The circumstances of launching the National Week on OSH-PFE

In the process of socio-economic development, industrialization, and modernization, the Party and Government of Viet Nam consider that “human developments are our target, and at the same time, men and women are driving-force of the development”. Ensuring a healthy and safe working environment, reducing and preventing occupational accidents , diseases and fire, are the important tasks and requirements for production, businesses and work. This issue has an important position with the aim of protection and development of human resources and the strategy of sustainable socio-economic development of the country.

Therefore, in the recent implementation of Labour Code, Law on Protection of People’s Health, Trade Union Law, Environment Protection Law, Fire Prevention and Fighting Law, and the Prime Minister Instruction No13 / 1998 / CT – TTg on Strengthening OSH Activity in New Circumstances, the OSH activities have attained new achievements. They are new improvements of working conditions, ensuring safety and health of many workers, significant contribution to the socio-economic development, promotion of international collaboration, and exchanging experiences with the countries in the Region and beyond. .

With the policy of building and developing the multi-sector commodity economy under the Socialism direction, the new economic sectors, in particular, the private sector have been growing rapidly and required favourable legal basis for development. Since 1980s and early 1990s, the Government has enacted several relevant laws such as The Foreign Investment Law, The Private Enterprise Law, The Company Law, The Domestic Investment Incentive Law. These laws have created the favourable legal basis for different economic sectors. In 1991, in the whole country there were only 494 businesses, while in 1999 this figure became 30,500. In average each year there were more than 3300 new businesses being created.

The private enterprises have proliferated in leaps and bounds after the Enterprise Law came into force in 1999. Since the beginning of 2000 until 30 Sept. 2001, the number of enterprises registered was 24,384, more than the total sum of 5 previous years. The total reached the figure of 66,780.The types of enterprises are widely divers and include commerce, services, crafts etc…and proliferated everywhere in the country.

The development of different economic sectors has mobilized and exploited internal potentials and attracted foreign investment. They in turn have made significant contribution to the growth of economy, created many jobs for Vietnamese workers especially for those in the countryside. They have also contributed to the restructuring of the economy and social stability of the country.

Globalization, with the appearance of new technologies, machines, and materials, has brought multi- faceted impacts to safety and health of workers. Working environments can be polluted by dangerous and harmful substances that are difficult to control. Some imported technologies and machines are not suitable for Vietnamese workers.

With the rapid industrialization, an increasing number of enterprises, especially, those of small- and medium sized have attracted tens of thousands of workers from countryside. They have not been trained on OSH and are facing many work-related safety and health risks that they were not used to. .The private enterprises were mainly formed in the time of economic reform and most of them have only limited capital, backward and unsafe technologies. The government management and control systems on OSH were insufficient. As a result, many workers from these sectors were working in the most disadvantageous conditions.

Working environment in a small enterprise

Serious occupational accidents have occurred frequently. For example, gas explosion at a fuel – gas shop in Hanam town on 13 February 1995 with 5 killed; explosion of an oxygen container in Ho Chi Minh City on 5 September 1996 with 5 killed and 15 injured; wall collapse at Vinh Long town on 26 March 1998 with 5 killed and 10 injured; gas explosion in a coal mine site of Maokhe on 11 January 1999 with 19 killed and 12 injured.

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