Southern hub to send 15,000 workers abroad in 2009

Vietnam’s southern economic hub, Ho Chi Minh City, is striving to create jobs for 120,000 workers during 2009, including 15,000 new employment opportunities in foreign markets, a municipal official said at a working session with labour export companies on January 7.

In 2008, over 9,800 local workers successfully gained employment in foreign countries, a slight increase from the previous year, according to the Director of the Municipal Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, Le Thanh Tam.

Mr Tam blamed the recent drop in the number of local workers in foreign countries, which exceeded 15,000 in 2006, on the adverse impact of the global economic slowdown, the tightened requirements of labour markets and the discrepancy between local vocational training standards and international recruitment demands.

He said Malaysia remained the city’s largest labour market last year, recruiting almost 4,000 workers from the city. Japan, which employed 2,446 Vietnamese workers, and the Republic of Korea, which employed 215 local workers, came second and third respectively.

Mr Tam said that in order to promote labour export, his department will try to raise public awareness of these employment opportunities and prioritize those poor people wishing to work abroad.

The department will also propose the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs adopt policies to help labour export companies explore new markets as well as accurately predicting demand in these markets. (VOV)