The meeting, presided over by NA Deputy Chairman Huynh Ngoc Son, focused on supervising the carrying out of legislation on Vietnamese guest workers in overseas markets.

A recent survey conducted in 10 provinces indicated that only 20-30 percent of Vietnamese guest workers have professional skills. By mid-2010, Vietnam had 167 businesses involved in labour exports, but only 30 percent of them produced effective results.

The participants in the meeting raised concerns about the quality of businesses involved in labour export, especially those belonging to big groups and corporations.

Over the past three years, the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs have dealt with nearly 1,190 complaints lodged by domestic guest workers that they were cheated.

NA Deputy Chairman Uong Chu Luu said that as the fees charged by labour exporters are too high, many guest workers have to pay a lot of money before being sent to work aboard. Some workers even have to do different jobs overseas as their labour export businesses fail to carry out the contracts to the letter.

The Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, admitted that fraud is rampant among labour export businesses.

She also mentioned that many Vietnamese guest workers have to break the contracts signed with their residence countries.

One reason, cited by Minister Ngan, is that they have been forced into a corner by some labour export businesses having no operating licenses. “For those businesses violating regulations on labour exports, they will be given strict penalties for their fraud and failure to ensure the legitimate rights of guest workers,” she said.

Several members of the NA Standing Committee emphasised the need to increase the monitoring of labour export activities and foster links between guest workers, businesses and State management agencies.

The Chairman of the NA Ethnicity Council, K'so Phuoc, said that it is essential to have coordination between all the State management agencies concerned, including the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs.

He also suggested setting up a fund to support local guest workers, with major sponsorship from labour export businesses themselves.