On the occasion of the establishment's anniversary, Secretary of the Party Personnel Committee, General Director of Vietnam Social Security (VSS) Nguyen The Manh had an exchange and shared about the 28-year journey of implementing policies on social, health and unemployment insurance with many responsibilities along with lots of honors and pride of the industry.

VSS General Director Nguyen The Manh emphasized: In 28 years of establishment and implementing policies on social, health and unemployment insurance with many responsibilities but also a lot of honor and pride, the industry has achieved significant achievements.

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The social security policy has really come into life and brought its positive effects into play.

Reporter: Sir, could you please tell us the meaning of the "turning point" of the establishment of the VSS Industry in the organization and implementation of the social and health insurance policies for the people in our country?

VSS General Director Nguyen The Manh: The birth of Vietnam's social insurance industry is an inevitable trend. Since 1994, the Labor Code passed by the National Assembly has provided for the formation of a centralized social insurance fund, independent of the budget, self-accounting with contributions from employers and employees, protected by the State. Accordingly, on January 26, 1995, the Government issued Decree No. 12/CP promulgating the Charter of Social Insurance stipulating the implementation of compulsory social insurance for state officials and employees and employees working in enterprises.

Next, the Government issued Decree No. 19/CP dated February 16, 1995, establishing the VSS on the basis of unifying the central and local social insurance organizations under the Labor - Invalids & Social Affairs system and Vietnam General Confederation of Labor. The organizational system of the VSS consists of three levels: central, provincial and district levels.

On January 24, 2002, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 20/2002/QD-TTg on transferring Vietnamese health insurance to the VSS and on December 6, 2002, the Government issued Decree No. 100/2002/ND-CP stipulating the functions, tasks, powers and organizational structure of the VSS.

In particular, the legal status of the VSS continues to be confirmed in the Law on Social Insurance 2014 (effective from January 1, 2016), which stipulates: The social security agency is a state agency with the function of implementing social insurance regimes and policies, management and use of social, health and unemployment insurance funds; inspect the payment of social, unemployment, health insurance and other tasks according to the provisions of the Law and the guidance of the Government.

The communication of policies and laws on social, health and unemployment insurance is respected and renewed in terms of both content and form in the direction of modernity, diversity, flexibility and appropriateness.

Reporter: Over the past 28 years of establishment and development, the VSS industry has gained many remarkable achievements, gradually affirming that social and health insurance policies are the two policies that play a pivotal role in the social security system, contributing to promote social progress and justice for sustainable development of the country. Sir, could you share specifically about some of the outstanding achievements that the industry has achieved in the past 28 years?

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VSS General Director Nguyen The Manh: Developing social and health insurance in the direction of universal coverage is an important and cross-cutting goal in the socio-economic development strategy of the Party and State.

First, the active participation in formulating and perfecting policies and laws on social, health and unemployment insurance. The VSS has regularly proactively summed up problems in the organization and implementation of policies; closely coordinated with branches and levels to assess the implementation of regimes and policies and their impacts to recommend amendments and supplements to policies and laws to overcome existing limitations.

Second, the communication of policies and laws is respected and renewed both in content and form in the direction of modernity, diversity, flexibility, suitable for each group of subjects and characteristics of each region, custom and practice, focusing on groups participating in voluntary social insurance and household-based health insurance; deploying numerous solutions to promote communication nationwide; thereby, contributing to creating unity in leadership, direction, consensus and support of the whole society during the process of policy formulation, organization and implementation.

Third, the development of participants is an important political task of the sector, contributing to expanding coverage, moving towards the goal of universal social and health insurance as set out by the Resolutions of the Party and Government. The coverage of social, health and unemployment insurance is increasingly expanded with impressive growth: The number of social insurance participants is 17.5 million people, reaching 38.08% of the labor force in the age group (in which: the number of compulsory social insurance participants increased from 2.3 million people in 1995 to more than 16 million people in 2022, an increase of over 7.5 times; The number of voluntary social insurance participants increased from 6,000 people in 2008 to nearly 1.5 million people in 2022, an increase of 250 times); The number of unemployment insurance participants increased from nearly 6 million people in 2009 to more than 14.3 million people in 2022, an increase of nearly 2.4 times; The number of health insurance participants increased from 7.1 million people in 1995 to more than 91.1 million people in 2022, an increase of 12.8 times, reaching the coverage rate of 92.04% of the population - basically fulfilling the target of universal health insurance.

