While working to maintain traditional markets, such as Malaysia, Taiwan, the Republic of Korea and Japan, labour exporters have been looking for new markets in the Middle-East, Australia and some European countries, said Nguyen Ngoc Quynh, deputy head of the division.

Airserco, a labour export company of the Vietnam Airlines Corporation, for instance, has just won a contract to send 6,500 workers to Qatar from now till the end of the year.

The division rated Qatar as a potential labour market due to a high demand of foreign labourers in various jobs. A manual worker in Qatar can earn a monthly average income of VND5-7 million (US$312).

For better management of labour export activity, the MOLISA is working with relevant agencies, as well as Vietnam's consulates in foreign countries to prevent Vietnamese labourers from working illegally.