preliminary report vietnam

Preliminary Country Report:

By Yangwha

Australia:

For Teys

Australia:

Vietnam

23 September 2014

Contents

Background 3

Government Mandatory Requirements 3

Typical Fees 4

English Language Requirement 4

Review of Potential Vietnamese Partners 5

Slaughterhouses 6

Further Action 7

Exhibit A Government Policy Statement 8

Exhibit B MOLISA Compliant Contract

Vietnamese and English 19

Exhibit C Vietnamese Government

Agency License 30

Exhibit D Article of Note 33

2

Background

As Teys presently employs Vietnamese workers some of this information may

well be already known to you but is included as a basis for discussion.

Vietnam presently deploys over 400,000 workers overseas remitting over $1.7

billion USD annually. They are second behind the Philippines in South East

Asia. With a population of nearly 90 million Vietnam is the 13th most populous

nation in the world. Basic English is now taught in Vietnamese primary schools

but this is a recent development.

It is the official policy of the Vietnamese government to support the deployment

of overseas workers for the benefits returned to the domestic economy in both

remittances and the skills development and investment ability of workers that

later return to the country. (see Exhibit A MOLISA policy paper)

The deployment of Vietnamese workers is regulated by the Ministry of Labor-

Invalids and Social Affairs or MOLISA. This Ministry oversees the Department

of Overseas Labor Management or DOLAB which serves a role similar to that of

the POEA in the Philippines, but the rules and regulations appear to be less

developed than their Philippine equivalent. In addition there is an industry

organization, endorsed by MOLISA, called VAMAS, Vietnam Association of

Manpower Supply. This organization has a code of conduct for manpower

companies and the treatment of workers they are processing. Whether or not

member companies that subscribe to the organization actually adhere to its

requirements or merely subscribe for the marketing benefits is yet to be seen, but

repeated attempts to contact this organization were unsuccessful and its role was

mostly dismissed even by those companies that were members.

Government Mandatory Requirements

The government mandatory requirements for processing of workers consist of

the following:

Company approval-the above mentioned government department, DOLAB, must

approve the company that is intending to hire Vietnamese migrant workers.

This process can be managed through the Vietnamese Embassy or Consulate.

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As Teys Cargill is an internationally recognized company and you already have

successfully employed Vietnamese workers for the long term this approval

should be a formality. In some cases representatives of the Vietnamese

manpower agency may be required to visit the workers onsite during their

employment to check on their conditions and welfare.

Valid passport (if a worker does not possess a passport a passport can be issued

in 1-2 weeks and the cost is nominal, about $10)

Contract-signed and in an approved format, similar to the requirements for

DIBP and the POEA(See example Exhibit B)

Government Licensed Agent as a partner to manage processing and interacting

with job applicants and government filings (see example Exhibit C)

Typical Fees

Typically legally allowed fees structures are as follows:

Placement fee: One month salary regardless of the contract of contract length

Brokerage or Agency fee: One month’s salary for each year of the contract, so

for example a 4 year contract equals 4 months’ salary

Document fee: This is for processing a passport application, a medical

examination, police clearance, document translation and preparation of

educational and trade skills and job experience certificates.

Due to the fact that the majority of the workers sent overseas are unskilled or

semi-skilled the total cost of the fees these agencies receive per worker will be

roughly equivalent to the costs incurred per worker with our Philippine

partners YWA.

English Language Requirement

As we know the language requirement will be the biggest challenge in

obtaining 457 visas for Vietnamese workers. I met with Mr. Le Xuan Binh,

Business Development and Marketing Manager, at the British Council

organization in Ho Chi Minh city. Per their information it will require 1-2

years for a student to acquire sufficient English language skills in order to

achieve an IELTS band score of an average of 5 across all bands. 4

This is based on 2 weekly classes of 2 hours each, and home study of 8 hours a

week, so a total of 12 hours of weekly of language study. Current Vietnamese

school curriculum does include some elementary English classes, and Vietnam

uses the Roman alphabet as introduced by the French during their rule of

Indochina.

The following are the largest, best regarded English language training and

IELTS preparation schools operating in Vietnam:

ILA www.ilavietnam.com

VUS www.vus.edu.vn/

Australia-Vietnam School of English http://avse.edu.vn/

Apollo http://teachatapollo.com/

The contacts at the British Council, a licensed IELTS testing company, suggested

Apollo as a reputable school with affordable classes. I investigated these

possibilities under the assumption that there may not be an English school

focused on IELTS training located near any slaughterhouse and it might be

necessary to contact them about establishing a program should a decision be

made to pursue Vietnamese slaughter men.

Review of Potential Vietnamese Partners

During my visit I met with the 4 manpower agencies listed below. The first three

are located in Ho Chi Minh city, the last, VTC is located in Hanoi.

Hitechco: I met with Mr. Ngo Van Long, they primarily ship factory workers to

the tech industry in Taiwan and Japan. The office was modest and the fellow I

met did not strike me as a dynamic individual.

Coopimex: I met with Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoa and Mr. Ho Van Luong. They are a

larger operation. They were formally a state run enterprise that is now a

privately held share based company. They indicated that their former status as a

government entity gave them certain advantages. This may well be true. Ms.

