Practical procedures

Following the Prime Minister’s decision to help poor people, many supporting policies have been adopted in localities to create jobs for them, including those belonging to ethnic minority groups.

Before being sent abroad, guest workers are provided with vocational training, language courses and first-hand knowledge of their host countries. Ethnic minority workers are offered free training while those in poor districts receive half the cost. In addition, they are also given VND80,000 for accommodation and other personal things, such as clothes and footwear, as well as the fees for passports, visas and medical checks-up.

When workers have personal problems relating to their health or they lose their jobs when their employers unilaterally cancel contracts they will be helped to overcome their financial difficulties.

Furthermore, they will also enjoy low interest rate on bank loans which is half the normal lending rate.

The DOLM estimates that each worker working in Libya can get financial support worth around VND10 million while it is capped at VND7 million in Malaysia.

Nearly 7,000 workers register to work abroad

Recently, many officials have gone to remote and mountainous areas to meet with local authorities and encourage people to work abroad. They short-list candidates and take them to their training centres.

A project to help poor districts promote labour exports to strengthen sustainable poverty reduction in the 2009-2020 period was approved by the Prime Minister according to decision 71. The pilot period: 2009-2010: sending 10,000 workers The 2011-2015 period: sending 50,000 workers The 2016-2020 period: the number of guest workers will increase by 15 percent compared to previous period. According to the DOLM, from now until the end of this year, additional 5,000 workers will be sent overseas.

By the end of July, nearly 7,000 people from the poor districts of 18 provinces have registered to work overseas, around 6,500 of them have met health requirements and have the necessary qualifications. After short-listing, they are provided with professional skills, foreign language training and basic knowledge. 85 workers in Thanh Hoa Yen Bai, and Quang Ngai provinces passed the Korean language examination in April 2010. More than 80 workers from Quang Tri, Thanh Hoa, Dien Bien, Yen Bai, Son La and Lao Cai have also been sent to Japan. More than 2,800 workers have been sent to Libya, Malaysia and UAE, 9 percent of them are poor ethnic minority people.

Dao Cong Hai, deputy head of the DOLM, says that among the 10 major markets, Malaysia is the most attractive destination for poor workers. 1,500 workers have been sent to Malaysia (accounting for 53 percent), 520 to UAE (18.6 percent), 270 to Libya (9.65 percent), 100 to Saudi Arabia (3.6 percent) and the remaining to Macau, Taiwan (China) and Japan.

Those localities that have the highest number of guest workers are Thanh Hoa (800), Quang Ngai (650), Quang Nam (350), Quang Tri (250), Bac Kan (160), Bac Giang (120) and Lao Cai (120).

The DOLM says that these guest workers have stable incomes, for example those in Libya and UAE receive VND5.5-5.6 million per month, in Saudi Arabia VND4.5-5 million and in Japan VND15-20 million.