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Before 2021, the IMF primarily supported the Viet Nam government with policy advice and technical assistance in the areas of finance, banking, and monetary and foreign exchange policies. Specifically, twice a year, the IMF regularly sent Article IV working groups to Viet Nam to meet with the Government agencies and financial institutions to assess the macroeconomic, fiscal, monetary, and banking situation in the preceding period and its prospects for the future, in order to provide appropriate policy recommendations to the Viet Nam Government.

Since 2021, Viet Nam Social Security (VSS) has proactively and actively engaged in exchanges with the IMF to connect and support VSS in effectively implementing key tasks related to expanding social insurance coverage, administrative procedure reform, digital transformation, fund investment, communication, and forecasting social insurance fund balances... In particular, VSS and IMF are currently collaborating on the project " Building, transferring, and training on pension calculation models for VSS." From 2023 to the end of 2024, the IMF actively supported VSS in building and transferring social insurance fund forecasting models and training in their use, enhancing the capacity of VSS experts to independently build and adjust models for management and forecasting purposes, as well as contributing to improving VSS's policy-making advisory capacity. Through two phases of cooperation between the two agencies, VSS officials have gained access to the techniques for building and using input data for the model, starting from the most basic level.

Building upon and developing the results of the previous two phases of the project, VSS and the IMF continue to maintain and expand their partnership, while simultaneously implementing Phase III of the project to finalize, operate, and transfer the pension fund calculation model. To enhance the capacity of VSS staff in long-term pension modeling, the IMF organized a direct training course for VSS staff from April 1-3, 2024, at the VSS headquarters. The training aimed to equip VSS staff with advanced Excel skills related to databases, Power Pivot, and especially basic Python programming knowledge to effectively implement Phase III of the project. The three-day training course yielded significant results for VSS officials directly involved in systematizing large amounts of input data to build and operate a model for calculating pension fund balances that Excel or traditional software could not handle. At the end of the course, VSS officials expressed a desire to continue participating in subsequent training programs to update, operate, and apply advanced knowledge in the future.

Python is a versatile, easy-to-learn, high-level programming language with a clean syntax, most popular in AI, data science, and web development. It's free, open-source, works on all platforms, and is ideal for beginners, supporting many programming paradigms. With the trend towards "data-driven" solutions, especially for large datasets like "Big Data" related to beneficiaries, participants in social insurance, and social insurance revenue and expenditure - such as VSS - Python has expanded its scope and become a powerful tool for data processing and analysis for a wider range of users. Beyond being a favorite language of programmers, Python is becoming increasingly popular among office workers and HR professionals across various fields, particularly in data analysis and computation roles. Python helps users save time and increase efficiency in tasks such as processing large datasets, compiling statistics, creating reports, and analysis, thanks to the following characteristics: Python has a simple syntax, is close to natural language, and is suitable for working professionals in many fields; Python is very flexible, capable of handling large datasets exceeding Excel's processing capabilities at extremely fast speeds for performing analysis, statistics, and visualization projects; and the strong development of the user community allows the use of specialized libraries to support data processing and visualization.

Similar to Python, Power Pivot in Excel is a data modeling technology that allows users to create data models, establish relationships, and perform calculations. With Power Pivot, users can work with large datasets, build extensive relationships, and perform complex (or simple) calculations, all within a high-performance environment and all within the familiar Excel experience.