Currently, workers in Vietnam's industrial parks are facing an increasingly serious problem of housing shortage. In 2024, the country will have more than 500 industrial parks, attracting millions of workers from rural and mountainous areas. However, most workers can only rent a room in cramped rooms with poor living conditions.
Although the State has policies to support social housing, in reality, the majority of low-paid workers still cannot access them.
In August 2024, Party Central Committee member and President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor Nguyen Dinh Khang signed and issued a Resolution on "Focusing resources on taking care of the welfare of union members and workers in the new situation" emphasizing the following content: Supporting the construction, purchase of houses, and repair of houses; supporting the rental of houses at trade union institutions and social housing invested in and built by the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor.
The 2023 Housing Law takes effect from January 1, 2025 with many new points, including the regulation that the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor is the competent authority for investment projects in building social housing using trade union financial resources for workers and laborers eligible for social housing policies for rent, which has removed previous "bottlenecks", while creating motivation for the Trade Union organization to be more determined in removing difficulties in the issue of housing for workers.
The first social housing project for workers and laborers rented from union financial resources was started in My Tho Industrial Park, Trung An Industrial Cluster, Dong Thap Province at the end of July.
Today (September 25), the second project was started in Viet Yen ward (Bac Ninh province). The project includes 2 blocks of 10-storey houses with a total floor area of 30,166m2, with 477 apartments for rent with elevators and basic equipment and furniture: beds, wardrobes, kitchen cabinets... and a 3-storey parking lot with a total floor area of 3,024m2, total investment capital of nearly 388 billion VND.
When completed, nearly 500 worker households and laborers will be able to live in a spacious, clean, spacious place with a multi-purpose house, a common sports field with a reasonable rental price, helping workers stabilize their lives without having to worry too much about living expenses.
Speaking at the Party Congress of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor (taking place on August 19, 2025), Politburo member, Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Party Committee, Central organizations, Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee Do Van Chien mentioned the task of solving the problem for workers: "Currently, the Politburo, the Secretariat, and the Prime Minister are giving very strong instructions to solve housing for workers and social housing with the project of 1 million social housing units. Although this has encountered many difficulties, the Trade Union has pioneered and proposed to the Prime Minister to issue a decision and approve the National Assembly to amend the Housing Law to carry out this task. This is a very difficult task but must be done well to take better care of the workers".
Must do well to take better care of workers is not simply a directive, but an command from the heart. Not stopping at projects in Ha Nam, Dong Thap, Bac Ninh, in the coming time, the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor will continue to proactively seek and cooperate with localities, especially large cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to be able to effectively implement this project. With support from the Government and relevant ministries and branches, the projects promise to be a model for replication nationwide.
