With increasing numbers of workers coming from other provinces, Bình Dương is facing a shortage of public housing. — VNA/VNS

BÌNH DƯƠNG — The south-eastern province of Bình Dương is considered to be a place with many public housing projects and kindergartens for workers and their children, but they are proving insufficient.

The province has a population of 2.3 million, half of them migrants from elsewhere, and it is expected to increase to three million by 2025.

It has 28 industrial parks and the largest number of workers in the country, 1.2 million.

Every year, the province gets 30,000-40,000 workers from other provinces.

This means there is huge demand for public housing, according to Phan Cao Phúc, deputy chairman of the Bình Dương Real Estate Association.

But public housing projects do not attract investors due to low profits.

Nguyễn Thị Thanh Hảo, deputy director of the province’s Department of Construction, said the province has asked to retain some of the money it raised by equitising State-owned enterprises to fund housing for low-income people, including workers at industrial parks.

It has also asked the Government to increase its housing development fund and the Social Policy Bank to ensure businesses can access loans to invest in housing projects.

Kindergartens

The Bình Dương Province Labour Confederation is conducting a survey at enterprises with more than 3,000 workers about their children who need to be put in kindergartens.

Nguyễn Hoàng Bảo Trân, its vice chairman, said the survey is aimed at making preferential policies for enterprises to build kindergartens for workers’ children.

Several local companies like International Garment Private Enterprise and Kim Oanh Group have built kindergartens.

The confederation and trade unions at industrial parks have encouraged enterprises to allocate funds and lands for building kindergartens.

Authorities have leased out around 72,000sq.m to 16 individuals and enterprises to build kindergartens in localities with industrial parks.

They can take in around 6,000 children.

The province has 383 kindergartens, including 260 public ones, and more than 500 private nurseries for nearly 132,500 kids of pre-school-age. The number increases by 8,000 to 12,000 a year.

Provincial authorities said the province did not lack lands for building kindergartens but the population growth is too rapid to keep pace with. — VNS