At the conference, Deputy Director of Vietnam Social Security Tran Dinh delivered a speech on promoting the universalisation of voluntary social security policies and solutions; and recommendations to the Vietnam Women’s Union.

Comprehensive financial development – improving the living standards for Vietnamese women

Opening the conference, Vice Chairwoman of the Vietnam Women’s Union Central Committee Do Thi Thu Thao said comprehensive finance is considered one of the key pillars in sustainable development and has attracted global attention.

Comprehensive financial development is aimed at increasing access to finance, particularly for vulnerable individuals, households and small businesses. Comprehensive financial development will help facilitate the effective earmarking and use of resources, contributing to poverty reduction and promoting economic development. More than 60 countries around the world have so far built and implemented financial inclusion strategies.

In Vietnam, socio-economic development and sustainable development strategies stressed the creation of equal opportunities for people to get access to development resources and benefit from fundamental services including financial services.

The gender equality between men and women is also demonstrated through access to the official financial system. For growth and development of the global economy, the International Financial Corporation (IFC) (2013) said when women proactively take part in the financial system, economic growth will be higher, inequality will be reduced and social welfare will increase. Therefore, in order to fulfil the goals of raising people’s income and living standards, creating equal opportunities for people to get access to development resources and benefit from fundamental services, in 2020, the Government issued a national financial inclusion strategy until 2025 with a vision to 2030.

The strategy has three important parts: Diversified financial products and services; innovated distribution channels with the application of information technology protecting financial consumers; and enhancing financial literacy. This is an important milestone promoting the drastic and responsible participation of the political system, relevant ministries and sectors, service providers and the Vietnamese people.

Implementing the national financial inclusion strategy, over the past years, the Vietnam Women’s Union has creatively and proactively implemented many financial education activities, carried out surveys on women’s access to finance and connected with development service providers.

With the goal of “Improving women’s financial knowledge and capacity, getting access to and using financial products and services safely and comfortably in line with their demands with reasonable prices provided by legal and sustainable financial institutions”, the Vietnam Women’s Union has implemented the strategy with the following targets:  

Firstly, improving financial knowledge and capacity, helping women have knowledge and skills in choosing and using financial products and services as well as managing personal, household or business finances effectively, reasonably and safely.

Secondly, connecting with financial and non-financial services providers to increase women’s possibility to get access to finance.

Thirdly, improving quality of the construction, proposal and supervision of the implementation of finance-related regulations that have impacts on women, poor households and near-poor households.

Fourthly, improving capacity and developing the system of micro financial programs and organisations of the Vietnam Women’s Union at all levels which will operate professionally, safely, effectively and sustainably. 

According to Thao, this is just one issue relating to the responsibility, functions and tasks of the Vietnam Women’s Union. The conference is expected to offer solutions to promote financial inclusion as well as increase women’s understanding about finance in the future.

Solutions to promote the implementation of financial inclusion

Speaking at the conference, Director of the Institute of Banking Strategy under the State Bank of Vietnam Nguyen Thi Hoa, said the Prime Minister on January 22, 2020 approved the national strategy on financial inclusion until 2025 with a vision to 2030, including the promotion of financial inclusion.

In order to promote financial inclusion following the Government’s spirit, Hoa suggested the completion of a legal foundation; diversification of financial products and service providers and distributors; diversification of fundamental financial products and services; completion and increased efficiency in using financial infrastructure; promotion of financial education and protecting financial consumers and other solutions such as enhancing information dissemination about the role and meaning of financial inclusion, building and implementing human resource training programmes at management agencies and financial service providers about financial inclusion in Vietnam.

Nguyen Thi Thu Hien, a member of the Vietnam Women’s Union and Director General of Tinh Thuong Ltd. Co. – a micro financial institution – said improving financial understanding for people in general and women in particular was important to successfully implementing the national strategy on financial inclusion.

But how to improve their understanding needs further study and effective implementation, she said.

The company has focused on developing financial education activities, providing savings products for poor women and low-income women in order to promote financial inclusion for women. Financial education programmes provided women with related knowledge, helping them to improve their families’ economy and raise their social position. Financial education has so far helped to raise financial awareness of 80,000 women. Through the organisation of these programmes, it can be said that financial education for women brings many practical benefits, helping management agencies and financial institutions get better access to people from all walks of life as part of the target to universalise financial education set by the national strategy on financial inclusion.

Women often face challenges in getting access to finance in general and financial products in particular, particularly women in rural areas. According to Director of the Department of Individual and Household Customers under the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development Linh Duc Hoang, micro financial development is one positive solution to develop financial inclusion. Micro finance helps people generate incomes and improve their living conditions, which have a great meaning for women when the rate of females in Vietnam accounts for over 50 percent of the total population and women have become a leading force in the industrialisation and modernisation process, as well as the country’s international integration. Micro financial operations target low-income households by providing them with small loans to help them take part in production activities or start small businesses. Therefore, enhancing the efficiency of credit investment and provision of banking services will help improve micro financial capacity for rural women as set in the national strategy on financial inclusion.

Women have the rights to benefit from humane and preeminent social security policies

The scope of the national strategy on financial inclusion target includes the universalisation of basic financial products and services provided by legal financial institutions, including social and health insurance, particularly voluntary social insurance and household health insurance.

Deputy Director General of Vietnam Social Security Tran Dinh Lieu said on November 22, 2012, the Politburo issued a Resolution No 21-NQ/TW on strengthening Party leadership over social and health insurance during the 2012-20 period and on May 23, 2018, the seventh session of the 12th Party Central Committee issued Resolution  No 28-NQ/TW on reforming social insurance policies, both affirming that social and health insurance are two important social policies and a key pillar of the social security system, contributing to social equity and progress, ensuring a stable life for people, social-political stability and sustainable development of the country.

Social and health insurance are developed in parallel with other social services, meeting the increasing demand of people, creating favorable conditions for people to join and fully benefit from social and health insurance policies.

The resolutions of the Party Central Committee and the Politburo set targets to expand social and health insurance to the whole population, set tasks and put forward effective solutions to fulfill targets for each period in order to help all people benefit from these humane and preeminent policies.

Stressing the role of women in society and families, Deputy Director General Lieu said women have the right to fully benefit from the social security policies of the Party and State, particularly social and health insurance policies. However, in reality, many women and people still fail to get access to social and health insurance, particularly voluntary social insurance. Vietnam Social Security has promoted the role of the Vietnam Women’s Union and actively coordinated to boost information dissemination to raise officials and union members’ awareness.

During the 2015-20 period, over 8,000 workshops, training sessions and dialogues were held, helping officials and members understand more about the role, meaning, rights and interests of social and health insurance policies, particularly voluntary social insurance and household health insurance. 

In order to fulfill the target of expanding social insurance coverage to the whole population and promoting financial inclusion, Deputy Director General Lieu proposed the Vietnam Women’s Union continue upholding its role in information dissemination and mobilisation to develop voluntary social insurance and raise public awareness of social and health insurance policies.

Initially, it is necessary to encourage members of the women’s union to register to take part in voluntary social insurance to set an example for their communities; promoting the role of the union’s officials in mobilising other members to join social insurance; and coordinate with other agencies to propose and supplement social insurance policies to ensure the legitimate interests of women.

Closing the conference, Vice Chairwoman of the Vietnam Women’s Union Do Thi Thu Thao said the Vietnam Women’s Union Central Committee will collect ideas about promoting economic inclusion, determining to bring in comfortable, safe and appropriate financial services for people, particularly women in rural, remote and mountainous areas, contributing to ensuring social security and sustainable poverty reduction./.