Viet Nam plans to create 1.6 million jobs this year, the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs said at a meeting yesterday.

About 1.5 million of these jobs will be created locally, while around 87,000 jobs will be in overseas markets, it added.

The ministry further said that it would also work to raise the number of people participating in the social insurance policy scheme, improve the working conditions, reduce work accidents and labour disputes.

In addition, the ministry plans to reduce the proportion of poor households by 1.7 -2 per cent and the proportion of poor districts by 4 per cent this year.

The current proportion of poor households and poor districts in the country are 7.8 per cent and 39 per cent, respectively, which are slightly lower than the corresponding figures for 2012.

The ministry noted that Viet Nam created 1.54 million jobs during 2013, which represented an increase of 1.5 per cent compared with the previous year.

The final figure was, however, short of the initial target (96 per cent of the target) for job creation in 2013.

Nevertheless, the number of workers sent overseas was higher than targeted by 3,100. The total number of Vietnamese sent for work abroad was more than 88,100 last year. — VNS