A senior Party official has urged labour unions and management boards of industrial and export processing zones in Ho Chi Minh City and the southern provinces of Binh Duong and Dong Nai to improve living conditions, particularly housing, for workers.

Residential areas and urban centres with schools, hospitals, supermarkets and creational centres should be built next to industrial zones (IZs) to serve workers, said Truong Tan Sang, Politburo member and permanent member of the Secretariat of the Party Central Committee, at a working session in HCM City on February 20.

Mr Sang asked the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour to promptly work out a plan on housing development for workers to be submitted to the Government for consideration.

The Party official also emphasised the leading role of trade unions in protecting legal interests and legitimate aspirations of workers, as well as making policies for labourers.