Fourth, the settlement and payment of social, unemployment and health insurance regimes and policies are promptly and properly implemented by the VSS; especially, it has effectively transformed the management method from manual to modern, the settlement of the regime for participants is based on the data on the management of the participation process, ensuring the principle of "payment-enjoyment"; The mode of operation of the system is renewed in the service direction. As a result, from 1995 to the end of 2022, the whole Industry had handled for more than 136 million people to enjoy sickness, maternity, convalescence and health rehabilitation regimes; from 2010 to the end of 2022, it had coordinated to settle for nearly 8.7 million people entitled to unemployment insurance benefits; by the end of 2022, the total number of people receiving monthly pensions and social insurance benefits reached about 3.3 million people; From 2003 to 2022, the whole industry had coordinated with medical facilities to ensure health insurance benefits for over 2,368 million people.

Fifth, financial management, and fund investment. Social and health insurance funds have become the largest social security funds, managed and used for the right purposes, safely, effectively, openly and transparently under the supervision of the National Assembly, the Government and the Board of Commissioners. The scale of insurance funds increases year by year, affirming the sustainability and ensuring the balance in the long term, so that employees and the people feel more secure and confident when participating in social and health insurance.

Sixth, administrative procedure reform, application of information technology (IT) and digital transformation of the sector have received special attention and drastic implementation. Accordingly, administrative procedures have been reviewed and minimized; simplified and restructured business processes, promoted electronic transactions, provided online public services to create the most favorable conditions for participants; all business processes for policy settlement of the Industry are implemented on inter-connected software, sharing data with other business software and databases of ministries and branches.

"Taking the people, businesses as the subject and the service center"

Reporter: The results achieved by Vietnam's social security industry in the past 28 years are comprehensive. In particular, the administrative reform, IT application and digital transformation of the sector have brought great benefits to participants and beneficiaries of social, health and unemployment insurance policies, which are highly appreciated by sectors and social communities. Sir, how would you evaluate these breakthrough changes of the Industry?

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VSS General Director Nguyen The Manh: With the motto "Taking the people, businesses as the subject, the service center", the VSS industry attaches special importance to and has focused all resources and implemented drastic solutions, minimized administrative procedures, promoted the application of IT and digital transformation in all professional activities, step by step modernizing professional activities of the industry, in order to meet the requirements of building e-Government, digital Government; recognized and appreciated by all levels of sectors, the business community, and people.

As a result, it has been reduced from 263 administrative procedures (in 2009) down to only 25 administrative procedures, with 100% of administrative procedures provided with online services and integrated on the VSS Portal; and gradually integrated on the National public service portal; and the number of hours of administrative procedure implementation for people and businesses decreased from 335 hours/year (in 2015) to over 100 hours. The whole VSS industry has nearly 30 IT application systems to manage business processes, with more than 20,000 accounts of public employees regularly accessing, exploiting and using to perform the industry's operations.

Notably, in recent years, the digital transformation work of the sector has made steady progress, bringing breakthrough changes, contributing to creating and successfully building the digital Vietnamese social security industry in accordance with the orientation of digital government of our Party and State. The industry's database system is continuously enriched and updated with information of over 98.7 million people; interconnection with nearly 13 thousand medical facilities; about 620 thousand units registered and used online public services. The electronic transaction system and the Health Insurance Assessment Information System receive about 300 million online transaction records per year; implemented more than 500 million authentication and information sharing with ministries, local authorities, etc.

Implementing Project 06 of the Prime Minister, the VSS is the first unit that has successfully connected with the national database on population as soon as it is officially put into operation. The system has verified over 74.1 million demographic information contained in the national database on population and insurance. At the same time, the Industry has provided and shared nearly 72.3 million times of information for the national population database. Up to now, over 12.2 thousand health care facilities look up health insurance card information using chip-based ID cards (accounting for 95.4% of the total number of health care facilities covered by health insurance), with more than 10.5 million times successfully looking up health insurance information using chip-based ID cards to serve medical care covered by health insurance.

The integration and implementation of services on the National Public Service Portal has been actively implemented, accordingly, the entire VSS industry has received from the National Public Service Portal, confirmed the process of paying unemployment insurance premiums for 58.3 thousand cases of unemployment benefit settlement; more than 134.8 thousand successful transactions of renewal of health insurance cards by household, payment of voluntary social insurance; received and processed 10,607 dossiers of issuance of health insurance cards for children under 6 years old and settled funeral allowances through two inter-connected public services.

