From late August to early September, the department will issue permits to over 200 trainee nurses to work and study in Japan under the two countries’ Economic Partnership Agreement. They were scheduled to head to Japan last May, but their departure was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, the German Embassy in Vietnam was recently allowed to grant visas to Vietnamese citizens taking up apprenticeships in the European country. The German side earlier granted visas to Vietnamese trainee nurses. Taiwan (China) has already welcomed a number of Vietnamese workers who were granted visas prior to the pandemic. Vietnam aims to send 130,000 workers abroad this year but has sent only 33,500 to date due to the coronavirus./.