Vietnam’s Da Nang allows entry for 300 Chinese workers
Vietnam’s Da Nang allows entry for 300 Chinese workers
The administration of Da Nang has allowed a contractor to bring 300 Chinese laborers to work on an under-construction hotel project in what is said to be a sensitive location in the central Vietnamese city.
These foreigners are among 650 workers China’s Sichuan Hua Shi Co. Ltd. had sought permission to add to the workforce for the five-star JW Marriott Hotel project in Ngu Hanh Son District, according to the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs.
“Sluggish progress has been made in the construction so the contractor proposed adding more laborers, including both locals and Chinese,” department director Nguyen Van An said on Monday.
All of the 300 Chinese nationals working at the JW Marriott Hotel project are “technical workers,” who come from Sichuan Province, where the contractor is headquartered, according to the department.
JW Marriott Hotel is developed by the Silver Shores Co. Ltd., as part of preparations for Da Nang to host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in October 2017.
The hotel is located next to the Nuoc Man airport, an important military base of the central city.
Silver Shores is headquartered in Ngu Hanh Son District and has a Chinese director.
The additional batch of workers will work from October 2015 to October 2017 in order for the project to meet the APEC deadline, Sichuan Hua Shi Co. said in its proposal submitted to local authorities last month.
The contractor said in the document the Vietnamese workers have difficulty communicating with the project’s foreign managers and designers due to the language barrier, which led to poor productivity.
The local employees had also asked to take too many leave days or were “busy with their work in the paddy fields,” so there needed to be an addition of workers, according to the proposal.
“The Da Nang administration and labor department shared the view that conditions should be created to allow Chinese workers to work in Vietnam, so long as they follow the Vietnamese laws,” An said.
The department head added that the 300 Chinese workers will not come at once, but in different stages.
“Authorities will keep a close watch on their arrival and work permit issues,” he said.
There are now 276 Chinese laborers working at different positions in Da Nang, around 60 or 70 of whom are at the JW Marriott construction site, according to the city’s labor department.
“The upcoming addition of 300 Chinese laborers is unprecedentedly large,” Nguyen Anh Anh, head of employment and work safety with the department, was quoted by Phap Luat TPHCM (Ho Chi Minh City Law) newspaper as saying.
In September, authorities in Ngu Hanh Son District caught 64 Chinese nationals working on tourist visas in the area.
