The Vietnam Social Security (VSS) is aware of the necessity of promoting external information to enhance awareness about and create consensus on international integration while developing effective and sustainable relations with multinational social security organisations in the region and around the world.

Fundamental changes

A number of legal documents on external information were promulgated by the Party and Government in 2013-2017, contributing to the improvement of State management efficiency and coordination between ministries, departments and localities in the field.

To implement the external information service, the VSS issued an action plan for 2013-2020 (Decision 813/QD-BHXH dated July 23, 2013), to raise public awareness of the Party and State’s policies on social insurance, health insurance and VSS activities abroad.

The VSS has been improving the management and implementation of external information to realise targets in the sector’s development strategies. After the Prime Minister signed Decision 146/QD-TTg approving the international integration strategy for the social security sector through 2020 with a vision to 2030 on January 20, 2016, the VSS promulgated Plan 3635/KH-BHXH on September 21 the same year to implement the strategy.

The VSS also issued Decision 625/QD-BHXH on April 22, 2016, stipulating the management of external activities of the VSS. The Party Committee of the VSS issued Resolution 96/NQ-BCS on reforming and improving the quality and efficiency of communication work of social insurance and health insurance on August 24, 2017 and Plan 135-KH/BCS on October 12, 2017 on implementing this Resolution.

The year 2017 marked fundamental changes in the sector’s external information service with the building of a contingent of specialised staff, diversification of activities and the application of information-technology and modern means, especially the internet, broadcasting and television, to step up communication campaigns on integration, thus enhancing social awareness about the work of the insurance sector.

Vice Minister and VSS Director General Nguyen Thi Minh, Deputy Director Generals Nguyen Dinh Khuong and Dao Viet Anh, along with representatives from the Communication Centre and the International Relations Department launch the English language version of the Vietnam Social Security portal 

(Source: Viet Nam Social Security)

The VSS has paid attention to raising its employees’ awareness of external information service while updating them on achievements and shortcomings in the work. It has worked with the Foreign Ministry to hold annual training courses so as to provide its staff with information about external information work, international conventions and agreements, and Vietnam’s integration experience, and to improve their skills in handling external relations. VSS employees have also been given opportunities to take part in training courses on external relations, protocol, journalism and translation.

Forms and content of training, including training in English, presentation skills, and translation, have been diversified. VSS has also worked with Japanese experts to provide training in work morality, skills and behaviour culture for its staff, especially those working at the one-stop section who regularly come into contact with people and businesses.

Communications serving external relations have received special attention and recorded fundamental changes in recent years. On the basis of external information service plans, VSS has produced short films introducing the social insurance sector to foreign partners along with TV reports on social and health insurance to overseas Vietnamese and foreigners working in Vietnam. It has also provided publications serving external information work, bilingual Vietnamese-English books on VSS and leaflets on social and health insurance policies for businesses.

VSS has also held annual dialogues on the implementation of social, health and unemployment insurance policies with foreign-invested businesses and FDI business associations. In August 2017, VSS opened the English version of its website on a trial basis. The English version is an important tool to give information and contact with foreign social security organisations, foreigners working in Vietnam and overseas Vietnamese. Additionally, the Vietnamese version of the website has continued to be developed and updated. The application of information technology has also been enhanced in external information work.

Active, effective contribution to regional, international forums

The popularisation of Vietnam and VSS has been promoted through active participation in and effective contributions to regional and international multilateral cooperation forums such as ASEAN Social Security Association (ASSA), International Social Security Association (ISSA), Asian Workers’ Compensation Forum (AWCF), and Pacific Pension & Investment Institute (PPI). The VSS has also expanded bilateral cooperation with partners from the Republic of Korea, Japan, France, the UK, Germany, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, the US, and Laos and domestic and foreign multilateral organisations in social security.

The VSS has provided information to guide the public in the implementation of social, health and unemployment insurance policies, equipping people with necessary knowledge to protect their rights and interests regarding social, health and unemployment insurance.

The VSS has also played an active role in refuting distorted and wrong information that aims to sabotage national development and defence and damage the sector’s prestige.

VSS delegates take part in the 34th meeting of the ASEAN Social Security Association (ASSA) in Udon Thani (Thailand) (Source: Viet Nam Social Security)

The VSS has also held monthly meetings to provide information about social, health and unemployment insurance for the mass media, helping to win support for the sector’s activities.

VSS chapters have paid more attention to external information service. They also worked with provincial People’s Committees, departments, agencies, mass organisations and the media to conduct external information work in combination with raising public awareness of legal regulations on social and health insurance. The chapters also work to promote the sector through local socio-cultural activities. Several units assisted VSS’s international partners in conducting the project and offering technical support in localities.

Continuing to diversify information work for external relations

In the near future, the VSS will continue to promote external information work in an active and responsible manner with the following key tasks: 

- Continuing to effectively implement the government’s Decree No.72/2015/ND-CP on managing external information work, the Resolution No.96/NQ-BCS dated August 24, 2017 of the VSS’s Party Committee on renovating and improving the efficiency of information work regarding social and health insurance and the Plan No.135-KH/BCS dated October 12, 2017 for the enforcement of the Resolution No.96/NQ-BCS.

- Outlining long-term orientations for the VSS’s external information work based on the results of the relevant medium-term effort to enhance the effectiveness of promotion of the sector’s role and introduce its achievements to the international community.

- Increasing coordination between centrally-run agencies and VSS’s provincial chapters in external information work in line with the approved annual plan, and allocating adequate funding for external information work in VSS and provincial chapters.

- Strengthening human resources for external information work, with all provincial chapters having specialised officials. The Department of International Cooperation will be responsible for the work in the sector. It will also establish a network to share information at home and abroad, as well as reinforce ties with representative Vietnamese agencies overseas.

- Holding training courses on external information work skills, disseminating the Party and State’s new policies to raise officials and cadres’ awareness of external information work’s strategy and role in the sector, and improving personnel capacity to meet requirements for global integration.

- Diversifying forms of external information work to ensure the connection between internal and external information, paying more attention to the provision of information to correct distorted information by domestic and foreign individuals and organisations.

- Strengthening and modernising communication media and stepping up IT application in external information work and enhancing information security work.

International Cooperation Department