Attendants include: General Secretary of International Social Security Association (ISSA) Marcelo Caetano; Director of the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Vietnam Chang Hee Lee; Chief Representative of World Health Organization (WHO) in Vietnam Kidong Park; World Bank Representative in Vietnam Keiko Inoue; Director of Cambodia National Social Security Fund Ouk Samvithyea - Vice President of ASEAN Social Security Association (ASSA); Representatives of Embassies of some countries in Vietnam. On the Vietnam Social Security side, there were Deputy General Directors: Nguyen Dinh Khuong, Tran Dinh Lieu, Dao Viet Anh, Le Hung Son; leaders of  units; Social insurance representatives of provinces and cities in Hanoi, Bac Ninh and Thai Nguyen.

Strengthening cooperation and learning from experience

In the opening speech, Deputy Minister and General Director Nguyen Thi Minh welcomed the Secretary General Marcelo Caetano for the first time to visit and work in Vietnam; with leaders and representatives of international organizations in Vietnam.

General Director Nguyen Thi Minh emphasized that 2020 is a very important year for Vietnam for holding the role of ASEAN Chair 2020 and non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the term of 2020 - 2021. These are regional and global multilateral responsibilities that demonstrate the trust and expectations of international friends for Vietnam.

Deputy Minister, General Director of Vietnam Social Security Nguyen Thi Minh speaks at the conference

For Vietnam Social Security, 2020 marks 25 years of construction and development; 5 years of officially joining ISSA. On that way, Vietnam Social Security has always received the support and companionship of international organizations, especially ILO, WHO, WB, ASSA and ISSA to achieve great results on contributing to the improvement of the legal policy system on social insurance and health insurance; increasing the coverage of social insurance and health insurance; fund management, investment, IT application, administrative reform, implementation of electronic transactions, building of national databases, etc. In particular, the electronic health insurance assessment system connected to 100% of medical examination and treatment facilities carries out the automatic assessment of health insurance expenses to help manage and use the health insurance fund publicly, transparently and effectively. This is also the work of Vietnam Social Security which has been awarded the 2018 Global IT Application Award by ISSA.

However, besides the achievements and results, Vietnam Social Security is also facing many difficulties and challenges in management when the number of participants is increasing; when there are risks in fund investment; communication work in new conditions; multimedia interaction and artificial intelligence systems building; the quality of human resources needs improvement to meet increasingly high job requirements, etc.

“Therefore, we look forward to continuing to receive the support of international organizations to develop a sustainable social security system that is suitable to Vietnam's conditions to increase our ability to adapt to the improvement process of social security in the world, better responding to the strong impacts of globalization, population aging and the Industrial Revolution 4.0.”- General Director Nguyen Thi Minh said.

Solutions for sustainable social security development

At the seminar, ISSA Secretary General Marcelo Caetano shared about the challenges of social security systems in the world. According to him, there are currently 10 biggest challenges: (1) the inequality gap between access to social security among target groups; (2) ensuring adequate social security systems for the life of workers; (3) aging population; (4) unemployment of young workers; (5) the impact of the digital economy and the Internet on social and labor market structure; (6) health care needs of chronic diseases; (7) natural fluctuations, climate change, epidemics; (8) migrants and migrant workers; (9) technological development poses challenges in governance; (10) increasing public demand for quality of service.

General Secretary of the International Social Security Association (ISSA) Marcelo Caetano shared at the seminar

“These are ISSA studies and observations on a global scale. However, for each region and country, challenging levels of these factors are different. For the Asia-Pacific region, including Vietnam, there are currently 4 biggest challenges that social security agencies need to address and resolve.” - said Mr. Marcelo Caetano.

Specifically, according to him, for Asia - Pacific, the first challenge is the huge inequality gap in access to social security among the target groups. Currently, social insurance coverage for the elderly is just over 50%, 16.4% for vulnerable people and people with severe disabilities get below 10% only. To address this issue, the Secretary-General of the ISSA recommends: Social security organizations need to be innovative and creative in designing and implementing regimes and policies; seek solutions to enhance accessibility for official workers; carry out IT applications and communication enhancement.

The second challenge is the health care needs of chronic diseases. Currently, the out-of-pocket spending on health of people in this area remains high; meanwhile chronic and non-infectious diseases such as diabetes and hypertension have a rapid increase. To address this problem, the Secretary-General of the ISSA recommends: Strengthening support for primary care and community care; reducing financial burden and other barriers to health care; strengthening long-term care models.

The third challenge is the increasing expectation of people from the quality of service. According to the study, 38% of people in Asia - Pacific prefer to use digital technology in the enjoyment of social security policies (higher than 25% for global scale). The Secretary-General of the ISSA recommends: Organizations should be concerned about this hobby of the people; enhance the application of electronic and mobile technologies to improve service efficiency.

The fourth challenge is the problem of population aging when currently, the number of people over 65 in the Asia-Pacific region accounts for 50% of the global population. This shows that the population aging rate in this area is increasing rapidly. It is forecasted that the number of people over 65 in Asia-Pacific will increase from 500 million in 2015 to over 1 billion in 2050. Regarding solutions, Secretary General of ISSA recommends: Increasing the number of beneficiaries retirement and long-term care services; supporting the working capacity of the elderly; besides, ensuring a sustainable social insurance fund on the principle of contributing – benefiting, etc.

Panoramic image of the conference

Sharing the same ideas and discussions at the conference, the representatives of the International Labor Organization (ILO) recommended that the Government and Vietnam Social Security should continue to implement synchronous solutions to build a sustainable social security system. In particular, it is necessary to increase the coverage of social insurance and health insurance with a multi-tier social security system, especially the informal labor group; strengthen the connection between the social insurance pension regime and non-contribution social pension (social assistance); enhance compliance with social security inspections and coordination; reform procedures and friendly regulations towards participants; ensure quality medical services are accessible and available at all levels, including facilities; strengthen and innovate communication activities towards all participants, etc.

At the seminar, the representatives of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank also discussed and made recommendations for the Government and Vietnam Social Security in building a sustainable social security system. Concluding the seminar, Deputy General Director of Vietnam Social Security Dao Viet Anh assessed that the opinions and comments of international organizations and experts were very practical to Vietnam Social Security in implementing social insurance and health insurance policies. From researches and lessons learned in the world, Vietnam Social Security now has more solutions and plans to cope with current difficulties and challenges. Deputy General Director Dao Viet Anh hopes that in the coming time, Vietnam Social Security will continue to receive the cooperation and support from international organizations and experts to build a social insurance industry that is more developed, professional and modern and meets the satisfaction of participants./.