These targets are set in the city’s strategy for labour market development in the 2006-2010 period and considered a proper step towards resolving the employment issue by 2015.

According to the Hanoi Department for Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, the number of labourers aged under 35 in Hanoi makes up 44.4 percent, with 55.11 percent of its labour force having completed secondary education and 46.5 percent having undergone training.

The number of trained workers rises 2.9 percent annually while up to 68.2 percent of technically skilled workers work in urban areas.

Due to the rapid rate of urbanisation, local people living in inner-city districts such as Tu Liem, Gia Lam and Tay Ho no longer have land for cultivation and they have to look for other jobs to do. How to provide jobs for them is a pressing issue.

In recent years, Hanoi has diversified forms of job creation through employment and labour export centres.

Despite having an abundant supply of labour, Hanoi still lacks workers in the key sectors such as software technology and automation as the number of trained workers remain at a low level of 17.6 percent.

In fact, the number of job seekers in Hanoi coming from rural areas is on the rise. According to statistics from the city’s labour sector, Hanoi will have around 3.7 million residents with official registrations and 2.4 million labourers by 2010. This means the pressure of population and employment on the city will be increasing.

A project to improve the quality of Hanoi labour market has proposed four main groups of solutions aimed at encouraging labour demand, regulating the labour supply-demand relationship, developing labour information service, and improving State management of the labour market.

Labour export is considered an important solution of the job issue. Currently, Hanoi has approximately 70 companies involved in exporting labour workers but Hanoian workers represent a small proportion of the market.

In the coming time, the municipal authority will further disseminate labour export programme to local people to attract more workers. The city will also build more training centres to meet workers’ demand.

To increase the number of trained labourers, the city will strongly develop a system of colleges and vocational training schools with a focus on high-tech sectors such as information technology. The city will continue to offer preferential treatment to talented people and to develop a labour market information system.

According to the Hanoi Department for Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, Hanoi is facilitating projects to train high-skilled labourers in Tu Liem and to build vocational training centres. The city will open training centres in the outlying districts to help young people find a job, thereby limiting the flow of people to the city to look for jobs.