>> Workers struggle with spiralling cost of living
Despite Government policies, tens of thousands of workers at industrial parks still have to hire makeshift houses to live in.
A majority of IP workers live in substandard conditions
According to a Ministry of Construction (MoC) report, industrial parks (IPs) and export processing parks (EPPs) are vital to national economic development.
Even though workers at IPs and EPPs account for 21% of the national labour force and 11% of the country’s population, they contribute over 70% of the state budget. However these workers facing huge difficulties such as poor housing.
In order to ease their hardships, the Government has issued several policies and regulations that encourage the construction of housing for workers via land tax breaks and provision of soft loans.
However between 80-90% of workers still live in substandard conditions.
Construction firms specialising in housing for workers have yet to benefit from the Government’s incentive policies.
Although the Government has policies to subsidise electricity and water prices, workers find it difficult to complete the required procedures.
Nguyen Trong Ninh, Deputy Director of the MoC’s Department of Housing and Real Estate Market Management, said, “There are two challenges in building houses for workers, including initial capital shortfalls and improper planning. Many localities just include IPs in their planning without including land for housing.”
Ninh emphasised that when accommodation is built, they are leased at higher rates than expected, and workers are hampered by strict regulations, discouraging them from renting the housing provided.
In a bid to improve the situation, the MoC in collaboration with the Vietnam Confederation of Labour and local government in the southern province of Binh Duong will hold a seminar on worker housing in the province on October 17.
The gathering is expected to search for solutions to speed up the construction of housing for workers in order to ensure that at least half of the workers in IPs will have access to standard accommodation by 2015.
