In 2009, statistics recorded 6,250 reported occupational accidents, an increase of 7 per cent from the previous year, resulting in 550 deaths, up 6 per cent.

"Vietnam cannot control occupational safety, so the number of workplace accidents tends to increase and is becoming complicated," said Pham Gia Luong, deputy head of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs' workplace safety agency.

"The real number of workplace accidents in Vietnam is assumed to be far higher than statistics show," Luong said.

Luong said Vietnam had approved laws and regulations on occupational safety, but enterprises did not take them seriously.

Luong said only 3 per cent of the country's 400,000 enterprises, which employ 8.6 million people, report accidents to his agency.

The rest of Vietnam's 46-million-strong workforce is employed in other sectors such as handicraft villages or cooperatives, for whom no accident statistics exist.

The labour ministry estimates that there were between 120,000 and 130,000 workplace accidents from 2005-2010, killing about 12,000 people.

Deutsche Presse Agentur - July 3, 2010