It has been 46 years since tank number 390 of the Vietnam People's Army moved forward to knock down the main gate of the Independence Palace. At 11:30am on April 30, 1975, the liberation flag flew over Saigon (now called HCM City), marking an important milestone in the history of the country, opening a new era for our nation: independence and striving for socialism.

The Great Spring Victory in 1975 was the result of great national solidarity, patriotic tradition and strong will under the leadership of our Party. The great historical value of the victory will forever be a great spiritual legacy, the driving force for the entire Party, people, army and the political system to promote internal strength and self-reliance to obtain achievements in the Doi Moi (Reform) process.

One of our goals is to strive for economic growth; maintain political and social stability, national defence, security; and develop socio-culture. The work of building the Party, building a socialist rule-of-law State and the political system has been strengthened. International relations are increasingly expanded and deepened. Vietnam's position and reputation in the international arena has been improved.

Inheriting from historical values

In our country, the social insurance system was formed very early, with the aim to ensure social security and effectively serve the requirements of the wars and the process of building and defending the country.

The 1946 Vietnamese Constitution recognised important provisions on social security, creating an important legal basis for the formation of a system of regulations and policies on social security. Article 14 of the Constitution notes that the citizens who are old or disabled and cannot do their jobs should receive assistance. Children are also cared for in terms of their education.

For the first time, social security is recognised in the highest legal document - the Constitution - and for the first time Vietnamese citizens are recognised with very important rights in the social security field.

The 1991 Platform, amended in 2011, also affirms the need to develop and implement a social security policy. The 2013 Constitution stipulates the norms of social security: "Citizens have the right to have their social security benefits ensured." (Article 34). “Citizens have the right to work, to choose their profession, job and place of residence; Employees are guaranteed with fair and safe working conditions and salary, resting mechanisms,” (Article 35).

On the basis of constitutional provisions and principles of the 2013 Vietnamese Constitution, the laws on labour, employment and social security have reflected the spirit of the Constitution.

Since 1986, Vietnam renovated its economy and switched to a market economy, which required relevant changes of the social security system.

The 1992 Constitution clearly stated: "The State implements the social insurance regime for State employees, and encourages the development of other forms of social insurance for employees". The document of the 7th Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam said the social insurance policy should be renewed so that all employees and economic units of all economic sectors are obliged to contribute to social insurance and the social insurance fund should be separated from the budget.

The eighth Party Congress document also mentioned expanding the social insurance regime for employees of all economic sectors.

Social security continued to be highlighted in the documents of the subsequent Party congresses.

On November 22, 2012, the Politburo issued Resolution No 21-NQ/TW on strengthening the Party's leadership in social insurance and health insurance for the 2012-20 period.

The Resolution continued to affirm that social insurance and health insurance are two social policies contributing to the implementation of social progress and equity, ensuring political stability and boosting socio-economic development.

On May 23, 2018, the 7th Conference of the 12^th Party Central Committee issued Resolution No 28-NQ/TW on reforming the social insurance policy with the aim “to make social insurance a main pillar of the social security system, step by step steadily expand the coverage of social insurance, towards the goal of universal social insurance coverage, and to develop a flexible, diversified, multilayer, modern social insurance system, looking towards international integration”. These are important orientations, serving as the foundation for the sustainable development of the social and health insurance system in general and the Vietnam Social Security in particular.

Positive numbers recorded

Vietnam Social Security (VSS) was established in 1995. Over the past 26 years, the agency has been assigned important tasks by the Party and the State.

Thanks to the efforts of VSS staff, the sector has obtained great achievements, especially in the fight against COVID-19 and natural disasters.

The VSS has worked with relevant agencies to assist people and businesses affected by the pandemic, take measures to reduce insurance debts as well as to reform administrative procedures.

The number of social insurance card holders nationwide has reached more than 16.1 million people, accounting for 32.8 per cent of people of working age.

Almost 88 million people participate in the health insurance scheme, covering more than 90 per cent of the population, exceeding the quota assigned by the Prime Minister.

The number of people participating in unemployment insurance is estimated at more than 13.3 million, covering about 27 per cent of the workforce. This is an increase of nearly 3 million people compared to the statistics recorded in 2015.

In 2020, the VSS resolved more than 133,800 dossiers of monthly pension and social insurance benefits, bringing the total number of people enjoying the monthly pension or social insurance allowance to about 3.2 million.

More than 876,700 people received lump-sum allowances and nearly 9.7 million enjoyed the benefits of sickness, maternity, convalescence and health rehabilitation.

Key tasks

Inheriting the historical values of the Great Spring Victory in 1975, the VSS has strived to achieve greater results with nine key tasks put forward.

One of the key tasks is to have 17.54 million people participating in social insurance by 2021, covering 35.2 per cent of people of working age, exceeding 0.2 per cent over the assigned task.

It aims to have 14.2 million people joining the unemployment insurance scheme by 2021, covering 28.5 per cent of people of working age, exceeding 0.5 per cent over the assigned task.

By this year, it is also expected to have 89.38 million people holding health insurance cards, covering 91.56 per cent of the population.

The second task is to issue plans to implement the Government's resolutions on socio-economic development, State budget estimate and solutions to improve the business environment and improve national competitiveness in 2021.

The third task is to disseminate insurance laws and policies to people in different social groups, focusing on potential groups that can join voluntary social insurance and household health insurance; at the same time, introduce new version of health insurance cards and digital social insurance app VssID.

The VSS plans to accelerate administrative procedures, aiming at providing public services at levels 3 and 4 at the national public service portal.

Other tasks include upgrading the national database on insurance and streamlining its apparatus./.