Attending the workshop were: Deputy General Director of VSS Tran Dinh Lieu; Ms. Majdie Hordern, First Secretary of the Australian Embassy in Vietnam; Mr. Christophe Lemiere, Human Development Program Manager in Vietnam, WB; Ms. Himanshi Jain, Social Protection Specialist, WB; together with representatives of leaders and officials of relevant departments of VSS, the WB and representatives of social security from northern provinces and cities.

The workshop is part of the technical assistance program "Expanding coverage and improving the efficiency of voluntary social insurance implementation" financed by the WB, implemented by VSS from September 2022. Over the past time, WB experts and related departments of VSS, as well as Hai Phong City Social Security and Thai Nguyen Provincial Social Security have exchanged and shared information and data on the implementation process of voluntary social insurance as well as the reforms of VSS in the past 5 years to provide assessments on the implementation of expanding voluntary social insurance participants in the informal sector. This workshop aims to present, exchange and evaluate the results of the implementation of the support program, shares experiences and good practices from other countries in expanding coverage that can be applied in Vietnam in order to improve the effectiveness of the implementation of voluntary social insurance.

Deputy General Director of VSS Tran Dinh Lieu speaks at the Workshop

Speaking at the Workshop, Deputy General Director of VSS Tran Dinh Lieu said that the issuance of Resolution No. 28-NQ/TW on reforming social security policies at the 7th Conference of the 12th Party Central Executive Committee has marked an important milestone in the implementation of social security policies in Vietnam, with the target of reforming social security policies to make social security really a main pillar of the social security system, gradually expanding the coverage of social insurance, and Proposed number of effective solutions to rapidly increase policy coverage, towards the goal of universal social insurance, especially focusing on expanding coverage to the group of workers in the informal sector, striving to 2025, 45% of the whole country labor force in the participation age participate in social insurance (42.5% formal sector, 2.5% informal sector) and reach 60% by 2030.

In order to bring Resolution No. 28 into life, the Government, ministries, agencies and localities have organized to thoroughly grasp the contents of the Resolution to a large number of officials and people; at the same time, issued number of directives, resolutions, programs and plans to develop the number of people participating in social insurance in accordance with the characteristics of each agency and locality. With a proactive and positive spirit, the goal of expanding social insurance coverage has achieved positive results.

“Although the current efforts of VSS are on the right track, there is still much work in the implementation that needs to be changed to make the goal of expanding voluntary social insurance coverage more effective. Therefore, VSS is looking forward to receiving support from international experts, especially the WB, to help VSS fulfill the goals of Resolution 28” shared by Deputy General Director Tran Dinh Lieu.

Mr. Dinh Duy Hung, Deputy Director of the Department of Contribution  Collection - Insurance book and Card (Vietnam Social Security) gave a presentation at the Workshop

At the seminar, Mr. Dinh Duy Hung (Vietnam Social Security) presented an overview of the implementation of the voluntary social insurance regime in Vietnam. Accordingly, before 2019, the average annual number of people participating in voluntary social insurance in Vietnam increased by 20% to 30% compared to the previous year. In 2019, the number of people participating in voluntary social insurance reached over 558,000, twice as much as in 2018, equal to all 11 years ago combined; By 2020, the number of people participating in voluntary social insurance  reached over 1,124 thousand, nearly double the number of participants in 2019 and equal to about 12 years ago combined, reaching 2.28% of the labor force of working age, exceeding the number of people participating in voluntary social insurance targets set out in Resolution No. 28-NQ/TW.

However, due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, in 2021 the number of people participating in voluntary social insurance is 1,449 thousand, an increase of 29% compared to 2020. 2022, the number of people participating in voluntary social insurance is 1,462 thousand people, an increase about 12,000 people compared to 2021 (increased 0.85%).

In the development of voluntary social insurance, VSS has implemented several solutions such as: Organize a monthly online conference to evaluate the collection and development of participants of social  and health insurance to have timely and effective measures; Request provincial and cities social security agencies to advise the Provincial, cities Party Committee and Provincial, cities People's Committee: to issue Resolutions, Action Plans; consolidating the Steering Committee for the development of participants in social, health and unemployment insurance; Assign participants development targets to each district, town and city; Review and update the classification of potential subjects who have not yet participated in social and health insurance according commune-level, closely coordinate with related agencies and service organizations to organize customer conferences to propagate, mobilize and develop participants; Regularly check, supervise and urge service organizations to deploy solutions to develop participants; Manage the network of collective social, health insurance premiums organizations and service providers according to regulations; Periodically review, summarize and propose rewards and irregular rewards to collective group or individual who completing or exceeding the target of people participating in social insurance growth. The settlement and payment of social and unemployment insurance regimes and policies are always fully and timely guaranteed for each participant and beneficiary.

Mr. Christophe Lemiere, Human Development Program Manager in Vietnam, WB spoke at the Workshop

At the Workshop, WB experts gave an overview on the implementation of voluntary social insurance policy in Vietnam; some models and international experiences in implementing voluntary social insurance.

Ms. Hinmanshi Jain, social protection expert, assessed that the coverage of voluntary social insurance in Vietnam is increasing rapidly with the rate has often doubled since 2018. However, only nearly 4% of labor force in working age participated and the sustainability, and the contribution ratio is still low.

Ms. Hinmanshi Jain shared her experience in implementing voluntary social insurance in China and Korea. Accordingly, China is currently implementing a minimum payment for the poorest (about 2% of people of working age). The central government provides support at a ratio of 1:3 but gradually decreases for higher contribution participants. In addition, depending on the provincial budget, the provinces will have additional support. In Korea, the government pays the minimum for the poor and the unemployed; 1:1 support for farmers and fishermen; has a basic pension policy for 70% of people aged 65 and over.

Ms. Himanshi Jain, Expert in Social Protection, WB spoke at the Workshop

Through international experience, WB experts said that in order to well implement the voluntary social insurance policy, each country needs 11 elements, including: (1) A solid legal basis for the program and the consistent with the Government's strategic priorities; (2) financial priority is a necessary condition for high coverage; (3) clear and objective goals at the local level; (4) simple design for everyone to understand the benefits; (5) build trust in the program, ensure political will, avoid sudden changes; (6) identify partners in rural and urban areas to receive and guide new entrants; (7) provide short-term benefits; (8) flexibility design; (9) adjust the propaganda and dissemination strategy based on feedback from the regions; (10) utilize digital infrastructure in participation, contribution, payment of social security; (11) ensure clear, consistent and intuitive communication.

Overview of the Conference

During the discussion, delegates and experts focused on clarifying the factors for reforming the voluntary social insurance policy in Vietnam; emphasizes the need to study how to expand the benefits for participants and increase the coverage support, especially for the unemployed group. Regarding the coverage support, it is necessarily having a mechanism to encourage people who have better financial conditions to contribute higher, not at fixed level, but according to the level of contribution, which are the higher the contribution, the bigger coverage support. Besides, it is also necessary to continue administrative reform and digital transformation so that the contribution and getting allowance is faster and more convenient…