VietNamNet Bridge – Five state management agencies from ministries to local authorities have given five different figures about the number of Chinese workers in Vietnam.

Deputy Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Trong Dam at the government’s press conference on August 28 denied the fact that 10,000 Chinese workers will go to Vung Ang Economic Zone to work at the construction site there.

According to Dam, 33,952 workers had been reportedly present in Vung Ang by August 21, including 30,438 Vietnamese workers and 3,514 foreign workers. The foreign workers included 1,913 Chinese, while the others were from the other 28 countries and territories.

Regarding Formosa’s steel project, there had been 27,000 workers by that time, including 23,700 Vietnamese workers and 3,212 foreign workers. Of the foreign workers, there were 1,799 Chinese.

When asked to clarify the information that 10,000 Chinese workers would come to Vung Ang, Dam said that this is the total number of Chinese workers that the 29 contractors plan to employ to implement the projects.

However, the plan will still need approval from the chair of the Ha Tinh provincial People’s Committee.

By August 27, the committee had agreed to grant work permit to 2,063 Chinese workers. The contractors have proposed to grant work permits to another 2,700 workers for the time to come. However, the proposal has not been approved.

“The report of the Ha Tinh provincial Economic Zone Management Board showed that in the fourth quarter of 2014 and first quarter of 2015, the contractors would need 40,000-45,000 workers, including 8,000 foreign workers,” Dam said.

“As such, 10,000 is not an accurate figure,” he said.

Some days ago, Nguyen Trong Tuan, head of the Labor and Human Resource Development of the Ha Tinh Economic Zone, in an interview given to Dat Viet newspaper, said Formosa and contractors had asked for work permits for over 10,000 foreign workers, 90 percent of whom were from China.

Tuan also said that some of their requests were approved by the provincial labor department. Twenty-eight contractors, including 25 Chinese and the Vietnamese, asked for permission to recruit 8,426 foreign workers to implement some construction items, including the blast furnace No 1 and No 2 and items for the Son Duong Port.

The provincial authorities on August 8 released a decision, agreeing to allow 11 out of the 28 contractors to hire 2,063 foreign workers, while the other 2,976 workers were awaiting licenses.

Meanwhile, answering Dan Tri’s reporters, Pham Tran De, deputy head of the Ha Tinh provincial Economics Zone, said there are 1,800 Chinese workers in Vung Ang.

And Lao Dong newspaper quoted Tran Thi Dung, deputy director of the provincial general hospital, as saying that on June 1 – August 26, the hospital gave health examinations to 892 foreigners, most of them Chinese.

Meanwhile, Colonel Nguyen Duc Thuan, Head of the Immigration Division, said the agency was making procedures for the entry permits for more than 8,400 foreigners to enter the Vung Ang Economic Zone.

De said that no relevant agency has an accurate number about Chinese workers in Vietnam.

Dat Viet