Int’l NGOs Make Clueless Reports about Vietnam’s Apparel Sector: Official

A report, done by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) Fair Wear Foundation and Care International, has incorrect information about female laborers in Vietnam’s apparel sector, said Mr. Nguyen Manh Cuong, head of the Department of International Co-operation, under Vietnam's Ministry of Labor-Invalids and Social Affairs. The report by the above-mentioned NGOs surveyed 763 people and showed that 87.7% of female workers were targets of sexual abuse and violence. Mr. Cuong questioned the reports’ credibility because the NGOs failed to give details about those 763 responders. Mr. Cuong stressed that the International Labor Organization made a report of the same topic in 2017. The report, named Better Work, collected answers of 632,000 workers from 464 plants of 250 firms, and the questionnaire has 290 detailed questions. This report showed that the rate was only 4%. Besides, a report of Oxfam, a world-wide organization against poverty, informed that Vietnam currently has 2.5 million workers in 60,000 apparel firms, or about 40 people per firm. Mr. Cuong said that the number of businesses in the sector is about 4,000-5,000. Meanwhile, Ms. Phung Thi Hanh, a lecturer at Hanoi Industrial Textile Garment University, said that the figure is about 7,000. (Tuoi Tre, rfa, BNews, Vietnam Plus, VOV, Tap Chi Tai Chinh, The Leader)