Since the beginning of the year, Da Nang have organized many job sessions to provide the opportunity to network with recruiters, as well as provide career counseling and vocational training for local residents in addition to providing guidance on how to start a business and supporting livelihoods for the poor. As a result, local residents have found a suitable job through these sessions in order to help them stabilize their lives, contributing to ensuring effective implementation of the city's social welfare policy.

A week-long session was held at Tan Chinh Ward, Thanh Khe District to help job seekers learn about job opportunities, and facilitate their access to career counseling services and vocational training courses. Photo: NGOC HA

Strengthening job creation

In the first quarter of 2023, the Da Nang Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs held a total of 7 job sessions that attracted the participation of recruiters from 786 businesses to offer together a combined total of 40,508 job opportunities. As a result, 357 people were already employed by these businesses. The city’s managed source of the financing of job creation totals more than VND 2,790 billion, of which, more than VND 163 billion had been loaned to 2,488 projects as of February 2023, contributing to creating employment opportunities for 2,529 people. On average, each person accessed a loan worth over VND 64 million. Overall, 6,287 employment opportunities were created across all economic sectors  in the city with 4,294 additional job positions.

The organization of the job sessions proved effective in creating jobs for local people.

Mrs Nguyen Thi Ly, the Deputy Manager of the Cam Le District Office of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs remarked that the focus is on keeping local residents well informed of career opportunities offered by the district-based businesses in order to help them find a suitable job apart from organizing job fairs in collaboration with the municipal Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs.

Heed is also paid to identifying those who want to participate in South Korea’s  Seasonal Worker Programme and labour export program to Taiwan, as well as offering interns midwifery internships in Japan to give them a fantastic opportunity to gain valuable international experience in an attempt to facilitate job seekers, especially those who lost their jobs due to the impact of agricultural land loss and the COVID-19 pandemic, to access job opportunities.

Many sustainable poverty reduction solutions

According to the municipal Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, the city has conducted best practices and optimized its resources for sustainable poverty reduction. The Da Nang People's Council has already approved a policy to support 20% of the total medical examination and treatment costs for poor households in accordance with the city's poverty threshold while these people are eligible to get the same benefits of health care services as poor households based on the national poverty line. The city has spent over VND 32 billion on granting 41,335 health insurance cards for the poor. Besides, importance has been attached to building 95 new houses and repairing 388 degraded ones for the needy at a total cost of nearly VND 12 billion. Special attention has been paid to reducing the leasing fees of state-owned rental properties by 60% for 399 poor households. Furthermore, heed has been paid to offering tuition fee waiver worth over VND 10 billions for children of poor households, as we as lifting 3,124 households out of poverty, including 150 extremely poor families.

Mr. Le Van Minh, the Deputy Director of the municipal Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs said that the unit's main task in the second quarter of 2023 will focus on poverty reduction with an emphasis on giving advice to the municipal administration to raise the support level for the construction of new houses and repair of degraded houses for poor households, as well as to develop credit shemes for children of poor and near-poor households plus middle income households in accordance with the city's standards to help them pay for their schools. In addition, greater efforts will be made to facilitate poor and near-poor households to access support policies from the national government in order to ensure that they receive timely support.

“The city's specific target for 2023 is to reduce the proportion of poor households with working capacity to 1.39%, get all near-poor households' participation in national health insurance plans, supporting the construction of new houses for 80 poor households and house repair for 200 others, as well as helping 1,500 poor and near-poor households with at least one member of working age find a suitable job," said Mr. Minh.

Reporting by NGOC HA – Translating by H.L