VietNamNet Bridge – As banks have tightened their lending in a strategy to fight inflation, export laborers cannot borrow money to cover the expenses for exit procedures. A lot of companies have given back the operation license and shifted to other business.

According to labor export companies, the shortage of laborers is the biggest headache for them now. Workers have got more hesitant to work abroad after they heard about the problems occurring with the workers in the Middle East and North Africa, who have to return to Vietnam before the scheduled time due to the political crisis in the areas.

Also, the companies say the banks’ policy on tightening lending has led to the fact that export laborers do not have enough money to follow exit procedures.

“The restricted lending has badly affected the labor export market. It is now most difficult than ever to borrow money from banks to go working abroad,” said Chair of Viet Thang Labor Export Company Nguyen Van Xuan.

According to commercial banks, there are two reasons that force the banks to restrict the lending to export laborers. Firstly, they have to control the outstanding loans as requested by the government. Meanwhile, banks themselves are thirsty for capital, as it is difficult to mobilize capital from the public in the context of high inflation.

Secondly, banks do not want to keep lending to export laborers when the bad debt ratio in the sector has climbed to 10 percent, an overly high level if compared with 3 percent in other sectors.

In order to find out enough laborers to send abroad to fulfill the contracts signed with foreign partners, many Vietnamese labor export companies have to use their own money to help export laborers follow procedures. However, at this moment, labor export companies themselves do not have money, and they also have to borrow money from banks at overly high interest rates.

Nguyen Thi Minh Ha, a laborer in Bac Giang province, who is going to Malaysia to work there, said that if she can borrow money from banks, she will have to pay 25 million dong in total for all the procedures. Meanwhile, if she cannot borrow from banks, she will use the money of employers for following procedures, and then her income will be deducted every month. If so, the total sum of money she will have to pay is 34 million dong, including the interests.

Ha said that she expected to earn 5-6 million dong a month in Malaysia, and the sum of 34 million dong would be equal to the sum of money she can save after one year of working.

Export companies now feel worried stiff, because they cannot find out enough laborers to fulfill the contracts they signed before with foreign partners. Viet Thang Company, for example, has sent 100 laborers to Malaysia so far, while LOD said it needs 100 laborers a month who will work at factories or work as nurse’s aides, but it has not found enough workers.

LOD, Chau Hung, Airseco have to provide other services, including driver training, vocational training or tourism services in order to “feed” their main business fields of exporting laborers. Especially, some companies have decided to “give up the games”, giving back the operation license in labor export.

In related news, labor export companies have complained that Saudi Arabia has set up a new regulation, described as “putting difficulties for Vietnamese enterprises”.

The new regulation stipulates that from July 1, the Vietnamese labor export companies will not be granted visas from the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Vietnam, if they do not have contracts with Sanarcom, the Saudi Arabian National Recruitment Committee. Meanwhile, those companies which have contracts with Sanarcom, must have 10 percent of female help-workers when applying for visas.

C. V