(Dan Tri) – Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung proposed that Japan expand the acceptance of workers in the restaurant industry and food production and processing, which are two strong industries of Vietnamese people.
Japan expands attraction of foreign workers
On the afternoon of August 15, at the headquarters of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, Minister Dao Ngoc Dung received Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam Ito Naoki.
At the meeting, the Minister congratulated Mr. Ito Naoki on being appointed by the Japanese Government as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Vietnam. Especially, after the two countries upgraded their relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations in 2023.
Minister Dao Ngoc Dung received Japanese Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Vietnam Ito Naoki (Photo: Tong Giap).
“The relationship between Vietnam and Japan has never been as good as it is now. Therefore, I believe that you will have a successful term in Vietnam,” Minister Dao Ngoc Dung expressed.
On this occasion, Ambassador Ito Naoki sent his deep condolences to the family, the Party and the people of Vietnam on the passing of the late General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.
Sharing with the leaders of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, Ambassador Ito Naoki said that Japanese businesses in Vietnam assess that this Southeast Asian country has great economic development potential, especially the potential for economic development. high quality human resources.
Mr. Ito Naoki stated that there are currently about 570,000 Vietnamese people living and working in Japan. Vietnam is also the leading country among 15 countries sending interns and workers to Japan.
“The number of Vietnamese people in Japan has tripled, to about 570,000 people. This number is thanks to the Minister’s great contribution,” Ambassador Ito Naoki said.
Informing Minister Dao Ngoc Dung, the Japanese ambassador said that recently, the Government of this country approved a new program to replace the old technical intern trainee program.
Mr. Ito Naoki has just been appointed by the Japanese Government as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Vietnam (Photo: Tong Giap).
Accordingly, the new program will prioritize protecting the rights of foreigners working in Japan, creating opportunities for them to advance; Workers can move to work as desired and gradually improve Japanese language proficiency for foreign workers.
“However, the new regime requires high Japanese language proficiency. Therefore, I hope the Minister will continue to pay attention to the issue of human resource training before sending them to Japan to work,” said Mr. Ito Naoki.
In addition, Ambassador Ito Naoki hopes that the leaders of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs will continue to pay attention and create conditions to speed up the progress of the project “Supporting to connect job information for Vietnamese workers to work.” abroad under contract”, which the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Vietnam in coordination with the Department of Overseas Labor Management is implementing.
Referring to the field of specified skills, Ambassador Ito Naoki said that the specified skills program No. 2 (Tokutei Gino 2) has only had 37 people pass the exam, including 20 Vietnamese workers. Therefore, the Japanese side wants the two countries to promote further cooperation to promote this program to attract workers.
In addition, according to Ambassador Ito Naoki, currently Japanese medical facilities are looking to receive more nurses and midwives from Vietnam under the VJEPA program – a program to bring Vietnamese nurses and midwives to Vietnam. working in Japan under the Vietnam – Japan Economic Partnership Agreement.
“However, the number of candidates participating in the program does not meet the demand, although the Japanese side has relaxed some criteria such as reducing the Japanese language training time to 3 months,” Ambassador Ito Naoki wished the Ministry Director Dao Ngoc Dung is interested in increasing the number of nursing candidates going to Japan.
Also taking advantage of this meeting, Mr. Ito Naoki mentioned his desire for the two countries to soon promote the signing of the Social Insurance Agreement so that this content can soon come into practice.
Minister’s proposal
Before responding to Mr. Ito Naoki’s comments, Minister Dao Ngoc Dung thanked the Ambassador’s condolences for the great loss of the Party and the Vietnamese people due to the passing of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong. .
“General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong is an exemplary leader, leaving behind many great legacies for the Party and people of Vietnam. He is an important contributor to cultivating and promoting Vietnam’s diplomatic relations.” – Japan is developing well as it is today,” Minister Dao Ngoc Dung emphasized.
Minister Dao Ngoc Dung also thanked the Japanese Embassy in Vietnam for being proactive and proactive in coordinating with the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs in promoting relations between the two countries in the field of labor. employment, social security.
Minister Dao Ngoc Dung and Mr. Ito Naoki discussed many issues of interest to both sides such as the Social Insurance Agreement, labor cooperation… (Photo: Tong Giap).
The Minister said that he has attended many ASEAN forums with other countries, but the Summit commemorating the 50th anniversary of ASEAN-Japan relations in December 2023 left a deep impression. Bilateral activities with consistent, important messages and directions “from heart to heart”, “from action to action”, “from emotions to effectiveness”.
In particular, during Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s visit to Japan, for the first time, the two countries organized the Vietnam – Japan Labor Cooperation Forum and decided to choose December 16 every year as Vietnamese Labor Day. Male in Japan.
Minister Dao Ngoc Dung shared that he spent time directly visiting and checking the food, accommodation, work and life of Vietnamese workers in Japan. In particular, many businesses have up to 3/4 of their employees being Vietnamese.
“They are all qualified workers. After only 2-3 months of work, the workers completely master the technology and become managers. That is a very happy thing,” the Minister shared.
According to Minister Dao Ngoc Dung, many programs and projects that the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs has been coordinating with Japan such as the technical intern program, the special skilled labor program, and the program to bring nurses and Vietnamese nurses to Japan… have had remarkable development, achieving many positive results.
“In 2016, there were only about 200,000 Vietnamese people in Japan, now this number has increased to 570,000 people. Vietnamese people have a saying ‘good land, birds perch’, which shows that Japan is a country with many workers. Vietnamese people trust and choose to live, study and work,” the Minister assessed.
At the meeting, the Minister also thanked the Japanese side for supporting the project “Supporting connection of job information for Vietnamese workers working abroad under contract”. He agreed with the Ambassador’s opinion on pushing the project to an early finish line.
In addition, the Minister also mentioned that the two sides coordinated well to implement the exam to evaluate specific skills in the nursing and agricultural sectors last April. In the coming time, the two sides will coordinate to organize assessment competitions in the accommodation and hotel industry.
Minister Dao Ngoc Dung promised to support Ambassador Ito Naoki to best complete his working term in Vietnam (Photo: Tong Giap).
Regarding human resource development cooperation activities, the head of the Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs sector emphasized that Vietnam is in a golden population period. With a population of more than 100 million people, Vietnam has up to 56 million people of working age.
“This is a huge advantage. Currently, many countries ‘order’ Vietnam to provide a large amount of human resources. In the coming time, Vietnam will continue to pay attention and promote cooperation with Japan on labor to maintain the number of Vietnamese workers coming to work in Japan equivalent to 2023,” the Minister said.
Emphasizing the bilateral Social Insurance Agreement, Minister Dao Ngoc Dung hoped that the two sides would speed up the signing, because the Vietnamese and Japanese labor forces are very large, so workers should not have to pay social insurance. Twice, causing difficulties for workers in both countries.
Also according to the Ministry’s leaders, in the context of a falling yen, workers still choose Japan as their destination. That shows the workers’ confidence in the land of the rising sun.
Therefore, the Minister proposed that the Japanese Government open more groups of specified skills to receive Vietnamese workers in the restaurant and food production and processing sectors – two advantageous areas of Vietnam.
At the end of the meeting, Minister Dao Ngoc Dung pledged that he and the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs would personally support Ambassador Ito Naoki to best complete his working term in Vietnam.