Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Thi Hang said the Middle East is an open market that provides a number of jobs with good incomes and working conditions. Of the markets, Saudi Arabia is the largest country, which many countries attach great importance to.

Although Vietnam and Saudi Arabia have not yet established reciprocal embassies, two-way trade turnover between the two countries reached US$90 million in the first nine months of 2005, of which Vietnam earned US$21 million from exports.

Currently, around 200 Vietnamese labourers are working in Saudi Arabia and in the future the number of Vietnamese guest workers in the country will increase to thousands.

However, Ms Hang pointed to the fact that the Saudi Arabian market has not been fully tapped in recent years, therefore she said MoLISA will seek to expand the labour market in the Middle East, and Saudi Arabia in particular.

She added that MoLISA will submit to the Government specific policies on labour management and incentives to encourage labour export businesses to send more workers to this market.