Of the total, more than 61,000 guest workers were employed in 11 traditional markets. Taiwan attracted the largest number of Vietnamese guest workers with 25,990, followed by the Republic of Korea (11,772), the United Arab Emirates (2,400) and Saudi Arabia (2,300).

However, the number of Vietnamese guest workers recruited to Malaysia in the reviewed period dropped sharply to 6,882 people compared to 26,704 a year ago.

According to Nguyen Luong Trao, Chairman of the Vietnam Labour Export Association, Malaysia is still a good market for poor and unskilled Vietnamese workers. He suggests that local businesses seek good counterparts to help guest workers find jobs and receive stable incomes.

At present, there are some promising new markets for Vietnamese guest workers, such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Finland, Canada, Australia and some European countries. Nevertheless, these demanding markets need skilled workers who have good foreign language skills and strictly obey work requirements.