Situation of socioeconomic development of Ha Tinh Province: Ha Tinh is located under the key economic zone of the North Central region of Vietnam, it is adjacent to Nghe An in the North
Trang 1HA TINH PROVINE
PEOPLE’S COMMITEE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM Independence – Freedom - Happiness
REPORT
On working meeting with the Delegation of Embassy of the Republic of Korea on
August 11, 2016
I SITUATION OF SOCIOECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF HA TINH PROVINCE; COOPERATION RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HA TINH AND KOREA IN RECEENT YEARS
1 Situation of socioeconomic development of Ha Tinh Province:
Ha Tinh is located under the key economic zone of the North Central region of Vietnam, it is adjacent to Nghe An in the Northern, to Quang Binh in the Southern, to Laos in the Western and to East Sea with coastline of 137km; its natural area is 5,997 km2, its population is nearly 1.3 million people and there are 13 district – level administrative units (including 9 districts, 02 towns and 01 city) in Ha Tinh province
In recent years, the socioeconomic situation of the province has developed fairly, the average economic growth rate in the period of 2011 and 2015 has reached over 17%/ year Per capita GRDP has reached over 42.5 million dong Budget revenues in 2015 reached 12,000 billion dong The province has attracted 600 investment projects, including 538 domestic investment projects and 62 foreign investment projects with total registered capital of nearly 20 billion USD The province has had nearly 5,500 enterprises,
In the province, there are economic zones such as Vung Ang Economic Zone and Cau Treo international border gate Economic Zone and 19 industrial clusters Where Vung Ang Economic Zone has gradually become the industrial center of the region and the whole country, attracted 115 projects with a total registered capital of over 18 billion
US dollars, of which a number of large projects have played an important role to the development of the country such as Vung Ang Thermal Power Plant I; Son Duong Port and Steel Complex of Formosa Group; Vung Ang Thermal Power Plant II of Mitsubishi Corporation (is completing procedures for commencement) and Vung Ang Thermal Power Plant III of Samsung Group been approved by the Government for investment in the form of BOT
In addition to economic development, the fields of culture, health and education have more positive changes Vocational training and solving jobs have received special attention from the province; the proportion of trained workers on average reaches over 55%; Currently, in the province, there is 01 university, which has been training almost
7000 students and 31 vocational training institutions, every year, a number of enrollment employees are nearly 23,000 Hunger elimination and poverty reductionand assurance of social security are effective, the poverty household ratio in 2015 was 11.4%
Reform of administrative procedures, improvement of investment and business environment are drastically focused towards creating the most favorable conditions,
Trang 2helping investors confidently invest in the province; security and politics are stable, the domestic and foreign investors believe and appreciate
However, in 2016, the socioeconomic situation faces difficulties caused by severe
impact of environmental incidents at the sea In the first six months of the year, many economic indicators have dropped sharply, the economic growth rate has decreased down to 16.4% compared to one of the same period, the state budget has only reached 25% as planned; Specially, aquaculture and seafood exploitation, salt production, tourism services and relevant sectors have been damaged significantly, thousands of employees of the coastal districts have been affected, employment, income and the lives
of people have faced difficulties; marine environmental incidents has set many major issues in the socioeconomic development in the future for the province, especially vocation change, jobs creation in order to soon stabilize and restore production to people
2.Results of cooperation between Ha Tinh and Korea in recent years
To promote strategic cooperative partnership relationship between Vietnam and Korea, with special attention and directions of the Government, departments, ministries and central agencies in recent years, Ha Tinh province has strengthenedto expand cooperation with Korean partners in various fields As follows:
In October 2013, Ha Tinh province successfully organized an investment promotion conference for Ha Tinh in Seoul city, Korea, attracting nearly 100 enterprises and organizations of South Korea At the conference, Ha Tinh signed 08 investment agreements, MOU of investment cooperation with Korean investors
In the framework of the working visit, the delegation of Ha Tinh worked with the Association of Small and Medium-Scale Enterprises and 05 Korean Groups1; visited and worked with governmental agencies of Dangjin city After the investment promotion conference in Korea, Ha Tinh province established the Steering Committee and Assistance Team to implement the contents of cooperation between Korea and Ha Tinh province
To carry out cooperation activities with South Korea deeply, Ha Tinh has signed a trading and investment cooperation agreementin the period of 2015 - 2020 with the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) to introduce and promote investment to help enterprises and individuals of Korea survey, learn and implement investment projects in
Ha Tinh province (Vietnam) and vice versa
In the term of FDI direct investment, Ha Tinh has currently 07 projects of Korean investors (05 investment projects in Vung Ang Economic Zone) with a total registered capital of 134 million USD, of which 04 projects have come into operation2, 03 projects in progress3; in addition, contractors such as Samsung, POSCO areimplementing important packages at the projects in Vung Ang Economic Zone In general,a number of Korean enterprises investing in Ha Tinhprovince are too smallin recent years, mainly small and medium-scale enterprises; the project investment is not large; efficiency of some projects
in operation is not high, use of employees is not large; the progress of ongoing projects
