Vietnam’s labour export market has become increasingly unpredictable with a tough 2011 ahead.

Vietnamese workers are highly prized, but the market will be squeezed in 2011

Many industry specialists forecasted that 2011 would be a year of hardships for Vietnam’s labour export.

Taiwan currently tops the list of nations accepting Vietnamese labourers. However, bringing Vietnamese workers to this market represents a challenge due to tough broker fees. Each export worker must pay broker fees of up to $6,000-$7,000. But, their future incomes will only be around VND6-7 million ($307-$358) per month.

Meanwhile, no breakthrough was expected in the Japanese and South Korean markets. Each year Japan received 4,000 Vietnamese labourers, while South Korea has set increasingly stringent requirements about Korean language proficiency and qualifications, said the Overseas Labour Centre deputy director Vu Minh Xuyen.

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs-backed centre monitors a programme bringing Vietnamese labourers to work in South Korea.

Labour Export Association deputy chairman Nguyen Xuan An told VIR big efforts were required to maintain existing markets. Deputy chairman of the National Assembly’s Social Affairs Committee Dang Nhu Loi said: “The quality of labour export services and labourers’ benefits in recipient countries are more important.”

Vietnam brought 75,850 labourers to work abroad in the first 11 months of 2010, more than 85 per cent of the year’s plan, according to the Overseas Labour Management Department. The department’s figures also show that Taiwan topped the list of Vietnamese labourers’ recipient markets with 25,647 workers, followed by Malaysia with more than 9,000, South Korea 7,693, the Middle East over 7,000, Japan 4,215, Cambodia and Libya approximately 4,000 each.