Long An fosters employment linkage with Japan’s Ibaraki

Addressing a forum on March 4, Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Dai Tanh briefed the Japanse side on the locality's economic situation and its favourable transport system and geographical location for the development of industrial parks (IPs).

Long An has zoned off 32 IPs and 62 industrial clusters with a total area of about 15,000 hectares. Currently, 16 IPs and 22 industrial clusters have become operational with an occupancy rate of over 90 percent, said Tanh, adding that Long An currently has about 500 hectares of cleared land that are ready for investment. The majority of local IPs and industrial clusters locate near Ho Chi Minh City.

Currently, Long An is hosting 1,127 FDI with total investment of over 9.4 billion USD. Japan is now the fourth largest investor of Long An with 132 projects worth 479 million USD.

Tanh underlined that Long An has abundant labour resources with 63 percent of population on the working age.

The ratio of trained labourers is 72.1 percent, and over 31 percent of them hold degrees and certificates.

In 2020, the provincial People’s Committee issued a project to export its labourers in the 2020-2025 period with an aim to deal with employment issue, improve their income and enhance their working and foreign language skills, thus serving the province’s industrialisation and modernisation process. Japan is a favourite destination for local workers, he stressed.

Tanh also expressed pleasure at the sound partnership between the two sides in bringing Long An workers to Ibaraki. He noted that many labourers who finished working in Japan have become key managers and technical workers at Japanese businesses based in Long An./.