Society

The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) has developed three scenarios to resolve the labor shortage in Vietnam: using workers who are currently learning their profession, accelerating the training process to add more workers, and using military conscripts in production chains.

Three of Vietnam’s key labor export markets - Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan (China) - have reopened and are welcoming foreign workers.

As of November 7, 10,068,967 employees had received support from the Unemployment Insurance Fund totaling VND23.96 trillion ($1.05 billion). Vietnam Social Insurance is expected to complete the settlement of support policies from the Fund by November 15.

The Central Relief Committee has decided to allocate VND1 billion ($41,970) each to 12 provinces and VND1.5 billion ($66,000) each to the Mekong Delta provinces of Bac Lieu and Ben Tre to support pandemic prevention efforts. An additional VND500 million ($22,000) donated by the overseas Vietnamese community was transferred to Ha Tien City in the Mekong Delta’s Kien Giang province.

Large numbers of workers moved away from major cities and industrial parks when Covid-19 was at its peak, affecting production and business. Investing in the development of social housing, especially housing for workers at industrial parks, has therefore become essential. Vietnam has 278 social housing projects under construction, but most are behind schedule due to a lack of capital.

Cash support policies in 2021 have largely ignored disadvantaged groups. To achieve the goal of “Social Security for the entire population”, according to analysts, Vietnam needs to stipulate a minimum budget allocation for Social Security, which could be from 6 to 10 per cent of GDP.