Provinces in the Mekong River Delta have generated jobs for 60,000 rural workers between Jan and Jun, including 17,000 ethnic people. However, 19% of the rural labor force remains unemployed, the Voice of Vietnam Radio said June 27. To achieve this result, local authorities have set up labor exchange markets in districts and communes and expanded the network of job centers and information about the labor market. They funded VND10 billion to help locals attend vocational training courses and increased the preferential credit loans for workers in rural areas and disadvantaged and ethnic households to give them a chance to work overseas. The provinces also invested VND25 billion to increase the number of training centres to more than 160. The number of private training centers has risen from 102 in 2006 to 124 this year. The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs also helped the provinces train thousands of job trainers and mobilize skilled engineers and workers from enterprises and craft villages to train 30,000 local people.
