Minister Dao Ngoc Dung and Ms. Thea LeeWithin the framew ork of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's business trip to attend the ASEAN-US Special Summit and work in the US and the United Nations, on May 11, at the headquarters of the US’s Department of Labour, Vietnamese Minister of MoLISA Dao Ngoc Dung had a bilateral meeting with Ms. Thea Lee, Leader in charge of international labour issues of the US Department of Labour.

At the meeting, Minister Dao Ngoc Dung highly appreciated the cooperation and support of the US Department of Labour with the Vietnamese Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs.

Since the Memorandum of Understanding between the two Ministries was signed in 2000, the US Department of Labour has spent more than 50 million USD for the implementation of projects to support Vietnam through bilateral mechanisms as well as through the ILO, including human resource development, labour market development and employment services, social security, building healthy labour relations, child labour prevention and reduction.

The Minister also emphasized the priority of the Vietnamese Government in developing vocational skills and training human resources, especially high-quality human resources.

The Minister suggested that the two sides expand cooperation to implement current technical assistance projects, and at the same time expand the field of cooperation, focusing on Vietnam's priorities in the coming years such as: implementing labour laws, developing high-quality human resources, reforming the social insurance system and developing the labour market.

Ms. Thea Lee highly appreciated the effective cooperation of the two Ministries over the years.

She emphasized that the Minister's visit would help to further strengthen understanding and cooperation between the two Ministries, expand and elevate the two sides' cooperation relationship to a comprehensive level of cooperation.

At the end of the meeting, the two sides agreed to strengthen cooperation in the following areas: strengthening the implementation of the Labour Code, labour relations, developing high-quality human resources, developing and reforming the labour market, improve national capacity to prevent and reduce child labour and support children negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The two sides also agreed to carry out the annual Labour Dialogue between the MoLISA and the US Department of Labour./.