Especially, in the face of complicated developments of the Covid-19 pandemic, in the past 3 years, thanks to administrative reform and modern IT system, social security agencies at all levels have promptly provided and shared information and data on participants and beneficiaries of social, health and unemployment insurance regimes to serve epidemic prevention and control activities in localities; at the same time, contributing to the quick and effective implementation of policies to support businesses and employees facing difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic in accordance with the Resolutions of the National Assembly and the Government.

The VSS has also piloted the integration of fingerprint biometric authentication technology on chip-mounted citizen identity cards in health care services covered by health insurance.

Continue to successfully implement the set goals and plans, determined to build a modern and professional social security industry for the satisfaction of people and businesses.

Reporter: After 28 years of establishment and development, Vietnam's social security industry has been constantly developing in all aspects, and the position and role of the industry has been increasingly affirmed. However, in order to meet the increasing requirements and fulfill the goals of universal social and health insurance, what solutions should the VSS focus on in the coming time, Sir?

VSS General Director Nguyen The Manh: In order to continue to successfully implement long-term and sustainable plans towards the goal of universal social and health insurance, we have identified solutions that are "constructive" oriented and need to be implemented by the whole industry with the spirit of initiative, synchronous and comprehensive. Specifically, in the coming time, the whole Industry will focus on the following groups of solutions:

First, continue to strive to successfully implement the goals stated in Resolution No. 28-NQ/TW of the seventh plenary session of the 12th Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam; Resolution No. 125/NQ-CP of the Government promulgating the Government's Action Plan to implement Resolution No. 28-NQ/TW; schemes and projects approved by the Prime Minister (according to the roadmaps to 2025, 2030).

Second, closely coordinate with ministries, branches, Party committees at all levels, local authorities and political, socio-political organizations to well implement social, health and unemployment insurance regimes and policies; develop Vietnam's social security industry in line with the country's socio-economic conditions and in sync with the development of social services.

Third, continue to innovate communication in both content and form towards professionalism, with a focus; suitable for each target group, in which the focus is on the group of people participating in voluntary social insurance, household-based health insurance and employees working in industrial parks and export processing zones.

Fourth, ensure the coverage of social, health and unemployment insurance continue to develop in a sustainable way; settle and pay fully and promptly the benefits of social, health and unemployment insurance for participants; strive to fulfill the goals and plans assigned by the Government and the Prime Minister.

Fifth, step up the inspection and examination of the observance of the law on social, health and unemployment insurance; especially specialized inspection; promptly detect and handle violations of regimes and policies on social, health and unemployment insurance; acts of fraud, or taking advantage of social, health and unemployment insurance funds.

Sixth, continue to strengthen, review and simplify administrative procedures, promote the application of IT in professional processes to implement policies on social, health and unemployment insurance to make them the simplest, easiest and most convenient for employees and people; continue to expand and diversify forms of public service provision, and improve the quality of the industry's online public services.

Seventh, focus on promoting the application of IT and digital transformation; complete the infrastructure, specialized database system on social, health and unemployment insurance, especially the national database on insurance; integrate, connect and share information and data with ministries and branches; research and implement new technical platforms and solutions to serve the industry's digital transformation, especially the building of big data analysis and processing systems, and application of artificial intelligence (AI).

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Eighth, continue to review, arrange, consolidate and streamline the organizational apparatus; build a contingent of civil servants with quality, capacity, prestige, on par with tasks, especially the leader; develop a modern and professional Vietnamese social security industry, meeting the satisfaction of people and businesses.

Ninth, firmly grasp and closely follow the actual situation, especially the arising problems that cause difficulties and affect the social security of the people and the activities of enterprises; perform proactive, flexible, creative, and timely handling of problems; or propose competent agencies to remove and solve arising difficulties and problems, best ensuring the benefits of social, health and unemployment insurance for employees and enterprises according to regulations.

I believe that, with the achievements of sustainable growth during the past 28 years, under the close leadership and direction of the Party, National Assembly and Government; with the active coordination of ministries, branches and local authorities; the efforts, solidarity and unanimity of all civil servants, the VSS industry will continue to successfully implement the set targets and plans, marking an impressive development milestone for the 30-year period of establishment and development by 2025.

Reporter: Thank you very much, Sir!