Officials in the central province of Ninh Thuan disburse loans for local residents who decide to work abroad (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) - The number of people living in poor districts who havetaken up offers to work abroad remains very low.
Local authorities, enterprises and labour export cooperation programmes have inrecent years offered assistance to help people find jobs in other countries.
Recently the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs offered 100-percentloans to help people pay for travel and accommodation while abroad.
In 2017, there were 134,751 labourers working overseas, an increase of 28.3 percentagainst the year’s target. Women made up nearly 40 percent of all Vietnamesepeople working in other countries.
Although the labour export activities in 2017 increased against 2016, labourexport only developed in the low lying and urban areas, according to theministry.
In northern Hoa Binh province, although the Government had solutions to promoteand prioritise the implementation of projects to send people in poor areas towork abroad, few people took up the offer.
Nguyen Thanh Thuy, Deputy Director of Hoa Binh province’s Department of Labour,Invalids and Social Affairs said each year, the province spent 500 million VNDsupporting labour-export enterprises but the result was still low. As well ascultural issues, Vietnamese workers also had problems due to their limitedsocial awareness and education.
Hoa Binh province has coordinated with the Korean language training centre toorganise a course for 100 local people, but, according to Thuy, only fivepassed.
Huynh Ho Dai Nghia, from HCM City’s TEXGAMEX Labour Export Centre, saidsolutions to support poor labourers going abroad haven’t really been effective.Many poor people who wanted to work abroad still couldn’t access loan sources,Nghia said.
He also said support for the poor, underprivileged andpeople who had sold land for road or tourism projects, ethnic minorities, wasdifferent in each locality.
Nghia used an example of a Cham ethnic minority man living in Cu Chi district,HCM City. Cu Chi district’s Policy Bank would give loans to poor, ethnicminority people, but because this man’s family had some money, they refused hisloan. Instead he had to borrow from friends to pay for his trip.
By the end of 2017, Thua Thien-Hue province People’s Committee issued a numberof policies to support local workers going abroad in 2017-2018, aiming for2,600 labourers, including at least 300 people from ethnic minorities or withlittle wealth.
Ha Van Tuan, Director of the Department of Labour, War Invalids and SocialAffairs of Thua Thien-Hue province, said there had been a number of labourconsultant bureaux and recruitment drives in the first two month this year inthe province. The department cooperated with the local government to organisefour job fairs and labour export recruitment drives.
More job fairs are planned in poorer areas.
According to initial statistics, this year there has been 99 cases of peoplegoing to work abroad under guest worker contracts. The province set a year planof sending 1,000 workers overseas.
Along with the Government’s financial assistance to workers, the province alsogives loans of 50 million VND (2,200 USD) to poor households, Tuan said.
To push the activity, officials need to set plans to help the poor find workoverseas which should be addressed in key communes.-VNA
VNA
