Mekong Delta businesses propose importing foreign labor

Businesses in Vietnam's Mekong Delta are considering the proposal to import foreign labor to address severe shortages of manual workers. Many seafood processing companies in the region are currently struggling to find staff, with some individual plants reporting deficits of 300 to 500 workers despite offering benefits such as travel and meal support.

Local leaders suggest that the labor shortage is driven by a migration trend toward major cities like Ho Chi Minh City and the Southeast region, where workers seek higher wages and diverse career opportunities. Data from the World Bank indicates that approximately 1.7 million workers, many of them young, have migrated away from the Mekong Delta over the past decade.

To combat this, some companies are implementing additional incentives, such as monthly educational subsidies for the children of employees. While importing labor is being discussed, some business leaders suggest it should only be viewed as a last resort, emphasizing the need to diversify local industries to provide more employment options.