Officials from Vietnam Social Security and Binh Duong Province attend the conference reviewing the Action Programme No 93-CTr/TU

Speaking at the conference, Nguyen Hoang Thao, Standing Deputy Secretary of Binh Duong Provincial Party Committee said that the province was home to 31 industrial zones, of which 29 were in operation.

Overview of the meeting 

Most of the companies in the province are operating in light industry, with 80 per cent of workers coming from other provinces. The province usually sees major movements of labour every year, Thao said, adding that the situation puts a lot of pressure on local authorities in implementing social security policies as well as ensuring the interests of employees in the province.

Implementing Resolution No 28-NQ/TW, the Standing Board of Binh Duong Provincial Party Committee issued Action Programme No 93-CTr/TU; Binh Duong Provincial People's Committee also issued Plan No 2239/KH-UBND (May 16, 2019) and Decision No 2206/QD-UBND (July 31, 2019) to strengthen the implementation of social security policies. Every year, the provincial People's Council also includes social insurance and health insurance targets in the provincial socio-economic development resolution.

The State management on social security has received due attention to. State management agencies, Steering Committees at all levels have closely coordinated with the social insurance industry in the implementation of social insurance regimes and policies and managed the number of participants from the grassroots level.

Reporting at the conference, Nguyen Loc Ha, Vice Chairman of Binh Duong Provincial People's Committee, said after four years of implementing Action Programme No 93-CTr/TU, Binh Duong Province has completed important targets.

Illustrative image (internet)

Accordingly, every year, the provincial People's Council and People's Committee issued resolutions to assign specific targets to each locality. Therefore, the proportion of people participating in social insurance and health insurance is usually higher than in previous years. Particularly in 2021, due to the the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of participants decrease compared to 2020.

The provincial social insurance agency took many drastic solutions to complete the assigned targets.

Specifically, the coverage of social insurance is constantly increasing in both the number of participants and beneficiaries.

Regarding social insurance, in 2021, there were 939,550 participants, reaching 76.87 per cent of the local workforce, while the set plan was only 35 per cent.

As of June 2022, the province had 1,009,510 social insurance participants, accounting for 81 per cent of the labour force.

Regarding unemployment insurance, in 2021, there were 910,128 participants, reaching 74.46 per cent of the labour force, while the planned target was 28 per cent. As of June 2022, there were 981,220 participants, reaching 78.73 per cent of the labour force.

Regarding voluntary social insurance, in ten years from 2008 to the end of 2018, there were 3,143 participants, accounting for 0.24 per cent of the labour force. After Action Program No 93-CTr/TU was implemented, by 2021 there were 11,713 participants; as of June 2022, the number of participants was 10,420 people.

In addition, the settlement of benefits for employees and people is always done promptly in accordance with regulations.

From 2018 to June 2022, a total of 6,466,787 people received social security benefits, with a total amount of nearly VND21.41 trillion. The number of people enjoying monthly social insurance benefits increased over the years. The number in 2019 saw an increase of 11.17 per cent compared to 2018 while the number in 2020 increased by 35.19 per cent compared to 2019.

In 2021, the provincial social insurance agency paid pension and monthly allowances to 33,076 people, accounting for 3.5 per cent of the number of people participating in social insurance.

By 2022, 33,600 people, accounting for 3.32 per cent of the number of people participating in social insurance, received pensions.

 From 2018 to June 2022, 325,739 people received unemployment benefits with a total amount of over VND5 billion.

From 2018 to June 2022, specialised inspections of social insurance premiums were organised at 1,447 units and cases of underpayment were discovered. After the inspections, enterprises and units paid an additional VND91 billion. They also were required to spend over VND326 billion to tackle violations, while the total social insurance debt before the inspection was VND417 billion.

Speaking at the conference, Deputy General Director of Vietnam Social Security Le Hung Son highly appreciated the attention and close direction of the leaders of the provincial Party Committee, People's Council, People's Committee and departments and agencies in the locality.

On the basis of the achieved results as well as difficulties and challenges, Deputy General Director Le Hung Son requested Binh Duong Social Security to coordinate more closely with all levels and branches in implementing social insurance policies in the locality.

They were asked to connect with data from relevant agencies to improve the efficiency of management of social insurance participants and implementation of social insurance policies.

Son said that Social Security of Binh Duong Province should promptly solve arising difficulties and problems.

It was necessary to strengthen public service ethics, code of conduct, improve the quality of staff, and contribute to building a modern and professional Vietnamese social insurance industry, Son said./.