VSS Deputy General Director Dao Viet Anh

The voluntary social insurance policies have proved their efficiency, demonstrated through an increasing number of participants over the past two years. The number of voluntarysocial insurance’s new members in the last two years has been higher than total number of ten years earlier. What role has communication work played in this result?

Voluntary social insurance is a humane social security policy, creating conditions for labourers in the non-official sector to participate in the social security network. When they retire, they will enjoy monthly pensions and benefits of free social insurance cards.

Since Resolution No 28/NQ-TW of the 12th Party Central Committee on social insurance policy reform was issued in 2018, the number of social insurance participants has increased significantly even during the pandemic.

The figure increased to nearly 574,000 in 2019 and over 1.1 million in 2020 which was as high as the total number of new members 12 years earlier.

Communication work plays an extremely important role in putting voluntary social insurance policies into practice.

VSS considers communication key to expand the network of social insurance and health insurance membership. The sector has launched communication campaigns in various new forms and content following Party Resolution No 28 and Resolution No 96/NQ-BCS dated August 24, 2017 of the VSS Party Committee on "Innovating, improving the quality and efficiency of social insurance and health insurance’s communication work in the new situation".

The communication campaigns have been conducted along with the collaboration of relevant sectors, socio-political organisations and media agencies.

From disseminating voluntary social insurance policies and laws, VSS has changed to communication on rights, benefits and humane values of policies with short messages.

Communication methods have been applied flexibly and diversely depending on the practical contexts on newspapers, social networks, at consultation conferences or in small groups.

Policy communication work of VSS has followed policies of the Party and the State on voluntary social insurance. Communication has become a bridge connecting VSS with people and increased public awareness on insurance benefits.

Communication is a ‘key’ factor in expanding voluntary insurance membership network.

You have highlighted breakthroughs of VSS’ voluntary social insurance communication work. Could you elaborate on that?

VSS has taken innovative solutions in communication work including innovation in media content as I mentioned above. The content has been changed from disseminating policies to easy-to-understand messages about insurance benefits, outstanding models of people who have initiatives in implementing insurance policies.

VSS has focused on communication before, during and after events and promoted insurance policies on mass media in various forms such as television, broadcasting, news, features, infographics, long stories, and e-magazines.

The sector has applied technology in promoting communication campaigns, for example, producing infographics, motion graphics and videos to spread messages about benefits and humanity of social insurance and health insurance policies.

Livestream sessions on social media have proved effective in the context of limited conditions to hold offline communication campaigns, attracting individuals and households to take part in voluntary social insurance and household health insurance.

In particular, after two national communication campaigns in 2020, there was a record high number of new participants in the social insurance and health insurance scheme. The campaigns gained public trust in insurance policies and consolidated a modern and professional image of the VSS in the public eye.

Illustrative Photo (VSS)

VSS has undertaken comprehensive reform in voluntary social insurance’s communication work. Could you elaborate on the outcomes of this work?

VSS looks to promote communication on targeted potential groups.

The number of insurance news articles and features in the media has increased year on year with 16,000 articles in 2020 and more than 20,500 articles since early this year.

Many news articles have reflected the benefits and advantages of voluntary social insurance policies. Articles presented in the forms of long stories, e-magazines and infographics have made insurance communication products more attractive, friendly and easy to reach for readers.

Localities have also promoted communication about voluntary social insurance policies on local loudspeakers, through local media agencies and websites.

In 2020, VSS held about 120 conferences, seminars, dialogues on insurance policy dissemination and attracted about 24,000 participants. The target communication groups were farmers, fishermen, salt farmers, workers in craft villages and cooperatives.

At the grassroots level, local insurance agencies have launched communication campaigns at conferences to disseminate insurance policies to residential groups and households. Small group communication has proven an effective method amid the pandemic.

The sector has also stepped up communication on more than 6,700 social media channels such as Facebook fanpages, Zalo accounts, and Youtube channels of local insurance agencies. About 260 livestream sessions were held by local insurance agencies to disseminate voluntary insurance and health insurance policies.

Hundreds of thousands of media products have been shared on social network channels of local insurance agencies nationwide.

Despite challenges in expanding the insurance membership network amid the pandemic, as of October 21, there were over 1.2 million people in the voluntary social insurance scheme, reaching 69 per cent of the assigned task and increasing 361,000 compared to the same period last year.

Those figures demonstrate the key role of communication work in expanding the network of voluntary social insurance participants.

Thank you very much for speaking with us!