Nguyen seemed tough and focused. Her colleague, Mr. Ho, was younger and

seemed dynamic5

http://www.ilavietnam.com/

http://www.vus.edu.vn/

http://avse.edu.vn/

http://teachatapollo.com/

FLC Group I met with Mr. Trinh Tuan Quang, Head of Business

Development for the Manpower Division. FLC is a large Vietnamese

conglomerate that is also involved in real estate, mining and minerals,

financial services, import export and overseas recruitment. I had two

meetings with Mr. Tuan and he is very interested in participating and eager

to learn how they can help us.

VTC/VINACOM I met with Nguyen Trung Truc, Vice Chairman and

General Director, and his assistant Trinh Thi Loan aka Sara. Sara speaks

very good English and is sharp and on the ball. Mr. Nguyen also speaks

English. They have an impressive operation and were very forthcoming

about answering direct questions.

Based on my impressions from the meetings either FLC Group, which is very

interested in partnering with us or VTC/VINACOM would make a good

partner in Vietnam for the Vietnamese government required interface.

The scope and time frame of the proposed undertaking concerned them both

as to whether it could be successfully executed and further meetings would

be required with VTC/VINACOM to give further details.

Slaughterhouses

My inquiries about locating a suitable slaughterhouse for testing and as a

source of workers lead to mixed responses. When I mentioned the possibility

of working with a state owned slaughterhouse concern and some fear was

expressed. We now have a contact that has some connections at the highest

levels of the Vietnamese government. We will work to see what we might

accomplish in terms of introductions to local officials involved in the state

sector of the meat industry. There is the possibility of selling the program as

one for local economic development. Alternately there is a private sector as

well. The largest private meat company here is Vissan www.vissan.com.au

Their website makes for some interesting reading as a domestic producer

competing with Australian beef imports.

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http://www.vissan.com.au/

Further Action

The two main hurdles in this effort are first, the English language

challenge, though should rumored reductions in the IELTS requirements

come to pass, this would be of less concern and shorten the timeline

required to get the workers to a level where they could meet the IELTS

requirement.

Second is identifying a slaughterhouse that could be induced or persuaded

to participate in setting up a large scale IELTS/English language training

program for their workers.

Should a decision be reached to further pursue Vietnam as a labour

source, I would suggest a follow on visit with the objectives of a direct

meeting with officials of MOLISA and DOLAB. Additionally, meetings

with government officials (national and local) that could endorse the

program and endorse the participation of state run slaughterhouses as a

labour source should be arranged.

Another step would be visits to the provinces involved in raising livestock

so slaughterhouses could be identified and visited as potential sources of

workers and to review the conditions there in the company of a Teys

representative.

Finally, an English language school would need to be approached about

setting up a satellite school campus to serve the skilled meat workers that

are interested in learning English.

7

Exhibit A

Government Policy Statement

8

9

Exhibit A


10

Exhibit A


11

Exhibit A


12

Exhibit A


13

Exhibit A


14

Exhibit A


15

Exhibit A


16

Exhibit A


17

Exhibit A


18

Exhibit A


19

Exhibit B

MOLISA Compliant Contract

English and Vietnamese

20

Exhibit B



21

Exhibit B



22

Exhibit B



23

Exhibit B



24

Exhibit B



Exhibit B



25

Exhibit B



26

Exhibit B



27

Exhibit B



28

Exhibit B



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Exhibit C

Vietnamese Government

Agency License

30

Exhibit C


Agency License

31

Exhibit C


Agency License

32

Exhibit D

Article of Note

Giant Vietnamese agriculture complex ready for Australian cattle

The Red Star Company in

Vietnam has spent the last two

years, and around $US5 million,

building an 'agriculture complex'

to cater for Australian cattle.

At a meeting last week with delegates from the Northern Territory Government, Red Star's director general, Mr Nhi, proudly announced his facility was ready to start importing Australian livestock.

The Red Star Agricultural Complex is nothing short of impressive.

In the Dak Lak Province, north-west of Nha Trang, the company has built from scratch an integrated farming system that includes a feedlot, abattoir and 1,500 hectares of nearby farmland to grow feed for the cattle.

Mr Nhi says he's looking forward to the first cattle arriving from Australia.

"We are intending to import our first shipment (of cattle) in April and in the first week of May," he said.

"And everyone is very excited, because as soon as we started building this project, there have been many people checking on when the cattle will come... visitors and locals say this looks like an international airport, not a feedlot."

Mr Nhi says other companies are importing cattle from countries such as Cambodia, but he is only interested in Australian cattle because the 'quality is better'.

He says beef processed at his facility will be sold mostly to those living in the Dak Lak province and the complex will directly employ about 60 people once the cattle arrive.

Ben Hindle, from the NT Livestock Exporters Association, says the work done by Red Star to meet the requirements of handling Australian cattle has been impressive and exporters will be doing all they can to supply its needs.

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"The three exporters working to export cattle to Vietnam, have Vietnam at the front of their mind," he said.

"They understand the needs and wants for Vietnam and are rapidly increasing their scale and their project-based management to get a lot more cattle into this country.

"Given the scale and the operation here, together with the investment through our country too, I think it's a perfect fit."

ABC Rural's Matt Brann has travelled through Vietnam courtesy of the Northern Territory Government.

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