VietNamNet Bridge – The Government will support sending members of households whose farm land is taken back by State agencies to foreign countries for guest work from September this year, according to a new decree.

Illustrative image -- File photo

The Government’s Decree 61 says people facing farm land withdrawals by authorities and those of poor and near-poor households, ethnic minorities and relatives of revolutionaries can get funding from the State to do contract work overseas.

They will get financial support for vocational training, food and foreign language learning as well as traveling to vocational training schools if these schools are more than 15 kilometers from their residences. A distance of at least 10 kilometers applies to people living in poverty-stricken areas and they will also be provided with an additional amount of money to cover house rent and other expenses for necessities.

They will also get State funding for passport, visa, health check and judicial record fees. While working abroad, they are offered risk assistance and training costs for further skills if requested by the countries where they work.

The decree says that people with farm land withdrawals and of poor households and ethnic minority groups can take out preferential loans applicable to contract guest workers from the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies, while others get loans from the National Employment Fund.

The maximum loan equals to 100% of the working expenses they need for overseas jobs under agreements between them and job placement organizations and those licensed to send Vietnamese abroad for guest work.

Laborers must have assets as collateral for the loan that exceeds VND50 million in compliance with the existing regulations. Loan tenors should not be longer than the duration of their employment contracts and loan interest rates will be the same to those for poor households.