Hoa said in an interview with newspaper Thoi Bao Kinh te Vietnam on October 15 that there was no need to extend the support package, because temporary unemployment had slowed.
VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) will not extend the labour shortage programme after it expires on December 31, 2009, MOLISA’s Deputy Minister Nguyen Thanh Hoa has revealed.
Several months ago, the Government, in an effort to help businesses ease difficulties during the economic downturn, decided businesses could borrow money at zero interest rate to pay salaries and allowances to labourers who had previously lost jobs in 2009.
However, as Hoa admitted, very few enterprises borrowed money under the programme despite the zero lending interest rate. Hoa thinks enterprises had not fallen into such big difficulties that they need the capital. Another reason Hoa cited to explain the low demand for capital is businesses can borrow money to pay salaries for 2009, but many of them began facing difficulties in 2008.
Hoa says the impact of the global economic crisis and economic downturn on the employment had not been big as previously thought. Besides, as the global economy recovers and the national economy revives after the downturn, MOLISA does not think it is necessary to extend the support programme.
In December 2008, MOLISA predicted that 300,000 jobs would be lost by the end of 2009. However, the actual unemployment turned out to be much lower than the rate forecast by MOLISA. By the end of September 2009, the laid-off workers numbered 100,000. The lay-offs occurred mostly in the period from late 2008 to the end of the first quarter of 2009.
Since June 2009, the labour situation has reversed with businesses now seriously lacking workers.
HCM City, for example, has reported that it lacks 100,000 workers, while Dong Nai and Binh Duong provinces both need 40,000 workers.
Hoa says MOLISA is going to have meetings with local authorities to find the reasons behind the labour shortage and discuss solutions.
VietNamNet/TBKTVN
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