A social housing project in the northern province of Bắc Giang. — VNA/VNS Photo Tuấn Anh

Lê Văn Nghĩa, head of the Trade Union Institutions Management Board under the Việt Nam General Confederation of Labour (VGCL), speaks to the Vietnam News Agency about difficulties in solving housing needs for workers.

How do you assess the current situation of housing for workers?

Việt Nam now has 370 industrial parks, including 328 located outside economic zones, 34 in coastal economic zones, and eight in border gate economic zones, with a total land area of about 115,200ha.

However, industrial parks are mainly focused on business and production. They don't really pay attention to building social infrastructure for workers, including housing for them.

In fact, workers' housing is deteriorating and not meeting basic needs. A number of worker housing projects have reported shortcomings.

The common problems occurring in many worker housing areas include rapid deterioration and lax management. In some housing areas, workers are difficult to access. Security and order there are not guaranteed, service fees are high, and social facilities such as kindergartens, schools and supermarkets are inadequate.

What effect will social housing construction bring?

Building social housing for workers at this time is of great significance. It will create a place for workers to settle down, give them a better place to live, and improve their quality of life. Then they can regenerate their energy. Besides, social security will be ensured.

A very important thing is that travelling in industrial zones will be more convenient. Traffic accidents will certainly reduce and workers will save costs.

Social housing will also create motivation for workers to continue to contribute to the enterprises, thereby creating a harmonious labour relationship and sustainable development.

What is the trade union doing to build social housing for workers?

The VGCL was assigned by the Prime Minister to invest in social housing projects for workers in industrial zones and export processing zones.

The VGCL is actively working with provinces and cities to create a land fund to implement the projects. Up to now, 36 provinces have introduced locations to the VGCL.

The VGCL is still proposing the National Assembly to give priority to workers in industrial zones, export processing zones and places of heavy production, such as miners in Quảng Ninh Province, to buy social housing. It will create good conditions for them to have a place to live and perform their duties well in production.

What obstacles stand in the way of social housing construction?

The land fund for social housing is very little. According to the current laws, when building commercial housing projects in urban areas, the investor must set aside 20 per cent of the land fund for social housing.

This regulation leads to the incompatible arrangement of the land fund compared to local housing development programmes, leading to a lack of funds for social housing in recent years.

Another difficulty is determining who can buy social housing.

According to current regulations, workers who want to buy social housing must be low-income people. But, assessing people's true income is still a problem. The criterion that people who live far away and do not have a house can receive State support is not reasonable.

In addition, an investor of a social housing project who wants to be exempted from the land use levy has to determine the levy first and then carry out the exemption procedures, leading to a lot of administrative paperwork. Feedback from businesses says this procedure takes one or two years to carry out.

At the same time, regulations on selecting investors for social housing projects are still overlapping and inconsistent with laws on investment, bidding and land, resulting in the selection of social housing project investors being complicated. It takes a long time to implement procedures and slow down the project schedule.

Regarding the prices of social housing, different expenses such as sales organisation and management costs have not been taken into account, while the profit does not exceed 10 per cent, so it is difficult to attract businesses.

To complete the goal of building one million apartments for workers, what solutions are needed?

Local authorities should allocate enough capital to clear the land for social housing construction.

The Ministry of Construction must develop a specific process for social housing projects to be implemented by businesses and management agencies. It should advise the Government to promulgate a number of criteria and standards for buying and renting houses in the direction of reducing some procedures, especially housing for workers.

As for the State Bank, in addition to the issued credit package of VNĐ120 trillion (US$5 billion), the Government needs to consider issuing a credit package specifically for workers renting and buying social housing with a preferential loan interest rate of not more than four per cent per year with a loan period not exceeding 25 years. — VNS