1 Huyndai Steel, Samsung, KUKJEA, Kogas - Tech, Ham Chang on cooperation of investment, business and production.
2 Clipboard processing factory project of Hanviha paper materials production and afforestation company; Vung Ang project of rock processing and construction of commercial concrete batching station and asphalt concrete of Sanviha Company Limited; Tea Sung Company Limited and S& C Company Limited.
3 Project of 5 –star hotel and office building at Vung Ang Economic Zon of Human City One Member Company Limited; Dream Housings and Apartment Project of MDA H&D Company Limited; project on complex of hotels – services of Han Yuan Engineering Company.
Trang 3remains slow Currently, Samsung Group has obtained the approval of the Prime Minister for the plan for investment into the project of Vung Ang Thermal Power Plant III in Vung Ang Economic Zone, the investoris in the process of negotiating BOT contracct with Ministry of Industry and Trade
For ODA, there is 01 project using ODA of the Korean government, the project
"Investment in vocational training capacity development for Ha Tinh Vocational School" has a total investment of 3,632 million USD, of which Korea's capital is 3.0 million USD The project was completed and put into use in 2011 and has promotted the practical effects Currently, Ha Tinh is actively promoting Korea's ODA projects such as
Ha Tinh city drainage Project, Project on equipment for for Duc Tho district hospital district hospitals
For NGO aids: In 2015, Ha Tinh province received foreign non-governmental aids " clothing for students" funded by by Good Neighbors International (GNI) - Korean meeting needs of students and parents in many difficult areas of Ha Tinh with the aids of 252,454.3 US dollars; project on "building community library" funded by Global Civic Sharing (GCS) - Korean with total value of 239,000 USD
III IMPACTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL INCIDENTS FOR LIVES AND EMPLOYMENT OF PEOPLE
From April 06 to 08, 2016, in the coastal areas of Ky Anh Town, marine environmental incidents led to abnormal death of seafood in 4 provinces from Ha Tinh to Thua Thien - Hue The cause as concluded was due to the violations and incidents during the construction and operation of plant complex of Ha Tinh Formosa Company For Ha Tinh, environmental incidents has severely affected the livelihoods, employment and incomes of people, especially in coastal areas As follows:
- For seafoodexploitation: Ha Tinh has 5,522 fishing vessels, including 1,377
non-powered vessels, 3,870 powered vessels with capacity of under 90 CV, 275 powered vessels with capacity of over 90 CV Environmental incidents have made seafood resources in the coastal and inshore areas (regular finishing zone of 5,247 non-powered vesselsand powered vessels with capacity of under 90 CV) affected Therefore, they have had direct impacts on the lives, employment and incomes of about 13,000 employees in more than 12,384 households with 46,404 independent members
- For aquaculture: Due to environmental incidents, 825.86ha of shrimp area,
89.35ha of scallop area, 29,675m3 of cages are affected In addition, there are about 1,000 hectares ofaquaculture area where seeds are not used according to seasonal schedule because of contaminated water sources A number of households affected are approximately 2,015 households,a number of employees directly affected are approximately 4,050 people in more than 3,000 households with about 8,150 independent members
- Logistics services of fisheries and seafood processing and business: There are
6,512 households with logistics services of fisheries affected, with 21,626 members in the whole province Most of traditional lines of people in coastal areas are associated with fishing activity, forming a series of activities from exploitation to logistics services, processing, trade, consumption and other activities related to seafood; Therefore, when exploitation operations are affected, the sequence of relevant activities are stalled and seriously affected the lives of people and production and business activities of relevant organizations and individuals
Trang 4- Production of salt: There are 103.68 hectares of salt production with about
1,316 households and 4494 members as affected in the whole province In 6 first months
of 2016, the production area is 79.23ha, which decreases down by 24.07ha than one of the same period last year, output is 3,391.4 tons, decreasing down by 3,648.6 tons (equal
