Lieu said, at a conference to summarise emulation and reward work last year and issue plans for this year, held on January 10 in the northern province of Nam Dinh, that the offices had to make more efforts as there would be many difficulties and challenges this year.

The offices were also ordered to improve the quality of emulation and reward work to ensure openness and transparency, he said.

Only when we improved the quality of emulation and reward work, could we arouse the creative spirit, motivation and desire of employees to contribute to the offices. Employees of the offices must follow regulations but be flexible when on duty, he said.

He also highly appreciated the results that the offices had achieved last year, especially in terms of always ensuring social and health insurance revenue.

Achievements

Speaking at the conference, Tran Van Dzung, Director of Social Security Office of Nam Dinh Province, and representative of the cluster, said the social security offices of the cluster had closely followed the assigned tasks last year, effectively implemented emulation movements with diverse and practical content and forms, contributing to promoting the excellent completion of the assigned tasks.

 Participants at the conference on January 10 in the northern province of Nam Dinh

By the end of December 2023, the cluster had 1,733,185 people participating in compulsory social insurance, reaching 100.05 per cent of the assigned task. The offices, consisting of Social Security Office of Nam Dinh Province, Social Security Office of Hai Duong Province, and Social Security Office of Ninh Binh Province, achieved higher results compared to the assigned plan.

The cluster received 228,422 people participating in voluntary social insurance, reaching 100.57 per cent of the assigned task. The offices, consisting of Social Security Office of Hai Duong Province, Social Security Office of Hai Phong City, and Social Security Office of Ninh Binh Province, gained higher results compared to the assigned plan.

Regarding the number of people participating in health insurance, the cluster has 9,303,536 people participating in health insurance, reaching 99.26 per cent of the assigned plan.

Some offices achieved high coverage rate of health insurance, such as Social Security Office of Quang Ninh Province, Social Security Office of Ninh Binh Province, and Social Security Office of Nam Dinh Province.

The cluster’s offices had conducted inspections in accordance with the Prime Minister's direction in Directive No 20/CT-TTg in May 17, 2017 and guiding documents of Viet Nam Social Security to ensure the rights of employees last year.

Through the inspections, violations were promptly detected and handled, and at the same time, the offices also disseminated on rights, responsibilities and obligations of employers and employees in implementing policies on social, unemployment and health insurance.

Moreover, the offices simplified administrative procedures, running administrative procedures on the electronic information portals and at the headquarters of the offices.

The cluster’s emulation and reward work obtained the results thanks to the attention and direction of the Viet Nam Social Security Office. The emulation movements were actively participated in and responded to by a large number of civil servants and employees.

The offices’ Emulation and Reward Councils were assessed to effectively promote their roles and responsibilities in advising on organising and implementing emulation and reward work.

The reward work had been carried out promptly and transparently, encouraging all officials, civil servants and employees to participate and complete assigned tasks.

Challenges and solutions

Viet Nam Social Security Deputy Director General Tran Dinh Lieu delivers his speech at the conference on January 10 in the northern province of Nam Dinh

According to Dzung, however, the development of voluntary social insurance participants in some offices was believed to be not commensurate with the local potential and failed to meet the targeted plans.

The number of emulation movements was quite low; the selection and introduction of advanced examples for replication were infrequent.

The number of initiatives in emulation movements was few. The organisation of learning and experience exchange activities in the cluster had not yet been implemented.

Dzung also said these limitations were partly caused by a very complicated and unpredictable global situation, such as the Russian-Ukraine’s conflict, the conflict in the Gaza Strip, strategic competition among big countries were increasingly harsh, the global economy was growing slowly.

All of them had negative impacts on the production and business activities of enterprises, leading to workers being underemployed, people's income decreasing, directly affecting the target of developing participants of social, health and unemployment insurance as well as collecting debts of social, health and unemployment insurance from the enterprises.

Therefore, the cluster will strengthen dissemination of emulation following the ideology of President Ho Chi Minh in the spirit of Conclusion No 01-KL/TW, issued on May 18, 2021 of the Politburo, on continuing to implement Directive 05-CT/TW of the Politburo on studying and following Ho Chi Minh's ideology, ethics, and lifestyle, in order to fix the shortcomings, he said.

The cluster also plans to launch emulation movements with practical content, arousing the sense of self-awareness, responsibility and creative potential of groups and individuals, creating a driving force for determination to complete and exceed the assigned targets and tasks this year.

It will boost training to improve awareness and professional skills for officials, civil servants and public employees working on emulation and commendation; promote the proposal of solutions, initiatives, and application of information technology in emulation and reward work and reform administrative procedures; promptly request competent authorities to praise and reward groups and individuals with outstanding achievements in emulation movements, and strictly handle groups and individuals causing delays and inefficiencies in the emulation movements.