Manh made the statement when he chaired the agency’s briefing on March 4.

He said one of the important tasks this year is to develop participants of social and health insurance.

Therefore, the Director General told the Department of Contribution Collection to review potential people, who could participate in social and health insurance, and assign specific tasks for the agency’s branches to implement.

 Director General of Viet Nam Social Security Nguyen The Manh delivers his speech at the meeting.

He required the Department of Social Insurance Implementation and Department of Health Insurance Implementation to make forecasts and have solutions to remove difficulties in ensuring benefits for employees infected with COVID-19.

Besides, it has to promote communication to disseminate new policies for people. Customer service should also be better implemented, he added.

The agency’s information and technology centre is tasked to research and implement new technical platforms and solutions for digital transformation for the agency, especially building a big data analysis and processing system, applying artificial intelligence (AI) in order to better serve the interests of businesses and people, he said.

Also, the centre has to focus on promoting digital transformation; improving infrastructure and database systems on social, health and unemployment insurance, especially the national database on insurance; integrating, connecting and sharing information and data with ministries and sectors; completing and adding new features and utilities on VssID – the social insurance digital application, the Director General said.

 Deputy Chairman of Viet Nam Social Security Board of Commissioners Nguyen Van Cuong delivers a speech at the meeting.

Statistics

Data from the agency shows that by the end of February, the number of people participating in social insurance system is over 16.3 million people, accounting for 33 per cent of the labour force.

The number of people participating in unemployment insurance system is over 13.4 million people, reaching 26.7 per cent of the labour force.

The number people participating in health insurance scheme is over 84.67 million, reaching a coverage rate of 85.56 per cent of the total population.

The number of participants in compulsory and voluntary social insurance and unemployment insurance has increased compared to the same period last year with an increase of 1.14 per cent 16.2 per cent and 1.02 per cent respectively.

The number of people participating in health insurance system has decreased by 4.16 million people compared to the end of 2021.

Delegates at the meeting.

The main cause of the decrease is the impact of Decision 861/QD-TTg, issued in June 2021, that approved the new list of communes in Region III, Region II and Region I belonging to ethnic minorities and mountainous areas in the 2021-25 period.

Due to the adjustment, many people from the ethnic minority groups do not belong to the list that received financial support from the Government to participate in health insurance.

Moreover, about 2.3 million students’ health insurance cards have expired and they have yet to come back to school to extend the cards due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

There are about 550,000 health insurance cards of households in the agriculture, forestry and fishery sector, whose cards have expired and have yet to be extended because the People's Council in provinces and cities has yet to give further financial support this year.

The total accumulated collection of social, health and unemployment insurance is about VND54.6 trillion (US$2.41 billion) by the end of February 2022.

The total debt of social, health and unemployment insurance that employers have yet to pay to the agency is nearly VND25.7 trillion (US$1.13 billion).

The agency has also coordinated with the Government Office to simplify a number of administrative procedures and provide online public services on the National Service Portal.

It has provided more utilities and public services on the VssID application. By the end of February, there were nearly 25 million accounts using the app nationwide.