to 48%) compared to one of the same period last year; according to estimated annual results, there are 103ha area, 10,000 tons of output and it is equal to 77% compared to 2015
-For marine trading and tourism sectors: Ha Tinh has 07 bathing beaches and
sea tourism areas with 32 accommodation facilities with 905 rooms, 297 seafood restaurants There are over 1,100 direct employees and 1,500 indirect employees serving tourists affected by environmental incidents at the sea After environmental incidents, around 80% of the tours to the beaches of Ha Tinh are canceled; average ratio of room occupancy is only 10 - 12%
IV CURRENT STATUS AND DEMAND OF LABOR EXPORT OF HA TINH TO KOREA MARKET
1 Results of implementing the Vietnam – Korea Cooperative program in recent years
For Vietnam – Korealabor cooperation program, Ha Tinh is one of the local regions benefited the most from this program When Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary has a working visit to Ha Tinh Province, the Party, governmental agencies and people of Ha Tinh province would like to thank the Korean government for creating conditions for workers of Ha Tinh to jointhis program since its beginning stage (1993)
Up to now, Ha Tinh has 6,367 employees working in Korea under 03 programs: EPS Programme, program of crews fishing onshore and offshore; program of high-tech workers
Employees working in Korea are mainly concentrated in the coastal districts such
as Nghi Xuan: 2,573 people, Ky Anh: 1,089 people, Cam Xuyen: 640 people, Ky Anh Town: 437 people, Loc Ha: 433 people …
Some typical communes such as: Cuong Gian (Nghi Xuan): 1,536 people; Ky Ninh (Ky Anh Town): 383 people; Ky Phu (Ky Anh District): 332 people; Ky Khang (Ky Anh District): 283 people; Thach Kim (Loc Ha): 278 people; KY Xuan (Ky Anh District): 277 people; Xuan Lien commune (Nghi Xuan): 269 people
As for the EPS program, until now, Ha Tinh has 3,500 employees recruited by Korean enterprises The Korean labor export cooperation program brings not only high income for workers but also contributes to training of skilled technical workers, changing vocational behavior, raising awareness in compliance with discipline This is very important to form a team of high-tech human resources working in Korea's FDI enterprises in Vietnam and Vung Ang Economic Zone
2 Results of implementing communication and mobiliation of people working in Korean to come back after term of employement
Implementing instructions of the Government on strengthening management of Vietnam workers in Korea, People's Committee of the province issued Directive No 04 / CT-UND dated January 07, 2013 on strengthening instruction measures on implementation of Vietnam - Korealabor cooperation program; levels and sectors have taken drastic actions with concrete measures
Trang 5As of the results, from 2013 to June 30, 2015, Ha Tinh hascommunicated and mobilized 1,014 / 1,846 workers to come back the country Reduce rate of illegal residents from 54% to 45% With the efforts of Ha Tinh province with local regions in the country, on May 17, 2016 in Hanoi, Ministry of Labour - Invalids and Social Affairs
of Vietnam and Ministry of Employment and Labor of Korea made negotiations and signed a memorandum of sending and receiving Vietnam workers to work in Korea under the Employment License Program in 2016 for three groups of participants
In spite of achieving the results mentioned above,Ha Tinh remains one of provinces and cities where the percentage of workers residing illegally is high This is unfortunate things affecting the results of implementing labor cooperation program that Korea givesVietnam Currently, Ha Tinh has 6 local regions pausing participation of EPS program in 2016 including: Nghi Xuan, Can Loc, Thach Ha, Cam Xuyen, Ky Anh, and Ky Anh town
V SOME RECOMMENDATIONS
1 Ha Tinh province has traditions in the field of labor export and professionals since 1980, the workers of Ha Tinh rare evaluated as diligent, hard working and have engineering qualifications and agile approach to work by the recruiting countries; Ha Tinh workers are also appreciated by enterprise owners, including enterprise owners in Korea
