On the heels of Party Resolution 42 on Social Policies promulgated in November 2023, social policies are poised to see renewed focus and development. At the same time, the expected promulgation of the revised Social Insurance Law by the National Assembly in May will take important steps in continuing to cement the compulsory social insurance system as the key building block to provide sustainable protection to a large share of workers in Vietnam.
Equally important, the upcoming revision of the Employment Law will continue throughout 2024 to define the best ways to improve its unemployment insurance system. This will be vital to help those workers going through the ever more frequent labor market transitions have greater access to decent work, in particular during times where energy, demographic or technological macro transitions are set against a background of frequent global crisis such as pandemics and wars.
And, for those unable to participate in social insurance, Vietnam is also planning a revision of its Social Decree 20 on Social Assistance in 2024, in an effort to continue to provide more and better protection for those most in need in the society.
Illustrating all these efforts, Vietnam will continue to discuss the timeline to ratify ILO Convention 102 on Minimum Social Security Standards. This would make Vietnam the first ASEAN country to ratify the most important international treaty on social protection in the world.
And all these massive positive changes are planned upon a background of fast economic growth, as Vietnam continues to be projected to be one of the fastest growing economies in the world for the coming years.
Most importantly, they build on the great progress of Vietnamese social protection system over the past few decades. Looking at the available data, we see that there has been a significant increase in the number of people supported by social assistance over the last decade, from 2.2 million people in 2013 to 3.5 million people by 2023 (an increase of 60%). And simultaneously, social insurance coverage has grown at a rapid pace, from around 23% of the working labor force in 2015 to 39% in 2023.
But, going forward, continuing to progress through such a successful path will not be without challenges.
The ongoing policy revisions must continue to be evaluated both against international labor standards, and also against international best practices, to ensure their design and implementation are the most suitable to reach their objectives.

Throughout, efforts need to be strengthened to ensure more vulnerable groups such as persons with disabilities or persons of ethnic minorities benefit from the different social protection programmes – as well as from Vietnam’s fast economic growth – and are not left behind.
To overcome these and other hurdles, it is of paramount importance that investment in social protection increases. This means not only more investment from state and province budgets, but also an increase in the number of workers and firms contributing and participating in compulsory social insurance. Because this is what social protection is all about. It is about societies as a whole contributing, pooling resources and funds together, to help those who need our support the most.