Vietnam says more jobless but state will provide
HANOI, Aug 6 (Reuters) - The Asian economic crisis
has taken its toll on unemployment in Vietnam but the
communist country would not permit the operation of
private job centres -- at least not yet, a senior official
said on Thursday.
Nguyen Luong Trao, permanent deputy minister of
labour, war invalids and social affairs, said the only legal
job finding services were operated by state-affiliated
companies.
'`Any job centre without the support of a sponsoring
(state) agency is illegal,'' he told a news conference.
``We want to restore order in employment activities to
avoid cheating.''
Trao, in translated remarks, said some individuals or
illegal organisations had set up job centres.
``Some individuals or organisations have abused the
name of job centres and asked workers for arrangement
fees of up to several thousand dollars in order to provide
jobs abroad,'' Trao said.
He gave no examples and said the incidence of crooked
job agents was isolated.
``It is not overwhelming or a prevailing trend, but it
appears so we have to punish wrongdoing,'' he said.
As it has pursued reform in the past decade Vietnam has
deregulated parts of the economy. Private banks, law
firms, shops, health care, property agents and other
businesses are tolerated.
``Probably we will legalise private job centres to
operate,'' Trao said, without specifying a timeframe for
such a decision.
``Job centre activities have a social, non-commercial
purpose. Therefore we assign and encourage state
agencies or mass organisations which are able to set up
job centres to help workers find jobs,'' he added.
Last month Vietnam announced it had launched a
nationwide programme worth $300 million between
1998 and 2000 to create more jobs, boost worker
re-training and cushion the blow of unemployment.
The programme aimed to create 1.3-1.4 million new
jobs each year -- currently the number of new entrants
to the workforce -- and to reduce the urban jobless rate
to five percent.
In late April official estimates put urban unemployment at
around seven percent and rising.
The countrys total unemployment rate was 5.88 percent
in 1996 and rose to 6.01 percent last year, Trao said.
While reluctant to provide exact figures, he said that to
date in 1998 some eight percent of workers from 2,214
state enterprises polled had been laid off.
A recent report by the labour ministry showed almost a
quarter of Vietnams workforce was under-employed,
with most of those affected living in rural areas.
Vietnam has a labour force of 36.3 million, the report
added.
REUTERS - August 06, 1998.
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