Vietnam, Canada work to boost labour cooperation

Ottawa (VNA) - A delegation from the Vietnamese Department of Overseas Labour Management has explored the prospect for labour cooperation in Canada 's British Columbia province.

During their visit in early October, the department head, Nguyen Ngoc Quynh
and Vietnamese Ambassador to Canada Nguyen Duc Hung discussed a wide range
of issues with the local Canadian authorities, particularly principles for
cooperation in the field.

Both sides agreed to hold further talks in order to reach a memorandum of
understanding on labour cooperation as soon as possible.

To get a better picture of the labour market's needs in British Columbia
, the Vietnamese guests also visited several companies in the region.

In May, British Columbia received 28 Vietnamese guest workers who then
joined the workforce at local mushroom growing farms. The province is
planning to recruit between 60-120 Vietnamese workers from now until early
2009 for mushroom growing and construction industries.

Canada , especially western provinces such as British Columbia and
Alberta , are facing serious shortages of skilled workers, each year
requiring 30,000-40,000 foreign labourers in the fields of construction,
agriculture, civil engineering, IT, food processing and hotel
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