HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese labourers, especially skilled labourers, are expected to get more opportunities to work abroad this year.

The Department of Overseas Labour under the Ministry of Labour, Invalid and Social Affairs (MoLISA) said apart from perennial markets such as Taiwan and Malaysia, this year’s potential labour markets include Japan, South Korea, Germany and Middle East countries, the Voice of Việt Nam (VoV) online newspaper reported on Monday morning.

“Thus, the important thing we have to do is prepare a source of skilled labourers to meet the demand,” Phạm Viết Hương, deputy head of the department, said.

Improving foreign language and professional skills of each labourer who desired to work in high-requirement markets was essential, he said.

The additional opportunities came after the ministry signed a range of agreements with its partners in these countries in 2016.

Under the ministry’s summary report issued recently, in 2016 Việt Nam’s MoLISA and South Korea’s Ministry of Employment and Labour re-signed a standard Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to continue receiving Vietnamese labourers working in South Korea following four years of suspension due to the high rate of illegal Vietnamese workers in South Korea.

Also in 2016, Việt Nam signed an agreement with Germany on Vietnamese nurses working in Germany’s hospitals. It offered additional chances for Vietnamese labourers to work in Germany.

Meanwhile, Japan recently approved a new law offering more opportunities to foreign labourers working in Japan, including Vietnamese labourers, the report said.

This year, MoLISA has initially targeted sending 105,000 labourers to work abroad. It also plans to sign agreements with its partners in Laos, Thailand and Australia to send labourers to work in these countries in 2017, Hương said.

He said the ministry is scheduled to submit to the government the project titled “Sending skilled labourers to work abroad 2017-20” with vision towards 2025.

Last year, Việt Nam initially planned to send 100,000 labourers to work abroad. However, the actual number achieved was 126,296, some eight per cent higher than in 2015.

The report revealed that 2016 was the third consecutive year that Việt Nam sent more than 100,000 labourers to work abroad. — VNS