Attending the conference were: ISSA General Secretary Marcelo Caetano; Director of Cambodia National Social Security Fund Ouk Samvithyea - ASSA Association Vice President. For Vietnam Social Security, there were: Deputy General Director Dao Viet Anh; Head of Department of International Cooperation.

Speaking at the conference, Deputy General Director Dao Viet Anh emphasized that, as an active and responsible member of both ISSA and ASSA, in recent years, Vietnam Social Security has strengthened their activities in each organization. In particular, they have just completed successful ASSA Chairmanship (2018 - 2019), which has been highly appreciated by regional and international social security organizations. Today, Vietnam Social Security is pleased to be a connector between ISSA and ASSA to discuss some contents about strengthening connectivity and cooperation in the future.

At the conference, ASSA Vice President Ouk Samvithyea introduced an overview of the ASEAN Social Security Association. Accordingly, ASSA was established in 1998 and now consists of 20 member organizations from ASEAN countries. With the desire to promote cooperation and develop social security in the region in accordance with the aspirations, laws and regulations of member countries, ASSA is constantly expanding partnership and learning experiences among the nations. Therefore, ASSA is looking forward to working closely with ISSA - a long-standing, international social security organization with experienced members in implementing the social security system.

Regarding the content, ASSA Vice President proposed that, first of all, ISSA facilitates and encourages 11 members of ASSA to join as ISSA members in the near future. In addition, ASSA is eager to create a way to share experiences between members of ISSA and ASSA. At the same time, ISSA continues to provide further guidance and support on social security for ASSA members.

Deputy General Director of Vietnam Social Security Dao Viet Anh - General Secretary of ASSA (the term of 2018 - 2019) also proposes, in the coming time, ISSA will provide support more frequently in ASSA's activities. Every year, ISSA organizes a lot of workshops and training courses on social security. Therefore, ASSA members are looking forward to participating in these programs. In addition, ASSA is now strengthening connection in the system of social security experts in the region, so they expected to receive support from ISSA and this is also a condition for ISSA to increase its presence with leading experts in ASEAN region. In particular, Deputy General Director Dao Viet Anh hopes that the cooperation between ISSA and ASSA would take place with regular activities and forms, in which there would not only be conferences and seminars.

Appreciating the recommendations and comments from ASSA representatives, ISSA Secretary General expressed his delight at the potential cooperation of the two Associations. Mr. Marcelo Caetano said that ASSA's cooperation proposals are also ISSA's concerns to jointly develop an increasingly better international network of global social security, which is not limited to a country or a region scale. To achieve this, the role of cooperation, learning and experience sharing among organizations is significant.

“Regarding ASSA, I think you can learn a lot of successful experiences from European countries with long-standing social security; At the same time, you can also learn from African and American countries which have many similarities of the developing social security systems. ISSA can find those connections and learnings at ISSA - the international organization of social security with more than 300 members in nearly 160 countries.”- Mr. Marcelo Caetano shared.

In addition, according to the ISSA Secretary General, the International Social Security Association not only establishes a network of organizations but also creates regularly updated content and guidelines for the members. On the other hand, ISSA has the ability in training, publishing intercontinental publications and especially the ability to establish close relationships with other international organizations. Those things will greatly benefit organizations when joining the Association.

As for ISSA, Mr. Marcelo Caetano also wishes to promote cooperation with ASSA to enhance the regional presence; learn from the experiences in implementing social security activities from Southeast Asia organizations, thereby contributing to global assessments and guidance.

Jointly evaluating the potential of cooperation, the representatives of ISSA and ASSA agreed that after the seminar, technical staffs and experts of the two Associations will work together to develop a signed cooperation agreement in the shortest time, which is expected to take place at ASSA 38 Executive Committee Meeting held in Cambodia (September 2020)./.