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As the General Secretary of ASSA 2018-19, Deputy Director General of Viet Nam Social Security (VSS) Dao Viet Anh said that is not the first time that VSS has assumed the position of ASSA Chair. However, the 2018-19 tenure is of special significance as it also marked the 20th anniversary of ASSA.

Therefore, when it took the chair of ASSA for the second time, VSS expected to leave a great impression through intra-regional activities. This is clearly demonstrated through the success of ASSA 35 in the central coastal province of Khanh Hoa’s Nha Trang City, Viet Nam. Of note, at ASSA 35, VSS proposed the approval of the ASSA Joint Statement and the adoption of an ASSA Action Plan to implement the Joint Statement, in other words, to strongly realise the document’s contents to which member organisations had committed. It should be noted that the ASSA Joint Statement is valuable as an operational platform demonstrating a long-term vision for ASSA’s activities in general and those of its member organisations in particular.

To mark 20 years of establishment and development, VSS, as ASSA Chair, presided over the compilation and issuing of a publication entitled “ASSA: 20 years of development”. Previously, during board meetings only a publication called “ASSA news” was issued with content focusing mainly on each particular meeting. The publication “ASSA: 20 years of development”, is considered a special publication by almost every member organisation of ASSA.

“ASSA: 20 years of development” contains all general information about socio-economic situations, especially social security in the ASEAN region; as well as information about the establishment, development, management scope, number of  insurance participants, and insurance regimes, of member organisations. With more than 100 pages, “ASSA: 20 years of development” partly depicts an overview of social security in Southeast Asian nations. The publication not only provides information, it is believed to have scientific value and be helpful for researchers, managers, and policy makers in countries all over the world.

VSS Deputy Director General Dao Viet Anh also noted that as ASSA Chair for the 2018-19 tenure, VSS proposed topics which concentrated on issues closely related to social security in the new development trend, such as technology, impacts of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), labour mobility, communications, social security governance, among others, so member organisations could table discussions and analyses of difficulties and challenges, which helped share experience and boost cooperation.

These were presented through themes of ASSA 35, ASSA 36 and international conferences held by VSS during the 2018-19 tenure, which were evaluated as practical and topical in the current development of social security by ASSA member organisations./.