Vietnam Social Security and the Korean National Pension Service: Enhancing development cooperation

28/11/2019 07:05 PM


In the morning of November 28th, in Seoul (South Korea), Deputy Minister, General Director of Vietnam Social Security Nguyen Thi Minh had a meeting with Mr. Sung Joo Kim - Chairman and CEO of the Korean National Pension Service (NPS).

Attending the meeting were Mr. Kim Jung Hu - Director of NPS Center for International Cooperation and Experts. On the side of Vietnam Social Security, there is Mr. Nguyen Tien Thanh - Director of International Cooperation Department and leader of Social Insurance Newspaper.

Welcoming the visit of the General Director of Vietnam Social Security, Mr. Sung Joo Kim - President and CEO of NPS said: NPS has been established 32 years so far. In the beginning, NPS mainly conducted safe investment. However, in the past 20 years, they have reallocated investment items towards growth and sustainability.

Mr. Sung Joo Kim added, previously NPS's international investment markets were mainly in North America and Europe but now NPS wants to invest more in Asian markets, in which, NPS is exchanging in collaboration with SK Group to link investment in Vietnam.

Mr. Sung Joo Kim believes that Korea's experience will help Vietnam develop strongly in the near future. The two countries have many similarities in national history and so far, Vietnam is one of the two countries that Korea invested in the most.

Being grateful to the warm welcome of the National Pension Service of Korea as well as individual Mr. Sung Joo Kim, General Director of Vietnam Social Security Nguyen Thi Minh said: The social insurance fund in Vietnam is quite large; However, investment forms are not diverse. Vietnam Social Security wants to institutionalize the policy of changing and diversifying forms of investment on the basis of fund safety by cooperating and learning from other countries' experiences, including NPS.

“NPS is the third largest pension fund in the world with a diverse and effective investment and fund management system. We would like to approach you to learn from your experience in fund management and investment. We wish the team participating in the fund investment of Vietnam Social Security will be equipped with valuable knowledge and experience; At the same time, we hope  that there will be more cooperation in this field in 2020”- General Director Nguyen Thi Minh shared.

Recalling that Korean businesses come to Vietnam to invest heavily and the Korean Government is also very interested in signing a bilateral agreement on social insurance, General Director Nguyen Thi Minh said, Vietnam's Prime Minister is very concerned about this issue. He many times mentioned the responsibility of the two governments of the country to ensure social security for workers. Therefore, the two countries' progress towards signing an agreement on social insurance will be meaningful in terms of sharing and ensuring the rights of workers from one country working in other country.

General Director Nguyen Thi Minh desired, NPS helps Vietnam Social Security to develop long-term investment mechanisms and plans and gain the experience that NPS has accumulated to manage pension funds more effectively.

Currently, Vietnam Social Security has a database system for all people participating in social insurance and health insurance; as well as having successfully built the health insurance assessment information system, customer care system through the application of artificial intelligence, helping to solve about 60% of people's questions, etc.

At the proposal of General Director Nguyen Thi Minh, Mr. Sung Joo Kim stated: “NPS is fully capable to support Vietnam Social Security. Previously, when Korea supported Vietnam with small funds, it was only a short-term help, but now we will prioritize you with more comprehensive support. We will help Vietnam Social Security to organize human resource training courses for fund management from 6 months to 1 year. Before that, we also learned a lot from America, England,…”- Mr. Sung Joo Kim said.

On this occasion, General Director Nguyen Thi Minh cordially invited Mr. Sung Joo Kim and leaders, experts of NPS to visit Vietnam Social Security in 2020. Mr. Sung Joo Kim agreed and expressed his desire that the cooperation between the two sides will be developed to a new level.

According to Mr. Nguyen Tien Thanh - Director of International Cooperation Department (Vietnam Social Security), the bilateral agreement on social insurance between the two governments of Vietnam and Korea has negotiated until the fourth round. It is expected that after signing, the governments of the two countries will assign Vietnam Social Security and NPS to sign a Composition to implement the Agreement. Thus, Vietnam Social Security and NPS will still accompany in the long run ahead. “We look forward to receiving more support from NPS, especially in the field of training support, improving the quality of human resources in the field of management, fund investment and implementation of the Social Insurance Agreement."- Mr. Thanh said. /.

VSS