Ha Noi (VNA) – Viet Nam has become a full member of the World Trade Organisation, a good few of its citizens remain uneasy with questions about their jobs. However, domestic and international experts asserted that Vietnamese people will have much more job choices with more competitive salaries, and that opportunities, of course, will come hand in hand with challenges.
Opportunities for Vietnamese labourers
”More jobs will be created as a result of a new wave of foreign direct investment (FDI) coming to Viet Nam” after its joining the Geneva-based, world’s largest trade body, said Jan Jung-Min Sunoo, Chief Technical Adviser for the Improving Industrial Relations at Enterprises project under the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Viet Nam.
Significant job increase in the 2000-2005 period can be seen in the FDI-invested sector. According to the General Statistics Office, the number of jobs created by foreign-invested companies has increased by an average of 24.4 percent per annum.
The ILO expert added that Vietnamese workers also have myriad chances to work abroad as labour migration is an irreversible trend following the removal of barriers to labour migration throughout the world.
Foreign investors will create a lot of new jobs in Viet Nam . Working for a foreign invested company, applying international standards will bring along training and education possibilities for Vietnamese workers, Oliver Masmann, member of the management board of European Chamber of Commerce (Eurocham) in Viet Nam , said.
“Foreign investors will offer career opportunities and competitive salaries for professional staff,” Masmann firmly confirmed.
Salaries offered by foreign companies to Vietnamese employees, over the last five to six years, have increased by 15 to 50 percent. In 2000, people in human resources managerial positions were offered the median salary of 200 USD, they now can earn 1,000 USD a month.
Even domestic companies will be able to pay their employees better salaries after Viet Nam becomes a full WTO member, said a market observer, explaining that Vietnamese companies also want to sharpen their competitive edge in terms of labour to rival their foreign competitors.
A southern rubber company, the Casumina, has revised its salary payment mechanism, which now emphasises employees’ professional performance and efficiency rather than merely their academic certificates.
The banking sector is rapidly getting involved in the race. Newly-set up banks have raised their labour cost in a bid to attract highly skilled staff, causing most of the other banks to also push up their cost trying to keep hold of their staff, said Le Dac Son, General Director of non-state VPBank.
The rise in salaries will benefit local workers but for some manufacturers, it is a problematic issue. Instead of raising their labour cost, some employers import foreign labourers. Labour import is seen as a new trend that will continue to occur on Viet Nam ’s labour market, said a market observer.
Challenges for labour market
“If Viet Nam increases the salary too fast, it will not be as competitive any more” when compared with other regional countries, Massmann said, adding that investors may seek new workers from China , Thailand or Indonesia .
Viet Nam needs to invest heavily in training highly skilled workers in order to attract more investors and meet requirements for international integration, ILO expert Jan said. According to the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA), 74.7 percent of Viet Nam ’s labour force have not undergone vocational training and most of them are in rural areas.
Investors coming to Viet Nam are not only interested in salary increases and labourers’ quality but also in workers’ strikes. One of questions raised by most of investors is “after Viet Nam joins the WTO, will strikes increase?” The ILO expert’s answer is that it all depends on how well are the industrial relations between employers and employees.
Good industrial relations will not only reduce labour disputes but it will also raise the competitiveness of Viet Nam’s labour market, Jan said, adding that the ILO and MoLISA did work together to carry out the first phase of ILO/Viet Nam Industrial Relations Project funded by the US. Under the project, industrial relations advice centres were built in four cities (Ha Noi, Hai Phong, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh city ) and three provinces (Hai Duong, Dong Nai and Binh Duong).
”The Vietnamese Government is gradually completing all laws on labour. This tells us that Viet Nam is ready for integration,” the ILO expert said.-Enditem |