Viet Nam will take advantage of demand from countries not hard-hit by the global economic downturn to send 85,000 workers abroad this year.
“The situation (for exporting labor) is becoming more difficult in 2009 but it doesn’t mean we don’t have opportunities,” said Deputy Minister Nguyen Thanh Hoa of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (Molisa).
“The Middle East countries, which are expected to experience little impact from the economic downturn, have accepted 20,000 Vietnamese workers in 2008 and are expected to recruit more this year.
“Meanwhile, Taiwan has accepted more than 30,000 Vietnamese workers in 2008 and we are working with related authorities so that they will open the labor market for housemaids soon,” he said.
The labor ministry would support and offer vocational training to the workers and cooperate with related enterprises to fulfill the target of sending 85,000 workers abroad in 2009.
The ministry has also instructed related authorities to offer low-interest loans as well as training courses to residents of the 61 poorest districts nationwide who are expected to work abroad.
Meanwhile, several labor export companies have confirmed receiving enough recruitment orders for Vietnamese workers.
The Labor Export - Trading and Tourist Company (Sovilaco) under Molisa recently sent 100 workers to Russia to work as tailors in apparel companies, two years after the market had closed.
The workers had signed contracts of between US$400 and $700 per month.
Vu Duc Hung, Sovilaco’s head of labor export branch, said it is a pilot project before the two countries officially sign an agreement.
“We are speeding up procedures to send construction workers to Russia with salaries even higher than those of tailors,” he said.
Many labor export companies had also sought recruitments from other countries for this year since as early as mid-2008.
Nguyen Xuan Vui, director of Vietnam Airlines Corporation’s Air Service Supply Joint Stock Company (Airserco), said the Middle East and Japan still need workers in agriculture, services and food processing sectors.
Airserco is recruiting more than 1,000 people to work in Saudi Arabia for monthly remuneration of more than VND10 million ($574) each, he said, adding the related fees payable by the workers was just $1,500 each.
Sovilaco, another labor export firm, is also seeking thousands of workers to send to Australia, Canada and Japan this year for monthly remunerations of at least AUD1,500 ($961) a month.
The HCMC Overseas Manpower Service Company has said their Japanese counterparts are also recruiting engineers with offers of about VND30 million ($1,722) per month.
Molisa has also reported that some major labor export companies have struck agreements with agencies in Canada to send hundreds of workers for hourly remunerations of CAD18 ($14.6) an hour. (TN)
