Can Tho (VNA) — The Mekong Delta is one of the richest partsof Vietnam, leading the country in rice, shrimp and other agricultural products.

But now the area is facing a labour shortage as young people leave towork in HCM City and southeastern provinces.

Ly Sa Ruong from Tran De district in Soc Trang province told Tien Phong(Vanguard) newspaper that many young people had left their hometowns to findjobs in Binh Duong province.

“Only old people and children are left behind. Young people have gone to BinhDuong province including my three children,” he said.

“Farming does not provide a stable income.”

Vice Chairman of the district’s Thanh Thoi An commune Nguyen Hai Quan saidlocal people mostly worked in agriculture with two rice crops a year.

Mechanisation had replaced manual work so people had more free time afterthe harvests. As a result, many had left home for the big cities to find otherjobs, he said.

To help young people, local authorities have coordinated with thedistrict’s vocational centre to regularly open training courses for rurallabourers to find jobs.

Other provinces in the region such as Hau Giang, Kien Giang, Dong Thap andBac Lieu are in the same situation.

Young families leave their children in the care of their grandparents asthey go in search of jobs in the cities.

Lam Hoa Nhan, deputy head of the vocational training office under Soc Trangprovince’s Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, said the People’sCommittee had requested the labour sector to find solutions to limit youngpeople leaving home to work in other provinces and cities.

At the same time, the province has also called on large enterprises toinvest in the locality to attract workers.

Currently, the Nha Be Garment Company and two footwear companies fromTaiwan and South Korea are operating in the province.

The province also needs human resources to develop tourism, energy andhigh-tech agriculture.

“New progress has been made in job creation. It is a step towards callingworkers back to their hometowns,” Nhan said.

However, the current number of labourers in the province does not meet therecruitment demands of the 2,000 businesses operating there.

The Nha Be Garment Company has to find workers from neighbouring provinces tofill its 8,000 positions.

“Enterprises are thirsty for workers but face recruitment issues. Theprovince has coordinated with agencies and localities to seek workers butfailed to help them,” said Nhan.

According to Nhan, the average salary for unskilled workers in big citieswas about 6-7 million VND (260-300 USD) per month but the cost of living andaccommodation was high, so they could save only 1.5-2 million VND per month.

In rural areas, they could earn 3.5-4 million VND per month but did nothave high daily expenses because they lived with their families.

Currently, the recruitment demand of big companies in the province isabout 25,000.

To deal with the labour shortage, the province has encouraged high schoolstudents who do not want a higher education to join vocational centres and thenfind jobs in the area, Nhan said.

At the same time, the province is also trying to attract skilled workersin other provinces using preferential policies, including free training andsupport for the cost of learning.

Local labourers and enterprises would receive more preferential policies,he said.

Nguyen Duy Phuc, Director of the Job Service Centre in Can Tho city, said thedemand for workers was huge, especially in seafood, garment and footwearcompanies.

Enterprises in HCM City and Binh Duong province also offered more jobopportunities for young workers, Phuc said.

Lam Thanh Sy, Secretary of An Giang province’s Youth Union, told thenewspaper that to keep young people working in the locality, the union had beentrying to help them start their own businesses.

The union was opening a store to sell products from start-ups and offeringcapital to help young people conduct business, said Sy.

Young people would be offered funding, technology and skills to developcreative start-up projects, said Nguyen Thi Thu Van, Vice President of the VietnamYouth Federation.

However, the most important things were solutions in each locality tosupport young people, she said.-VNA