Vietnam might not be top of everyone’s list of countries to look at for good practice in the recruitment agency industry – but UN agency the International Labour Organization (ILO) suggests it should be.

Max Tunon of the ILO comments: “Vietnam is one of the few nations that have successfully introduced a Code of Conduct for recruitment agencies and the experience can become a good model for the region.”

Tunon is the head of the ILO’s project to protect and promote migrant workers’ rights in the Greater Mekong Subregion, which consists of Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and the Chinese province Yunnan.

A Code of Conduct was introduced by the Vietnam Association of Manpower Supply (VAMAS) in 2010, and last year, 20 of the country’s largest recruiters volunteered to take part in a pilot whereby they would be ranked according to compliance with it.

It is now being expanded to a total of 50 agencies among the roughly 170 existing in the country, the ILO says.

The ILO also notes that countries like Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos and Burma are considering similar self-regulation tools.

The latest report by the Vietnam Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs shows about 80,000 Vietnamese workers are sent abroad every year, or nearly 1% of the country’s total population.