Viet Nam has sent abroad nearly 17,000 guest workers in the first quarter of the year, according to Dao Cong Hai, deputy head of the Department of Overseas Labour, said.

Students practise electrics in HCM City Vocational College. To meet the demand for human resources, the target is to train 1.64 million workers.

Taiwan hires Vietnamese workers for the manufacturing sector and as caretakers in rest homes for the elderly.

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs plans to hold a meeting with Taiwanese authorities to discuss hiring Vietnamese guest workers for other sectors.

South Korea, which last year reduced intake of Vietnamese workers by 60 per cent, requires more people this year.

It plans to employ 12,500 Vietnamese under its Employment Permit System, according to the country’s Human Resource Development Service in Viet Nam.

Demand is also recovering in places like the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, but mostly for highly skilled workers.

To supply workers to these markets, the Department of Overseas Labour is helping provide training in welding, mechanical work, and construction and services jobs.

It is also helping people learn foreign languages so that they can work in sectors like tourism, hospitality and retail sales.

Ten months into a Government programme to help the country’s 62 poorest districts send poor people abroad as guest workers, 1,600 poor people have benefited.

They have gone to work in Libya, Malaysia, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Macau and Taiwan.

More than 4,500 poor people in the poorest districts have registered for the programme.

Following a preliminary selection, labour export companies and provincial authorities have helped 3,500 of them acquire professional and foreign-language skills, according to the department.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News