Also attending were Mr. Nguyen Minh Vu - Permanent Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs; Mr. Yamada Takio, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Vietnam; Representatives of VSS’ departments; leaders of ministries, branches and nearly 100 Japanese businesses in the provincies and cities of Hanoi, Hai Phong, Hai Duong, Hung Yen, Bac Giang and Bac Ninh.

Speaking at the opening of the Conference, General Director of VSS Nguyen The Manh said: Japan is currently the most important economic partner of Vietnam, the largest provider of ODA development aid to Vietnam; is a foreign direct investor (FDI) with more than 5,000 investment projects with a total capital of nearly 70.97 billion USD. There are currently more than 2,100 enterprises with 547,100 employees participating in social insurance, including 545,500 Vietnamese workers and 1,600 foreign workers; Social insurance revenue accounts for more than 13% of total revenue of FDI enterprises in Vietnam.

General Director of VSS Nguyen The Manh spoke at the Conference

In the context of difficulties caused by  pandemic and post-Covid 19 pandemic, FDI enterprises, including Japanese enterprises, have overcome difficulties and challenges, maintaining stability and developing production and business, retain employees; making an important contributions to Vietnam's socio-economic recovery and development. The majority of Japanese businesses comply with Vietnam's  policies and laws, including ones on social insurance and health insurance.

As a Government agency implementing policies on social and health insurance, for many years, VSS has continuously strived to reform, innovate and develop in a professional, modern, sustainable and effective direction, increasingly meeting the satisfaction of the people and businesses. Accordingly, by September 2023, VSS is serving more than 92% of the population participating in health insurance and 17.5 million people participating in social insurance, accounting for nearly 40% of the workforce.

VSS has proactively advised and submitted to the Prime Minister to promulgate supporting policies on  social and unemployment insurance for employees and employers facing difficulties due to the Covid-19 epidemic with the total of VND 47.2 thousand billion, accounting for 45.2% of the Government's total Covid-19 support packages (accordingly, 99.3% of people received support via bank accounts); At the same time, VSS strives to deploy synchronous solutions on IT applications to reform administrative procedures. Up to now, VSS has provided 100% of level 4 online public services integrated on the Government's National Public Service Portal; Rapid digital transformation in each professional stage helps businesses, the people, and workers easily access and fully enjoy benefits in  the most reform spirit; VSS has put the VssID-Digital Social Insurance application into use, transacting on mobile device platforms for individuals and launched the Japanese version.

Mr. Nguyen Minh Vu - Permanent Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs spoke at the Conference

“In the flow of international integration in labor, social security and labor transition in the region, more and more Japanese workers are coming to work in Vietnam and vice versa. (currently there are over 500,000 Vietnamese people living, studying and working in Japan; nearly 24,000 Japanese people living and working in Vietnam). In that trend, the social and health insurance policies for foreign workers in Vietnam are part of the overall policy on social security  for workers that need to be guaranteed in the best way. This is one of the top priorities of the Governments and businesses of the two countries," Manh emphasized.

From 2018 up to now, VSS has actively coordinated with units under the Working Group on the Vietnam - Japan Social Insurance Agreement to exchange information and the implementation situation of social insurance policies in each country, to plan roadmap, and develop a model agreement and follow-up procedures before the two countries officially launch negotiations on a bilateral agreement on social insurance. This will certainly be a new milestone in cooperation in ensuring social security for the people of the two countries.

 Manh affirmed: "The conference is organized with the desire to continue to receive attention, support, consensus and companionship from Japanese businesses in implementing the common goals to ensure maximum social security benefits for Vietnamese and Japanese workers - an important factor contributing to the success of each FDI enterprise and the Vietnam economy with the direction spirit of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at the Prime Minister's Conference with foreign investment enterprises with the theme "Accompanionship and Development" held on October 16th, 2023 with the viewpoint of taking people as the center, the subject, the goal, the driving force and the resource for development, creating favourable conditions for foreign businesses to do business effectively, successfully and sustainably in Vietnam." 
 Nguyen Minh Vu - Permanent Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs said: After 50 years of nurturing, the extensive strategic partnership between Vietnam and Japan is increasingly closely linked with the strong and effective development in all fields with increasingly strengthened political trust. Japan is Vietnam's leading partner in the fields of economic cooperation, investment, trade, ODA, agriculture, labor, and human resource training. 

 

Mr. Yamada Takio - Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan spoke at the Conference.

 Local cooperation, cultural exchange, and people exchange are increasingly strengthened and deepened. On the basis  of good political trust, high-level and all-level exchanges, local exchanges, close people-to-people exchanges, economic, investment and trade cooperation between the two countries has achieved many outstanding achievements in recent times. and become a key pillar in the multifaceted cooperation between the two countries. Japan has started investing in Vietnam since the 90s and since 2002 has maintained the third largest investor out of 143 countries and territories investing in foreign direct investment in Vietnam. Japanese direct investment capital invested in most provinces and cities, focusing on the fields of industry, processing and manufacturing, of which the Northern region is one of the key investment attraction areas, accounting for nearly 40% of Japan's total foreign direct investment in Vietnam. Bilateral trade turnover has also continuously increased, remaining at about 50 billion USD since 2014. Japanese ODA capital has made an important contribution to helping Vietnam build institutions, infrastructure, and train human resources with many projects that symbolize the relationship between the two countries. 

