Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has informed ASEAN labour ministers of the Vietnamese Government’s policy of prioritising the quality of its workforce in its strategy for sustainable development.

Dung stated this at a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) labour ministers, which was opened in Hanoi on May 24.

He said that improving the quality of human resources and creating more jobs goes along with poverty reduction, social progress and parity and over the past few years the Government has paid special attention to this.

The legal system for social welfare has gradually been upgraded and a number of programmes and projects on social development put into action, bringing in some results, said the Government leader.

As a result, the poverty rate has dropped to 11 percent, while the rate of trained workers has increased to 40 percent of the workforce.

Dung also unveiled more programmes on labour and poverty reduction in an effort to help 62 of the country’s poorest districts and vocational training for rural workers in the 2011-20 period.

A strategy on social welfare up to 2020 and a welfare system for the rural population during 2011-20 is also on the way, he added.

He advocated the theme of this year’s ASEAN Labour Ministers’ Meeting on developing human resources and its agenda for improving the quality of the region's workforce.

He said that an ASEAN action plan for the 2010-15 period was expected to be approved at the meeting and this would contribute considerably to regional cooperation in social issues, especially labour issues, as they have met targets on sustainable jobs and social equality laid out by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

The Ministers’ action plan covers the development of human resources , sustainable employment, social welfare and equality and the rights of migrant workers./.