The workshop to collect comments on the draft Project to support workers in industrial parks and export processing zones (IPs, EPZs) in child care and education was held by the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor in Ho Chi Minh City on November 21.
Ms. Do Hong Van - Member of the Presidium, Head of the Women's Union of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor - chaired the conference, with the participation of nearly 50 union officials from 21 southern provinces and cities and the Vietnam Rubber Trade Union.
In her opening speech, Ms. Van said that in the 10 years (2014-2024), industrial parks and export processing zones continued to be established and developed in almost all provinces and cities across the country. By the end of 2023, the country had 431 industrial parks established in 221 district-level units in 59/63 provinces and cities.
Industrial parks nationwide have created jobs for about 4.16 million direct workers, of which 23 provinces and cities have 50,000 or more workers, mainly concentrated in the Southeast region and the Red River Delta.
The characteristics of workers working in industrial parks and export processing zones are mainly young immigrant workers, with low living standards and precarious lives.
Migrant worker families mainly live in boarding houses, lacking kindergartens and classrooms near where their parents live and work. Migrant worker parents have low incomes, so choosing schools for their children is difficult, many have to send their children to private facilities that do not guarantee quality, many child abuse cases occur, increasing the risk of child abuse and violence.
“The need to issue the project stems from the need to improve the conditions for workers to care for and raise their children, some shortcomings for workers in caring for and raising their children today, and the role and responsibility of trade unions in supporting workers in caring for and raising their children,” Ms. Van emphasized.
At the workshop, all opinions agreed that the development of the Project was very necessary, and that the Women's Committee of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor had carefully prepared it and contributed opinions on a number of indicators stated in the project, and proposed a number of solutions for the implementation of the project.
