On the afternoon of October 11, the People's Committee of Dong Thap province held a workshop on "Managing workers returning to their locality from working abroad and solutions to attract workers to start and establish businesses".
According to statistics from the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs (DOLISA) of Dong Thap province, in the past 3 years, a total of 7,150 workers have gone abroad. The work is assessed to have brought practical benefits in helping to increase income, improve qualifications and skills for workers. With nearly 5,000 workers working abroad under contracts, it has created a foreign currency revenue of more than 1,200 billion VND per year for the province.
However, according to the perception, this labor force is mainly untrained. Laborers whose contracts have expired and who have returned to their local residence have not proactively informed and declared to their local residence as required by law.
Some businesses also said that they are currently having difficulty collecting data on workers returning home. Not being able to grasp the living and working conditions of workers upon their return is a barrier for the province to support startups in their homeland.
Mr. Tran Ngoc Duy (Cao Lanh City) confided at the Workshop: "My idea is to open a store to buy, sell, repair, and install household electricity and refrigeration, but I am worried about the procedures for opening a business, how to pay taxes, how to manage, how to find customers in the beginning, rent premises, etc...."
Mr. Duy’s wish is also the expectation of hundreds of Dong Thap workers who work abroad under contracts when they return to their hometown. Accordingly, they hope to receive support in terms of capital, experience and skills to confidently start a business.
In fact, since 2015, Dong Thap has launched a startup program with the orientation of making the province a "Startup Locality". Currently, the province has 3 support policies, including a maximum loan for individuals of 300,000,000 VND; for groups of individuals, 500,000,000 VND; and for businesses, 1,000,000,000 VND.
“To establish and start a business effectively, workers need to focus on training and studying to improve their professional qualifications; access production processes and technology to apply production processes; expand relationships in the community, with businesses, units, and supporting partners,” advised Mr. Mai Thanh Nghi, Director of the Center for Enterprise Support and Startups in Dong Thap province.
Concluding the workshop, Mr. Pham Viet Cong - Director of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs of Dong Thap province - said that the Department will fully synthesize the opinions and information shared at the workshop, especially the opinions of businesses on supporting start-up workers.
"We listen to the opinions of workers and localities to promote and make the most of resources returning to their localities from working under contracts. In addition, the Department will coordinate with localities and agencies to promote policies to support startups for these subjects," Mr. Cong added.
