On the afternoon of October 11, the Ministry of Labour - Invalids and Social Affairs coordinated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to organize the Promoting Vietnam - Europe Labour Cooperation workshop. The workshop attracted the attention and participation of nearly 200 delegates from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Labour - Invalids and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Public Security, associations, enterprises on training and supplying human resources, and delegates from 15 European diplomatic missions in Hanoi, the European Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In addition, Vietnamese representative agencies in Europe participated online.

Speaking at the workshop, Ms. Le Thi Thu Hang, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, affirmed that the workshop provided an overview of the current situation of labour cooperation between Vietnam and European countries.

Thereby, Vietnam can grasp the opportunities and challenges for each market to find solutions to improve cooperation efficiency, positioning the field of labour cooperation in the overall bilateral cooperation relationship between Vietnam and each European partner.

At the workshop, Deputy Minister of Labour - Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Ba Hoan summarized that dispatching Vietnamese workers to work abroad is a major policy of the Vietnamese Government to develop human resources, solve employment, create income and improve skills for workers and strengthen international cooperation between Vietnam and countries around the world.

In recent years, annually, Vietnam has sent about 150,000 workers to work abroad and currently, there are about 700,000 Vietnamese workers working in 40 countries and territories, with more than 30 different occupational groups.

"Europe has always been considered a key market, with a need to receive a large number of foreign workers, including Vietnamese workers. Vietnamese workers have initially created prestige and a brand in the international labour market," emphasized Deputy Minister Nguyen Ba Hoan.

Vietnam and countries in the European Union have a friendly relationship and active, increasingly deep, effective, and comprehensive cooperation, including in the field of labour cooperation. This cooperation brings great benefits to each country.

Countries in the European Union need to supplement human resources, making up for the shortage of labour force due to population aging. Vietnam is a country with a young population, in need of job creation, vocational skills training, and industrial working style.

Attending the workshop, the embassies of European countries in Hanoi confirmed that this market has a great demand for receiving skilled Vietnamese workers, and is ready to support human resource training to ensure the quality of the supply, have a stable salary policy, and many favorable labour policies.

At the workshop, the leaders of the two Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Labour - Invalids and Social Affairs agreed on the viewpoint of coordinating well to implement the work of dispatching labour to work abroad policy in the coming time, maintaining and developing sustainable cooperation, ensuring the rights of workers.

*** Social security is a basic human right. Yet, 4.1 billion people worldwide have no access to social protection including healthcare. This includes millions of migrant workers, refugees, and their families who face major legal and practical obstacles in accessing social protection benefits. 

Many policy options exist to secure and maintain social security rights across countries, and the ILO has developed a strategy and policy guidance tools that can inform governments, workers’ and employers’ organizations as well as other stakeholders in their efforts to extend social protection to migrant workers and refugees. 

Based on the principles of equality of treatment and nondiscrimination, countries are encouraged to consider the following six complementary and mutually reinforcing policy measures: 

Progressively building national social protection systems that are inclusive of migrant workers and refugees; 
Supporting the ratification of relevant ILO standards and new / revised social security laws and their concrete implementation; 
Concluding social security agreements (bi/multi) between countries to ensure the portability of benefits across countries; 
Concluding BLMAs with social security provisions based on the equality of treatment principle;
Setting complementary measures addressing the administrative & practical obstacles faced by migrant workers and refugees; 
Adopting other unilateral measures, or mechanisms that allow for flexibility in the design of the scheme and assistance with regards to qualifying conditions and minimum requirements can also be considered.