Taiwanese steel mill to recruit 3,000 additional Chinese workers

Taiwanese steel mill to recruit 3,000 additional Chinese workers

Workers at the construction site of the Formosa Plastics Group’s steel mill in Vung Ang Economic Zone, Ha Tinh Province. Photo: Nguyen Dung

Authorities in the north-central province of Ha Tinh have allowed a Taiwanese conglomerate to hire an additional 3,000 Chinese workers to a force building a steel plant in the Vung Ang Economic Zone.

The decision was made after The Formosa Plastics Group sought the provincial government’s approval to recruit an additional 8,426 foreign workers for 28 bidding packages in late July.

According to the Vung Ang Economic Zone’s management board, there are currently 32,240 workers, of whom 4,596 are foreigners (mostly Chinese and Taiwanese) in the zone.

Vung Ang was the target of anti-China violence triggered by the illegal deployment of a giant US$1-billion oil rig into Vietnamese waters on May 2. Rioters torched, looted and vandalized the construction site.

The incident left three Chinese workers dead and 149 others, both Chinese and Vietnamese, injured on May 14.

Around 3,000 Chinese workers subsequently fled Vietnam.

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