Society

Ho Chi Minh City will review 23 projects with land funds in suburban districts and suburbs near industrial parks and export processing zones, to adjust investment in building social housing for workers and employees. The city will develop an additional 612,000 sq m of residential floor space to provide accommodation for over 243,000 workers in the 2021-2025 period.

As of December 6, more than 12.4 million workers had received support totaling nearly VND30 trillion ($1.31 billion) from the Unemployment Insurance Fund.

Ho Chi Minh City will pilot five inner-city electric bus routes from the beginning of the new year. This will be the second time the opening of electric bus routes has been proposed, to diversify public passenger transport and reduce environmental pollution. The city currently has 126 bus routes.

The government issued a Decree on December 7 adjusting pensions, social insurance benefits, and monthly assistance. Pensions and social insurance benefits will increase 7.4 per cent from January 1.

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.