Currently, Ha Tinh is influenced by environmental incidents, of which the coastal districts are affected seriously According to preliminary statistics, at present, there are about 42,000 people in Ha Tinh working in industries such as fishing, aquaculture, processing and trade of fishery products; production, trading and processing of salt; business, tourism services, coastal hotels and restaurants affected for employment and income, of which there are over 13,000 people affected for employment
To help Ha Tinh soon stabilize livelihoods, enable skilled fishing and aquaculture workersto work in Korea according to fisheries program, Ha Tinh respectfully requests the Ministry of Labour - Invalids and Social Affairs of Vietnam and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to giverecommendations to the Government and the Ministry of Employment and Labor of Korea to give priorities for the coastal districts / towns of Ha Tinh in participating the EPS program in the manufacture and fisheries sectors
On age of the employeesparticipating the program, the fishery sector proposes toincreaseby 45 years old.Because this workforce is the ones who have more experience
in fishing and aquaculture and older workers will strictly abide by the provisions of the labor contracts,
2 Ask the Korean government to consider adding indicators of inshore fishery workers in 2016 and the next years for Vietnam Because, annual Quota indicators issued
by Korean for Vietnam are 650 indicators across the country.Such indicators are too small for the needs of coastal workers who want to join this program For four provinces
in the Central region of Vietnam affected by environmental incidents, including Ha Tinh province, askKorea to consider specific indicators for local screws
3 For workers completing theircontracts and returning home on time: Ask the Korean government allow not to take the Korean exam on the computer in order to encourage workers to strictly abide by the provisions of the Vietnam Government and Korea Government to soon be back Korean for working
Trang 64 Ask authorities in Korea to take measures on severe economic sanctions for enterprises deliberately receiving workers residing illegally for working This solution is very important to reduce the rate of illegal residents of Vietnam in general and Ha Tinh
in particular to fulfill the commitment between the two governments on reducing the rate
of workers residing illegallyby below 20% (equal to average rate of 14 sending countries)
5 For the responsibilities of Ha Tinh provincial agency, we commit to strictly observe the provisions of the Korean law on the implementation of the EPS program Continue to direct in order to promote communication and mobilization to reduce the percentage of workers residing illegally
Give transparent and public notices in the mass media of the province and the local regions on all contents of Vietnam – Korea Cooperation Programme so that people get the information And also, commit to strictly handle organizations and individuals that violate the provisions of the EPS program
If the Korean government prioritizes and enables employees of Ha Tinh province
to participate in the employment licensing program, onshore crew program, E7 high technology labor program, Ha Tinh commitswith Korea that Ha Tinh will direct training schools and facilities to arrange local budgets to make professional training on qualification, technology, discipline and support all costs: orientation education, health examination, visa, legal procedures for all employees participating in the priority program of the Republic of Korea
6 Ask the Embassy to special attention to give recommendations to the Korean government to create favorable conditions to help Samsung Group complete the prescribed procedures, early implement the project on Vung Ang Thermal Power Plant III And also continue to help Ha Tinh introduce and promote the potentialsand advantages, to attract and call for investors, especially large economic corporations of Korea to invest more and more in Ha Tinh, especially in fields where the province has potential advantages such as manufacturing industry, industrial support, shipbuilding, ports, tourism, high technology agriculture, Ha Tinh commits to reform administrative procedures, improve the investment environment drastically, to create the most favorable conditions for enterprises and investors in general and Korean enterprises in particularin investment, production and business in the effective manner
in the province
HA TINH PROVINCE PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE