Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on March 16 urged the plan on building at least 1 million social housing units for low-income earners and industrial workers in the 2021 - 2030 period to be implemented quickly and effectively.
Chairing a national hybrid conference on the issue, he emphasised that housing is one of the three pillars of social security, and that Vietnam does not pursue pure economic growth at the expense of social equality, security or the environment.

He said implementing the Party and State’s guidelines and policies on social security, the Government approved the plan on building at least 1 million social housing units for low-income earners and workers of industrial parks in the 2021 - 2030 period. It also ordered a credit package worth 120 trillion VND (over 5 billion USD) for social housing development to be carried out.

PM Chinh cited statistics as showing that there are 1,316 land plots with a total area of 8,611 hectares having been planned for social housing, more than double the 2020 figure of 3,359 hectares. From 2021 to 2023, 499 projects with over 411,000 social housing units were implemented.

Under the credit package of 120 trillion VND, banks have pledged to provide about 7 trillion VND in loans for 15 projects. About 640 billion VND has been disbursed for eight projects in seven localities.

Building social housing for low-income earners and housing for workers forms an important part of socio-economic development policies. Developing housing, including social housing, is a responsibility of the State, society, and people, he noted.

The Government leader affirmed that all economic sectors are encouraged to engage in the development of social housing and housing for workers under the market mechanism. The State has issued housing support policies for low-income earners in urban areas and workers of industrial parks to help ensure political stability and social security.
He added that social housing development must be connected with the real estate market development, match the housing development plan for each period, comply with legal regulations and approved master plans, and ensure comprehensive technical and social infrastructure.

To quickly and effectively carry out the plan on building at least 1 million social housing units for 2021 - 2030, all stakeholders, basing on their functions, tasks and power, must exert all-out efforts, show the highest sense of responsibility, take creative and timely action, and uphold social ethics to fulfill their duties to develop true social housing, he demanded.

PM Chinh asked the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, and the State Bank of Vietnam to soon devise and release the documents guiding the enforcement of related laws, including the revised Law on Housing, the revised Law on Real Estate Business, the revised Land Law, and the revised Law on Credit Institutions.

In particular, they need to tackle obstacles by streamlining administrative procedures and enhancing decentralisation to minimise the time and cost needed for social housing development, he went on.

Social security as the foundation of sustainable development
Social security systems not only protect households from slipping into poverty in precarious life situations but also pave the way to an adequate standard of living – for example, by making harmful coping strategies superfluous. After all, low-income families often take their children out of school to use their labor to secure their livelihoods, or they find themselves forced to sell important assets such as their livestock.
Social security systems stabilize income flows, thereby strengthening local demand and contributing to regional economic development. They enable people to adopt new ways of generating income – for example, to grow riskier but higher-yielding crops, buy machinery, invest in training or start a business. Moreover, low-income households that receive transfer payments spend significantly more on average on food, and thus on food security, than those that do not.

Social security systems thus reduce inequality, strengthen social cohesion and contribute to stability and peace. Hence they are an essential instrument for achieving the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the closely related human rights to healthy food, health and an adequate standard of living. They are also a crucial building block in the so-called triple nexus approach combining humanitarian aid, development cooperation, and peacebuilding.
If the state does not provide social security itself in a particular area but relies on third-party benefits (e.g. private health, pension or microinsurance), it must take appropriate regulatory measures to ensure that access to benefits is guaranteed for all segments of the population.

Due to funding constraints in low- and middle-income countries, coordinating the work of all actors and sectors to implement social security and food security systems is a major challenge. Therefore, this task should be a top priority for states. Universal basic rights apply to every person in the world and can only be fulfilled if all countries work together to uphold them.