HCMC People’s Council Chairwoman: Priority given to housing for workers

Ms. Nguyen Thi Le, Chairwoman of the People's Council of Ho Chi Minh City, requested to focus on accelerating the implementation of the social housing development plan for the 2021 – 2025 period with the target of developing an additional 2.5 million square meters of floor areas, equivalent to about 35,000 apartments.
HCMC People’s Council Chairwoman: Priority given to housing for workers ảnh 1 Ms. Nguyen Thi Le, Chairwoman of the People's Council of Ho Chi Minh City, and the city's leaders participate in a meeting with female workers, civil servants, and laborers in HCMC on April 24. (Photo: SGGP)
Especially, priority is given to building accommodation houses and boarding houses for workers in export processing zones and industrial parks, Ms.Le added.

The Standing Committee of the People's Council of HCMC, on April 24, held a conference to meet female voters, officials, and workers in 2022 with the topic "Social security policy - Housing for workers, civil servants, and laborers".

Ms. Nguyen Thi Le, Deputy Secretary of the HCMC Party Committee, Chairwoman of the People's Council of HCMC, Mr. Nguyen Van Dung, Vice Chairman of the People's Council of HCMC; Ms. Tran Thi Dieu Thuy, Chairwoman of the HCMC Confederation of Labor, and Ms. Nguyen Tran Phuong Tran, Chairwoman of HCMC Women's Union, chaired the conference.

Attending the conference were Mr. Ngo Minh Chau, Vice Chairman of HCMC People's Committee; Ms. Van Thi Bach Tuyet, Deputy Head of HCMC’s National Assembly Delegation; Mr. Nguyen Thanh Trung, Standing Vice Chairman of Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee in HCMC, and 100 female workers, civil servants, and laborers, representing fields and industries in the city. In addition, more than 400 voters attended the conference online.

At the meeting, Ms. Nguyen Thi Le emphasized that the Standing Committee of the People's Council of HCMC chose the above topic with the desire to listen to the thoughts, aspirations, and advice of female voters, civil servants, and laborers to acknowledge practical contributions to the building and implementation of social policies, promoting the recovery and sustainable development of the city.

On behalf of HCMC’s leaders, Ms. Nguyen Thi Le respectfully acknowledges and praises the efforts, sacrifices, and contributions of workers, officials, civil servants, public servants, and the armed forces during the peak period of the Covid-19 prevention, especially women. And when the city reopened, they also quickly actively participated in contributing to economic recovery, joining hands to bring a new breath to the stability and development of the city.
HCMC People’s Council Chairwoman: Priority given to housing for workers ảnh 2 Ms. Nguyen Thi Le, Chairwoman of the People's Council of Ho Chi Minh City, speaks at the meeting. (Photo: SGGP)
"The opinions of female voters come from the actual situation and the legitimate needs of themselves and their families," Ms. Nguyen Thi Le said and requested that the secretariat continue to gather the opinions of female workers, officials, and laborers to report to the Standing People's Council of HCMC. At the same time, she requested that the People's Committee of HCMC direct the departments and agencies, the Chairman of the People's Committees of the districts, Thu Duc City, and the heads of the agencies and units to reply in writing to the petitions and issues raised by female workers, officials, and laborers at the meeting. She noted that it is necessary to fully acknowledge, select, and realize the proposals and solutions that female workers, public servants, and laborers contributed and advised to develop and make policies suitable to the needs of society, workers, officials, and laborers of the city. She emphasized the focus on implementing social security policies in general and housing policies, in particular, to improve the quality of life of citizens. She requested to focus on accelerating the implementation of the social housing development plan for the 2021 – 2025 period, with the target of developing an additional 2.5 million square meters of floor areas, equivalent to about 35,000 apartments; quickly resolve procedures, promptly remove difficulties and obstacles during project implementation process; ensure the project schedules under the HCMC Housing Development Program for the 2016-2025 period approved by the People's Council of HCMC. Along with that, it is necessary to continue to review and create a land fund and invest in the construction of social infrastructure and utilities for workers in export processing zones and industrial parks that have not been invested. Especially, priority is given to building accommodation houses and boarding houses for workers in export processing zones and industrial parks, with a support mechanism to simplify administrative procedures, shorten investment time, and support financial policies to attract investors to carry out the project.Social welfare Ms. Nguyen Thi Le also emphasized that the city must focus on adopting solutions to improve social welfare for workers, officials, and laborers, gradually solving effectively the essential needs of housing, kindergartens, health care regimes, disease prevention and control, cultural enjoyment, and entertainment. "It is necessary to ensure that workers, officials, and laborers enjoy benefits commensurate with their achievements and contributions to the city," noted Ms. Nguyen Thi Le. The Standing Committee of the HCMC Labor Confederation must actively coordinate to grasp the thoughts and aspirations of union members regarding social housing needs, as well as housing rental needs, proactively coordinate with the municipal People's Committee in building and completing the HCMC housing development program in the 2021-2030 period.
HCMC People’s Council Chairwoman: Priority given to housing for workers ảnh 3 Ms. Nguyen Thi Le, Chairwoman of the People's Council of Ho Chi Minh City, meets female workers, civil servants, and laborers in HCMC on April 24. (Photo: SGGP)
The HCMC Labor Confederation should regularly take care of the life and work of female union members, civil servants, and laborers, promote the role of grassroots unions in representing and protecting legitimate rights and interests of union members and laborers, continue to strengthen the effective implementation of activities to take care of the material, the cultural, and spiritual life of the city's workers, officials, and laborers. Ms. Nguyen Thi Le affirmed that the People's Council of HCMC - as an elected body representing the will and aspirations of voters, will always pay attention to the development and promulgation of social security policies to ensure the stability of people's lives, especially the underprivileged and vulnerable. At the same time, the city will continue to monitor and supervise the implementation of social security policies and housing policies by competent authorities to ensure that these policies are carried out timely, completely, and transparently and reach the subjects in need of support.
Mr. Hua Quoc Hung, Head of the HCMC Export Processing Zones and Industrial Parks Authority (Hepza), said that there are 16 housing projects and worker accommodation houses at 17 active industrial parks and export processing zones, with a scale of 21,000 accommodations. However, the number of accommodations does not meet the actual needs, accounting for only about 10 percent.

According to Hepza's latest survey, about 74 percent of workers are from other provinces, of which 70 percent of them need housing.

Thus, Hepza suggested the relevant agencies should pay attention to the implementation way so that the administrative procedures and conditions for receiving the project from the investor must be simplified. The most important thing is to consider that social housing and accommodation houses for workers must be different from commercial and social housing.

Specifically, according to Mr. Hua Quoc Hung, a current inadequacy is to consider housing for workers as one of the components of social housing. As a result, the process of investment in housing for workers is no different from social housing projects. Meanwhile, when investing in housing for workers, the investor determines that the project is to serve society and is not profitable. Therefore, if investment procedures are not simple, it will be difficult to attract investors.

Moreover, the land in the industrial park is not residential land, so it is necessary to consider the housing project, accommodation house, and dormitory for workers as a project of commercial, service, and infrastructure for production. Then, housing projects for workers will be rapidly deployed in industrial parks and export processing zones.

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