HANOI - Vietnam will screen all labour-export companies sending workers to Malaysia to prevent a repeat of January's mass brawl between Vietnamese and Bangladeshi employees at a garment factory, officials said today.

Inspection teams will check the selection and training methods used by the 46 companies licenced to send workers to Malaysia, said Viet Hoa, an official from the Department of Administration of the Foreign-Employed Labour Force.

"This will help the government improve the moral and professional standards of the workers we send to Malaysia."

The new policy, which came into effect at the beginning of the month, was prompted by the riot o­n Jan 29 at the manufacturing plant in Penang.

The fracas was sparked when more than 100 Vietnamese workers attacked some 40 Bangladeshis at the entrance of an apartment block that serves as their hostel, according to Malaysian media.

Good market

Police arrested 178 Vietnamese workers sent to Penang by Suleco, a Ho Chi Minh City-based labour-export company, of whom 68 were subsequently deported back to Vietnam.

After a long test period, the Malaysian government in February 2002 granted official permission to 46 Vietnamese labour-export companies to send workers to the country.

More than 32,000 Vietnamese are currently working in Malaysia, a fellow Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) member, according to statistics from the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA).

"Malaysia is a very good market for Vietnamese labourers. We plan to send 30,000 workers this year," said Hoa, whose department is part of the ministry.

Around 350,000 Vietnamese were working overseas at the end of 2002. AFP