Not only does labour export contribute to creating jobs for workers but it also brings a large source of foreign currency to a certain locality, and the country as a whole, thereby making a significant contribution to poverty reduction and improving the living standard of the people.

Mr. Nguyen Van Thuy works in South Korea under the cooperation programme of seasonal labour exchange between Da Nang’s Hoa Vang District and South Korea’s Yeongyang District.

Good news from rural labour export

Returning from South Korea after 3 labour export trips, Mr. Nguyen Van Thuy from Duong Lam 2 Village, Hoa Phong Commune, Hoa Vang District early shared about his farming experience in the land of ‘kimchi’, typical South Korean traditional food known worldwide: “If you want to work well in South Korea, the first thing is to know how to farm and withstand harsh weather. There, summer is very hot, winter is very cold. During the first trip, I worked during long hours in the hot weather of 33 degrees Celsius. As for the second and third trips, I went in winter, it was cold below 0oC, but the workers wore protective clothing to the fields to dig ginseng roots and pick chili normally.

To avoid the harsh cold in the land of ‘kimchi’, Thuy and his fellow workers had to get up early to light a fire for warming before embark upon working. His main works involve growing peppers, picking up cucumbers, cabbage and spraying pesticides. Although it is not as hard as farming in Viet Nam, workers must have farming skills and be patient and hard-working as the work lasts smoothly and requires high efficiency.

Besides farming skills, workers also need to know some basic Korean. Therefore, the Hoa Vang District administration has provided an urgent one-week training course so that employees can basically communicate with South Korean peers at work.

According to Thuy, once use Korean, workers can communicate with garden owners every day to create sympathy and build up a more pleasant working environment.

“South Koreans know little English, so it's an advantage for me to communicate in Korean. On average, each month, workers earn about 2 million won, equivalent to about VND 36 million. Excluding housing rents, health checkups, insurance premiums, air tickets and other expenses, they earn about VND 31 million. Besides Vietnamese people, those from such other Southeast Asian countries as the Philippines, Thailand and Cambodia work in South Korean. If we are not agile, hardworking and work less efficiently, they will give priority to recruiting those from the aforementioned countries”, said Thuy.

On the basis of the cooperation agreement on seasonal labour exchanges in agriculture between the Da Nang government and Yeongyang County in South Korea, 623 residents in Hoa Vang District who were sent to this South East Asian country for work complete their work contract on time.

The Yeongyang side highly appreciated the high working skills of Vietnamese employees and proposed promoting the cooperation programne in 2023 with a larger number of participating labourers.

Through job fairs, till date, about 1,000 job seekers in Hoa Vang District have applied for participation in this year’s agricultural trainee programme in Yeongyang.

Commenting on the effectiveness of the labour exchange cooperation programne between Hoa Vang and Yeongyang, Mr. Lam Tien Si, Head of the Hoa Vang Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs said: “Through these programmes, the skills of Vietnamese workers in the agricultural sector have increasingly improved.

They can gain more work experience in agricultural production and generate a high income, with an average income of over VND 110 million per 3-month working period. The total income of labourers in the district reached over VND 52 billion.

This is one of the breakthrough solutions in creating jobs, increasing people's income, contributing to the good implementation of social welfare policies, especially for agricultural workers located in areas affected production land reduction.

Policies in support for workers working abroad

According to the Da Nang Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, the activities of sending Da Nang labourers to work abroad currently focus mainly on three popular forms, namely through functional enterprises, labour export; the form of internships to improve skills and under individual contracts in the markets of Japan, Taiwan (China), Malaysia and Korea via the EPS (Employment Permit System) programme run by the Centre for Overseas Labour under the Vietnamese Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs.

Over the past time, businesses have actively tried to expand to exploit labour markets and find new labour sources through labour agencies, local mass organisations as well as in other provinces and cities.

According to Mr. Vo Van Tien, Head of Employment Policy Office under the Da Nang Department of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs, due to the sustainable development of the labour market in Da Nang, workers can easily find jobs quickly and have stable incomes, so the majority of workers with residence in Da Nang do not wish to work abroad.

For the time being, the number of people with residence registrations participating in the labour export programme accounts for a very low rate, only 22.5% of the total employees recruited to work abroad. Therefore, in order to create jobs for workers for the sake of sustainable poverty reduction, it is high time for the Da Nang administration to have policies to support workers to work abroad, especially poor workers in rural areas.

To do this, relevant agencies need to facilitate poor workers to access preferential bank loans to work abroad. In addition, the Da Nang Employment Service Centre cooperates with the Centre for Overseas Labour to organise job trading sessions for workers returning home after working overseas. Also, heed should be paid to launching regular training to prepare a skilled, well-trained and educated workforce in line with growing labour market requirements.

Reporting by DOAN HAO LUONG - Translating by A.THU