Along with the development of multifaceted cooperation between Vietnam and Japan, cooperation between Vietnam Social Security and Japanese partners in the field of social security and implementation of social and health insurance policies has recently achieved various positive results. The two sides have implemented many diverse and practical cooperation activities, contributing to promoting the development of Vietnam's social insurance industry to become more professional, modern, sustainable and effective in line with international standards. Activities to exchange and share experiences in implementing social security and insurance policies, and experiences in implementing bilateral agreements on social insurance have been actively enhanced. In particular, the Dialogue Conference on implementing social insurance and health insurance policies with Japanese businesses investing in Vietnam is an opportunity for Japanese businesses to better grasp and understand the system and legal regulations on safety. social security, social  and health insurance of Vietnam, thereby, helping to build and strengthen the trust and peace of mind of businesses in institutions, policies and legal regulations in general and in the field of social insurance and the Association. The conference is also an opportunity for Japanese investors to present their opinions and contributions to help improve mechanisms and policies on social insurance, thereby creating conditions for businesses to do business and invest long-term, sustainably and stably in Vietnam. Vietnam and ensuring the rights of workers.

 Awarding the medal to Mr. Yamada Takio - Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Minh Vu emphasized that the Dialogue Conference is an important opportunity for the two sides to exchange and discuss the implementation of social and health insurance policies, thereby, strengthening the cohesion and consensus between Vietnam Social Security and Japanese businesses in the Northern region. Following the success of the Dialogue Conference with Japanese businesses in the Southern region on social insurance in October 2022, I hope that the Conference will have frank and constructive exchanges and dialogues, with recommendations and consultations,  practical advice to contribute to improving the policy mechanism on social  and health insurance, creating favorable conditions for Japanese enterprises to produce and do business in Vietnam. I also request that VSS promote exchanges with Japanese partners to soon conclude a bilateral Social Insurance Agreement in the near future, thereby, supporting and creating conditions for the Japanese business community, doing business in Vietnam as well as the community of nearly 500,000 Vietnamese people living and working in Japan. 
 Mr. Yamada Takio - Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan in Vietnam said: “The number of Japanese companies investing in Vietnam is increasing every year and by 2023, the number of member companies of the Japanese Business Association in Vietnam has reached about 2,000, and has become the largest overseas Japanese Business Association in ASEAN and second in the world after China. In Vietnam, awareness of protecting workers' rights is increasingly raised. With the increase of direct investment from Japan into Vietnam, it is important that Japanese companies understand and apply Vietnam's social insurance regimes to ensure the rights and benefits of employees work at your company”. 
 “Vietnam is planning to amend the Social Insurance Law. We hope that the Vietnamese Government will amend this Law on the basis of full awareness that changes in Vietnam's social insurance system in the future will have a huge impact on investment trends from Japanese companies. At the Dialogue Conference, I hope that Japanese businesses have a deeper understanding of Vietnam's social insurance policy and also hope that VSS will listen to the voices of Japanese companies in the future. Social insurance policies can be applied more completely.

Delegates attending the conference

At the Conference, delegates  were informed about the results and situation of participating in social insurance and health insurance of Japanese businesses; the implementation of public services and application of information technology in the field of social insurance and health insurance; Status of implementation of Decree No. 143/2018/ND-CP detailing the implementation of the Law on Social Insurance and the Law on Occupational Safety and Health on compulsory social insurance for employees who are foreign citizens working in Vietnam . Along with that is information and exchange on social insurance and health insurance regimes and policies for Japanese and Vietnamese workers working at FDI enterprises and related issues such as: Impact of agreements new-generation free trade regulations for labor transition and social security policies for workers; The development and drafting of the Social Insurance Agreement between Vietnam and Japan aims to avoid the situation of double payment of social insurance and ensure the rights of workers in the two countries. At the same time, solve the difficulties and problems of businesses and employees in implementing social insurance and health insurance policies and regimes... 
 Also at the Conference, Vietnam Social Security launched the upgraded Japanese version of the VssID application to serve the needs of looking up information and monitoring the process of participating in and enjoying social insurance and health insurance regimes and policies of the specialized agency. Japanese families and workers working and participating in social insurance in Vietnam.

Delegates took souvenir photos on the steps of the Conference

Mr. Nguyen The Manh - General Director of Vietnam Social Security and Mr. Nguyen Minh Vu - Permanent Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs awarded the medal "For the cause of Vietnam Social Security". At the same time, 19 typical Japanese FDI enterprises with outstanding achievements in implementing the law on social and health insurance in 2023 were rewarded, including: NITORI Vietnam export processing enterprise; Sumi-Hanel Wiring System Company Limited; Yamaha Motor Vietnam Co., Ltd.; Panasonic Vietnam Co., Ltd.; Canon Vietnam Company Limited; Foster Bac Ninh Electronics Company Limited; Diana Unicharm Bac Ninh Joint Stock Company Branch; Huimei Precision Plastic Co., Ltd.; Yamashita Vietnam One Member Company Limited; Sanwa Vietnam Manufacturing Company Limited; Synztec Vietnam Company Limited; Kyocera Vietnam Office Machine Technology Company Limited; Rorze Robotech Co., Ltd.; Vietnam Toyo Denso Co., Ltd.; Brother Vietnam Industrial Company Limited; UMC Vietnam Electronics Company Limited; Mektec Manufacturing Vietnam Company Limited; Acecook Vietnam Joint Stock Company branch in Hung Yen; Vietinak Company Limited./.