Workers take a rest at a site in Ho Chi Minh City.

Nearly half of the foreign workers in the country are employed illegally. They enter the country as tourists or to visit relatives and stay on, the labor minister said Thursday.

Her observation elicited concerns from NA deputies that the large presence of illegal foreign workers could worsen the unemployment situation in the country.

She noted that the movement of workers among countries is indispensable in the context of international economic integration, but added Vietnamese regulations only permit skilled foreign workers, experts and those having experience in business and production management to work in the country.

The ministry will deal with the cases of foreigners illegally working in Vietnam on the basis of respecting the country’s laws and bilateral cooperation with other countries, she said.

Ngan said Vietnam will not extend visas for illegal workers, will facilitate their return home and strengthen immigration management.

“I admit my responsibility in managing laborers,” she said. “The three ministries [the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs] will have to coordinate with us to solve the issue of illegal foreign workers and to amend laws and decrees in the field.”

1.45 million jobs

Ngan said Vietnam will not be able to reach the target of creating 1.7 million new jobs this year, after the government proposed that the NA lower the gross domestic product (GDP) growth target to 5 percent from the previous 6.5 percent.

About 1.45 million new jobs this year would be the highest possible, she said.

Responding to a question by deputy Nguyen Lan Dung, the minister said the prime minister is expected to approve a VND32.6 trillion (US$1.81 billion) program to provide vocational training to farmers.

Under the 2009-2020 plan, one million farmers will benefit from the program each year. The training will help rural people work in the agricultural sector, shift to work in related industries or service, or participate in the political system at the grassroots’ level.

Answering deputy Nguyen Duc Hien on the number of unemployed people in craft villages, Ngan said over 30,000 people in such villages, 50 percent of them women, had become jobless in the first quarter of this year. The provinces of Bac Ninh, Thai Binh and Ha Nam saw the biggest number of such losses, she added.

In 2008, over 66,000 workers lost their jobs, but almost 80 percent of the laborers in some localities like Ho Chi Minh City and the two southern provinces of Binh Duong and Dong Nai had found new jobs, she said.

Bauxite projects

The NA session Thursday saw heated debate over the nation’s bauxite exploitation plan, with particular focus on two bauxite mining and alumina extraction projects in the Central Highlands - Tan Rai in Lam Dong Province and Nhan Co in Dak Nong Province.

Delegate Nguyen Dang Trung said he did not agree with the Ministry of Industry and Trade because it had divided the projects into smaller ones of less than VND20 trillion (US$1.12 billion) in order to bypass NA approval.

According to a resolution passed in 2006 by the National Assembly, only key national investment projects valued at VND20 trillion or above required the approval of the legislature.

The bauxite plan, which will be implemented through 2015 and envisaged to extend through to 2025, includes 12 projects, all of which are strongly linked to each other, Trung said.

Moreover, the projects are important in terms of their social, environmental and economic effects, and also involves national defense, so they should be submitted to the NA for approval, he added.

Meanwhile, Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang said the bauxite development plan had been approved by the government in November 2007 with many separate projects, including those to tap and process bauxite to alumina, producing alumina to aluminum, a railway line, and a seaport.

“The projects are independent and unrelated,” he explained, saying that the railway, for example, is expected to serve not only the transport of alumina, but also carry passengers and other cargoes.

The two bauxite mining and alumina extraction projects in the Central Highlands provinces, the Tan Rai project in Lam Dong, and Nhan Co project in Dak Nong have investments of VND 12 trillion ($666.67 million), so they are not subject to parliamentary approval, the minister asserted.

He also said some future bauxite projects would have investments of more than VND20 trillion and would be submitted to the NA for approval.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Cao Duc Phat, also took the floor Thursday, answering questions mainly on the competitiveness of Vietnamese agricultural products; the use of farmland for industrial parks and golf courses; the use of the government stimulus package in agricultural and rural development; and the fake and low-quality fertilizer issue.

Reported by Bao Van – Xuan Toan