The Prime Minister issued Decision No 06/QD-TTg on January 6, 2022, approving the "Project on Developing Data Applications on Population, Identification, and Electronic Authentication to Serve National Digital Transformation in the 2022-2025 Period, with a Vision to 2030" (referred to as Project 06). Closely adhering to the core content of the Project and closely coordinating with the Ministry of Public Security – the governing body of the National Population Database – Vietnam Social Security has focused on five utility groups to effectively serve the people and businesses.

The Vietnam social security industry’s implementation of the Project 06 has brought about practical benefits for the people and businesses in participating and enjoying social and health insurance policies

First, the group of utilities that serve the settlement of administrative procedures and provides online public services: Currently, all administrative procedures of Vietnam Social Security are provided with online public services on various platforms and forms such as: The Vietnam Social Security  Public Service Portal, the National Public Service Portal, the social security digital app – VssID, and IVAN organisations. Twenty out of 25 administrative procedures (accounting for 80 per cent) have been provided with end-to-end online public services on the National Public Service Portal. Vietnam Social Security has also worked with ministries and sectors to successfully implement two groups of interconnected administrative procedures: Birth Registration - Permanent Residency Registration - issuance of health insurance cards for children under six years gold” and “Registration of Death -  Removal of Permanent Residency Registration  - Funeral Allowance”: and three online public services as assigned in the Prime Minister’s Decision No 422/QĐ-TTg dated April 4, 2022, approving the list of online public services being integrated into the National Public Service Portal in 2022.

Currently, 100 per cent of the population and businesses use online services which are identified and authenticated seamlessly and integrated on the Electronic Social Security Transaction System of Vietnam Social Security and 100 per cent of the results of administrative procedures handled have been digitised (electronic results).

Concurrently, to carry out the assigned tasks in Project 06, Vietnam Social Security has supported the Ministry of Health in providing electronic Driver’s Health Certificate (for online re-issuance and renewal of driver’s licences), Birth Certificate, and Death Certificate from medical facilities via the IT infrastructure of the Vietnam social security industry. Until now, more than 4.3 million electronic data of the above-mentioned documents have been interconnected through the infrastructure of Vietnam Social Security.

 Online public services help save time and money help the people be proactive, save time and efforts in implementation

Second, the group of utilities that serve digital citizens: To implement the goal of gradually replacing citizens’ documents in certain transactions according to the law, Vietnam Social Security has issued electronic versions of the social insurance book and health insurance card; and successfully launched the digital insurance application – VssID since 2020. Starting from June 1, 2021, citizens can use the health insurance cards integrated into the VssID for medical check-up and treatment. The initiative has been well-received and highly appreciated by the people. Then, Vietnam Social Security has co-ordinated with the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Public Security to promote the use of chip-based ID card and the National Electronic Identification Application (VNeID) for medical examination and treatment services. Now, all health facilities nationwide have provided health insurance-based medical examination and treatment services through the chip-based ID card, with over 90.5 million successful inquiries of health insurance cards via chip-based ID card for medical examination and treatment.

Third, the group of utilities that serve the socio-economic development: Over the past time, Vietnam Social Security has made efforts to enhance the non-cash payment of insurance benefits. Currently, about 64 per cent of participants receive social insurance benefits and unemployment allowances through their individual accounts in urban areas, up 3 per cent as compared to 2022 (4 per cent higher than the target set by the Prime Minister in Decision No 1813/QĐ-TTg dated October 28, 2021). Of note, on March 22, 2024, Vietnam Social Security and the Ministry of Public Security agreed to introduce a co-ordiation process for the implementation of cashless payment for retiring allowance, and social insurance benefits on the National Population Database. The practice aims to ensure that the data of the beneficiaries of retiring allowance and social insurance benefits is synchronised and regularly updated with the population database, thus enhancing accuracy and ensuring that payments are made to the right persons. It is a step towards reducing and simplifying administrative procedures and paperwork.

Medical examination and treatment services using chip-based ID cards bring many benefits to participants

Fourth, complete the ecosystem to serve the connection, exploitation and enrichment of population data: Vietnam Social Security is the first body to successfully connect with the National Population Database soon after it was officially put into operation. Up to now, the system of Vietnam Social Security has verified demographic information of more than 96.8 million people in the National Insurance Database with the National Population Database, including that of 86.9 million social insurance, health insurance and unemployment insurance participants, accounting for 97.8 per cent of the total participants (excluding armed forces and military personnel’s relatives), which helps enhance the accuracy of information and data. This is the crucial foundation for the provision of services and utilities for participants and beneficiaries of social insurance, health insurance and unemployment insurance policies on the National Population Database, which helps cut many administrative procedures, facilitating the people and businesses.

Additionally, with the coordination and assistance from the Ministry of Public Security, Vietnam Social Security connected technically and enabled the users of VssID to use their National Electronic Identification accounts provided by the Ministry of Public Security to log in to and use the VssID application since October 2023. Statistics show that there have been more than 10 million uses of VNeID accounts to log in to the VssID application.  The move has offered more options for the people in using information and health insurance card to perform online public services designed for individuals in the VssID application.

Fifth, complete the instruction system to better serve participants: Currently, Vietnam Social Security has been vigorously implementing and operating the Information Technology system in the direction of the e-Government, aiming towards a digital government, with highly automated professional processes. The entire system of software and data is managed and operated centrally at the industry’s Data Centre. 

Non-cash payment of social insurance benefits and unemployment allowance is a huge advantage

Vietnam Social Security is operating the Centralised Data Centre (Main Data Centre, along with a Backup Data and Disaster Recovery Centre) and maintains information security for 28 application systems for professional practices, ensuring that 100 per cent professional practices of the industry is performed on applications; 100 per cent of the industry’s officers, civil servants and labourers is identified and provided with digital signatures for the management and settlement of works related; 100 per cent of direction and management and internal administration works of Vietnam Social Security is carried out via the Document Management and Operation System (Eoffice);  100 per cent of documents exchanged among bodies are conducted electronically, and digitally signed by the speicalised digital signature issued by the Government Cipher Committee; and 100 per cent of dossiers and documents are compiled, archived and shared electronically according to regulations. Additionally, to better serve people in the use of health insurance-based medical examination and treatment, Vietnam Social Security has developed and operated the Medical Claim Review System.

Now, the system has connected with 13,000 healthcare facilities nationwide to receive data for proposed payment of health insurance-based medical costs; over 621,000 units and businesses have carried out electronic transactions with social security offices, which helps businesses save time and costs and facilitate the implementation of administrative procedures related to social insurance, health insurance and unemployment insurance./.