The northern province of Nam Dinh will strive to create jobs for 10,000 – 12,000 local labourers every year, a provincial official has said.

According to Tran Quoc Hung, deputy head of the Nam Dinh Industry and Trade Department, the programme will focus on workers in crafts, small-scale industry and trade villages, aiming to increase their income and contribute to transforming the economic structure in rural areas.

With 17 operating industrial clusters and 121 trade villages, including 70 traditional ones, Nam Dinh has huge advantages in job generation, he said.

Apart from applying policies to encourage enterprises to invest in rural areas, Nam Dinh has implemented vocational training programmes for rural labourers, developing skills in sectors including the garment industry, embroidery, mechanics, welding, wood processing, electronics and handicrafts, said Hung.

He said the province has also offered preferences for investors, especially in land, training fees, environmental protection technology and trade promotion to attract more investment.

In the 2012-2013 period, Nam Dinh created 14,700 new jobs, increasing the number of workers in crafts and small-scale industry to 124,700 with average incomes of 2.5-4 million VND (110-190 USD) per month.

So far, Nam Dinh has hosted 459 enterprises in industrial clusters, creating jobs for 18,500 labourers. Its industrial production value in rural areas in 2013 reached 9 trillion VND (192 million USD), up 22.88 percent year on year and accounting for 52.9 percent of the locality’s total figure.

From 2014 onwards, Nam Dinh will continue expanding 10 industrial clusters and build new ones in different communes and towns, Hung added.-VNA