Have a good job, but lack money to go
A few years ago, 200 million VND was too much for Mr. Phan Huu Trung, in Dong Giang commune, Da Nang city. Without stable jobs, the family's economy was difficult, Trung wanted to go to Japan to work, but the initial cost became a barrier.
Thanks to being eligible for support, he was guided to borrow 200 million VND from the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies to exit the country. After 3 years of working in Japan, Trung's income reached about 30-35 million VND/month. The family escaped poverty, and when he returned, he had capital to invest in transportation business.
Trung's story shows the effectiveness of a capital allocated at the right time. But not every worker who wants to work abroad is in the priority group to easily access policy credit.
That gap was once quite clearly shown in former Quang Nam (now Da Nang). In the period 2022-2024, the locality had nearly 4,600 workers going to work abroad, but only nearly 700 people were able to borrow policy capital, with a total amount of about 36 billion VND. Mr. Nguyen Qui Quy - Deputy Director of the Department of Home Affairs of Da Nang City - once acknowledged that the number of workers accessing credit capital was still low compared to the number of people leaving the country.
For many families, the difficulty does not lie in whether their children have enough health or skills, but in the amount of money to prepare from the beginning: foreign language learning, training, orientation education, health check-ups, travel and expenses before leaving the country. Not belonging to poor households but also not having tens, even hundreds of millions of dong available, many workers fall into the mid-range: having job opportunities but lacking capital to seize opportunities.
The dream of going abroad is wide open thanks to preferential capital
Resolution 65/2026/NQ-HĐND of the Da Nang City People's Council, effective from July 10, 2026, is expected to solve this bottleneck.
According to the resolution, employees permanently residing for 12 months or more in Da Nang who need to work abroad under contract are given more opportunities to access capital. Notably, the city uses local budget sources entrusted through the Social Policy Bank to lend to groups of workers outside the priority area specified in Clause 4, Article 9 of the 2025 Employment Law. Interest rates are applied according to the preferential mechanism of Decree 338/2025/ND-CP.
According to the current policy framework, workers can be considered to borrow up to 100% of the costs payable before going to work abroad under contract; the maximum loan term corresponds to the contract term. Da Nang also supports health check-up costs of up to 1.6 million VND/person and travel expenses for some eligible groups.
The noteworthy point therefore lies not only in the level of support, but also in the openness of the policy. The city does not wait for workers to fall to the poverty line to support, but proactively uses local resources to support even those who are able to work, have the opportunity to leave the country but lack initial capital.
Compared to the central policy mainly focusing on poor and near-poor households and people in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, Da Nang expands the scope of support to more labor groups. Some subjects are also supported with expenses for foreign language learning, skills, orientation education, travel and health checks - Mr. Nguyen Qui Quy said.
In the period 2026-2030, Da Nang aims to send 10,000 workers to work abroad. According to Mr. Quy, the new policy will help many workers access preferential capital sources, reduce initial cost pressure, thereby expanding opportunities to work abroad, increasing income and improving life.
