Society

In the InterNations’ annual Expat City Ranking 2021, Ho Chi Minh City - the most populous city in Vietnam - ranked 6th out of 57 cities, up 13 places compared to 2020. Eight-four per cent of foreign respondents said they were satisfied with the cost of living in the city, which is almost double the global average of 48 per cent.

Vietnamese workers and interns will be unable to enter Japan for the time being as the Japanese Government decided to suspend the entry of foreigners from November 30, to prevent any spread of the Omicron variant. Japan is a key labor export market for Vietnam, recruiting nearly 19,200 Vietnamese workers in the first ten months of this year.

Hanoi has set a target of developing 44 million sq m of housing, with capital of VND437 trillion ($19 billion) required. The per capita housing area is to be 29.5 sq m in the 2021-2025 period.

A range of social housing projects have been planned by localities and are calling for investment, especially in cities and provinces with many industrial parks. Three localities - Ho Chi Minh City, southern Binh Duong province, and the Mekong Delta’s Long An province - have projects to build a million social housing properties.

As of November 29, the social insurance agency had provided support from the Unemployment Insurance Fund to more than 12.3 million workers, with a total amount of more than $28 trillion ($1.23 billion).

The number of workers entitled to unemployment insurance in Hanoi stood at around 60,000 in the first eleven months of the year, down 20 per cent year-on-year. According to the Hanoi Employment Service Center, the reason for the steep decline is that businesses have policies to retain their employees and ensure production and business continue. The stability of businesses in the informal sector is also improving.