Close to 46,000 Vietnamese workers were sent overseas under labour contracts in the first eight months of this year, the Department for Overseas Workers Management (DOWM) said, attributing the 21 percent drop year-on-year to the global economic crisis.

The markets employing the most Vietnamese works in the reviewed period were Taiwan, the Republic of Korea,  Japan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Libya, Macau, Malaysia and Russia .

So far many poor districts have promoted labour exports in line with a government’s project.

However, DOWM’s leaders said that it will be hard to reach this year’s target of sending 90,000 workers abroad as foreign businesses reduce recruiting and many labour import markets have shrunk.

Head of the DOWM Nguyen Ngoc Quynh said that in the remaining months of the year, labour exports will focus on Libya, the Middle East and Taiwan, as these countries still have a big demand for workers./.