Receiving the delegation were Standing Vice Chairman of the provincial People's Committee Mai Son and leaders of the Office of the Committee, relevant departments, agencies and units.

Overview of the meeting.

In the province, there are about 6,500 operating enterprises which employ 272,600 workers. In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic affected production and business activities of 163 businesses, including 93 FDI enterprises and 70 domestic ones. This caused more than 37,000 laborers to get their labor contracts terminated, temporarily stop their jobs or have working hours reduced.

However, according to the competent agencies, apart from 11 units that stopped working due to no orders or the employers absent for a long time, up to now, businesses have basically overcome the difficulties and are recovering production. The total labor demand of enterprises in 2020 was nearly 90,000, an increase of nearly 40,000 compared to 2019. The figure in 2021 is forecast at about 110,000, an increase of 122 percent from the previous year.

Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Le Van Thanh speaks at the working session.

Speaking at the working session, Deputy Minister Le Van Thanh said he was pleased with the results made by the province in the field of labor and employment. Amid difficulties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, he asked the province to pay attention to allocating resources, together with the government’s support policies, to help people and businesses overcome difficulties.

Especially, agencies at all levels should actively take care of workers' lives, especially during the upcoming traditional Lunar New Year (Tet) festival; further strengthen the role of trade unions in grasping the situation of labor relations, promptly respond to employees' petitions in order to minimize disputes which easily lead to collective strikes.

Standing Vice Chairman of the provincial People's Committee Mai Son addresses the function.

He emphasized the need to promote communications work to raise awareness of observance of the legal provisions set by free trade agreements, thus improving the position and reputation of enterprises in the international market.

The province needs to focus on vocational training to meet investors’ demand for quantity and quality of human resources, towards reducing unskilled laborers and increasing technical and skilled workers.

For his part, Standing Vice Chairman of the provincial People's Committee Mai Son said in 2021, Bac Giang province continues to define industrial development as a focus. Therefore, the provincial People's Committee will concentrate on fixing shortcomings to better perform the state management in the field of labor and employment, and stabilize labor relations in the locality.

The province will issue regulations on coordination among departments, sectors and units to improve the efficiency of labor management, especially foreign workers; pay attention to building houses and cultural institutions in order to step by step meet the material and spiritual needs of workers, considering this a highlight to attract investors to Bac Giang and creating momentum for local socio-economic development.

Previously, the working delegation made field trips to two enterprises in the Quang Chau Industrial Park, namely JA Solar Vietnam Co., Ltd., and Samkwang Vina Co., Ltd.

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Tuong Vi