising markets like Germany, Russia, Australia and Israel. Currently, Germany is in need of about 40,000 health workers as well as a large number of workers for the automobile and hospitality sectors.
Nguyen Gia Liem, Deputy Director of the Department of Overseas Labour said that the department will coordinate closely with Vietnamese diplomatic agencies abroad and authorised agencies of host countries of Vietnamese labourers to keep a close eye on the the situation of the labourers to ensure their legitimate rights and interests./.
VNA
