The plan will need an estimated VND1.3 trillion (about US$57.2 million) to support labor export activities and hold refresher courses for locally trained workers who do not meet the labor standards of importing nations.

The plan will be implemented in the 2018-2020 period with a vision towards 2025.

According to MOLISA, about 500,000 Vietnamese are employed in foreign countries at the moment but half of them are unskilled workers.

In the years to come, population ageing in the countries that import labor from Vietnam will continue growing. Therefore, they will certainly need more foreign workers to offset the rising shortfall of domestic labor.

One-quarter of the Japanese are 65 years old or older and one-third of the Japanese workforce will retire in 2030. In Germany, 17 million people are 65 years old or older and the number will increase to 21 million by 2030, nearly 28% of Germany’s population. Therefore, these countries have great demand for foreign workers, especially those having high skills.

According to a report on the labor market in the second quarter of 2016, Vietnam has about 1.09 million people of working age unemployed, with over 418,000 of them having high skills. To reduce unemployment, the country should step up labor export.

However, it is hard to export locally trained laborers. MOLISA said Vietnamese laborers do not meet the requirements of labor-importing countries, especially foreign-language skills, and moreover, Vietnam’s educational programs are not recognized by foreign countries.

Vietnam has a wealth of qualified workers, mostly in social sciences and humanities, but foreign countries need workers in engineering and other technical fields.

Tong Hai Nam, deputy head of the Department of Overseas Labor, said the plan would focus on exporting workers with technical skills.

In stage one of the plan, from 2018 to 2020, the country will export 11,200 workers to Germany, 4,500 to Japan and 1,800 to South Korea mainly in healthcare, information technology, electronics, telecom, physics, biology and hospitality sectors.

In the second stage, over 39,000 Vietnamese laborers will be sent abroad, with 8,300 nurses and 16,500 engineers to Germany, 3,300 nurses and 6,600 engineers to Japan and 3,900 IT workers and 400 chefs to South Korea.

The ministry will find ways to export workers in beauty service, hospitality, mechanical engineering and construction to other markets like ASEAN and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The total number of laborers exported will amount to nearly 57,000 in both stages.

SGT