ILO100 in Viet Nam

Viet Nam’s high-level officials value ILO’s support

ILO Deputy Director General, Deborah Greenfield, met with Viet Nam’s senior politicians during her visit to the country on 26-27 August 2019.

News | 29 August 2019
ILO Deputy Director General Deborah Greenfield has a bilateral meeting with Politburo member, Head of the Party Central Mass Mobilization Committee, Truong Thi Mai.
HANOI (ILO News) – High-level Party and Government officials appreciated ILO’s cooperation with Viet Nam during their bilateral meetings with ILO Deputy Director General, Deborah Greenfield in her two-day visit to Hanoi.

Politburo member, Head of the Party Central Mass Mobilization Committee, Truong Thi Mai, highly valued ILO support for improving Viet Nam’s labour laws among other assistance in the bilateral meeting on 27 August.

She said that labour and employment tops the agenda of the Party, in which industrial relations would be a challenge for the country. Therefore, the Labour Code needs to be revised towards better alignment with ILO fundamental conventions and in a suitable way for Viet Nam’s situation.

She re-affirmed that Viet Nam would ratify all of the eight core conventions of the ILO by 2023. Viet Nam has joined six with the two remainders being Convention 87 on freedom of association and Convention 105 on forced labour.

The ILO Deputy Director General congratulated Viet Nam on its recent ratification of Convention 98 on collective bargaining.

With Viet Nam’s roadmap to join the remaining two fundamental conventions, she believed that the country would have “the building blocks to ensure a constructive industrial relations system”.

“Freedom of association is the ILO’s DNA as it is the core of stable industrial relations. It is also what President Ho Chi Minh mentioned in his famous letter to the Paris Peace Conference,” she said.

Responding to the Politburo member’s request for ILO’s continued support, she affirmed that the organization is committed to working with Viet Nam on the revision of the Labour Code and building effective industrial relations.

ILO Deputy Director General Deborah Greenfield meets with Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam.
During his bilateral meeting with the ILO Deputy Director General on the same day, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam highlighted the importance of upskilling of the country’s labour force for building a productive and competitive economy and requested ILO support in this area.

Greenfield echoed his emphasis on this critical task, saying that it is important to create virtuous cycle of creating skilled workforce, better working conditions, expanding domestic demands in balance with external demands.

Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, Dao Ngoc Dung, addresses his meeting with ILO Deputy Director General, Deborah Greenfield.
The ILO Deputy Director General also met with Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, Dao Ngoc Dung, on 26 August.

Both sides saw eye to eye with each other on the determination of helping Viet Nam develop into an upper middle income country with harmonious industrial relations and human-centred inclusive growth which leaves no one behind.

“The ILO – Viet Nam relation has been really special, so we are honoured to accompany you in our journey,” she said.

The intertwined journeys for social justice and decent work for all of the ILO and Viet Nam started at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 where the ILO was created and President Ho Chi Minh sent a letter to the delegations demanding fundamental rights for the Vietnamese people.