1. Multilateral cooperation

Right in the early days after the ASSA was established, the VSS joined as an observer. On September 12, 1998, Vietnam became an official member of ASSA at the second executive board meeting held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Not long after joining the organisation, the VSS successfully hosted the third ASSA Executive Board Meeting in Hanoi on May 14, 1999.

On August 2, 2002, the VSS hosted the 10^th ASSA Executive Board Meeting in Ho Chi Minh City, thereby improving its stature and influence in the community of ASEAN social security organisations. Also at the meeting, the VSS accepted the role of ASSA Chair for the 2002-2003 tenure. During its first chair tenure, the VSS fulfilled its mission, including expanding ASSA via admitting two new members, which were the Social Security Organisation of Laos and Philippine Health Insurance Corporation, and welcoming observers outside ASEAN such as the Australian Department of Family and Community Services, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the International Social Security Association (ISSA).

On April 8, 2005, the VSS hosted the 15^th ASSA Executive Board Meeting in the central city of Da Nang.

On September 16, 2010, the VSS hosted the 26^th ASSA Executive Board Meeting in Hanoi. It built an agenda with the participation of 90 delegates from 21 member organisations of eight ASEAN member states, two observer organisations from Cambodia and Myanmar and foreign guests from the ILO, Germany and the Republic of Korea.

During 2010-2011 tenure, the VSS assumed the role of ASSA’s rotary Chair. During the tenure, the VSS devised an agenda of the association’s activities and chaired the 27^th ASSA Executive Board Meeting in Singapore in March 2011 and the 28^th ASSA Executive Board Meeting in October 2011 in Brunei. The VSS also presided over the reform of the frequency of ASSA annual meetings towards greater efficiency; enhanced cooperation among ASSA members and expanded the association. With efforts, goodwill and its prestige, the VSS actively pushed forward the admission of the National Social Security Funds for Cambodian officials and workers in private sector and the Social Security Board of Myanmar to the ASSA, thus fulfilling the goal of expanding ASSA to every ASEAN country in line with the association’s aspirations and orientations. Additionally, Mongolia and the Republic of Korea asked the VSS to serve as a bridge connecting them with ASSA, thus allowing their social security organisations to join activities within the association’s framework. The tenure was considered one of the important milestones marking the improvement of VSS’s external activities, contributing to strengthening the sector’s stature and expanding its influence on the international arena.

During ASSA executive board meetings, apart from acquiring feedback and experience from experts and colleagues from social security organisations in and outside ASEAN, the VSS actively contributed its opinions and shared experience in the implementation of social and health insurance policies in Vietnam. The VSS’s sharing of experience in collecting social insurance debts, carrying out health insurance policies was hailed by ASSA members as practical and valuable for reference.

With valuable documents and experience provided by ASSA member organisations, the VSS summed up international information and experience in inspection, social insurance card issuance, health insurance management, and sanction mechanism, to provide for agencies in and outside the insurance sector, thus contributing to improving professional procedures and management, and providing the foundation for refining laws on social and health insurance.

In order to realise the ASEAN Community in 2015, the VSS coordinated with member organisations to build a specific action programme to unceasingly improve the quality of social welfare services and ensure benefits and rights of health and social insurance participants. The exchange of delegations, participation in international seminars and sharing of experience have helped promote and create the prerequisite for the VSS and regional social security organisations to strengthen their operations, develop strongly and assist with the building of the Socio-Cultural Pillar in the ASEAN Community.

Recently, a VSS delegation led by Deputy General Director Dao Viet Anh attended the 3^4th  Board Meeting of the ASEAN Social Security Association (ASSA) in Udon Thani, Thailand. On this occasion, the VSS took over the ASSA Vice Chairmanship for 2018-2019, and the role of the host of the 35^th meeting and a ceremony to mark the 20^th founding anniversary of ASSA in Vietnam in 2018.

In general, the VSS has played an active role in ASSA, integrated deeply, affirmed its role and become a trust-worthy and prestigious partner of international friends. Such results have facilitated the VSS’s international cooperation.

2. Bilateral cooperation

The VSS has set up friendly, trustworthy and effective relations with other ASSA member organisations.

On July 25, 2011, the VSS signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on health insurance with the National Health Security Office (NHSO) of Thailand with a validity period of 10 years. The two agencies have regularly exchanged delegations of researchers and surveyors, including VSS delegations to Thailand in 2009 and 2012 to study the country’s unemployment insurance and payment methods, and health insurance management; and a delegation of Thai experts to Vietnam to exchange experience in packaged health insurance payment in 2010, and another delegation of the NHSO to share experience in all-people health insurance in 2011. In 2013, two high-ranking delegations of Thailand’s Social Security Office visited and had working sessions with the VSS in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to discuss preparations for the ASEAN Community in the field of social insurance. Besides, the VSS has taken a constructive part at regional and international forums and workshops held by Thailand.

Regarding cooperation with the Lao Social Security (LSS), the VSS supported the agency in hosting the ASSA Board Meeting, sent consultants and exchanged experience in management model and the implementation of social insurance policies in Laos. The VSS receives high-ranking delegations of the Lao Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare each year, the LSS and social security for public servants in Laos who want to study social and health insurance in Vietnam as well as funds for the VSS and social insurance in centrally-run cities and provinces of Vietnam. Within the framework of the meeting of the Vietnam-Laos Inter-Governmental Committee in 2015, Deputy Finance Minister and VSS General Director Nguyen Thi Minh and Lao Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Welfare Khamkeo Samboukhounxai signed an MoU on cooperation in building capacity for officials in charge of materialising social welfare policies for 2016-2020, creating a legal framework for collaboration in social welfare between the two countries, and a coordination mechanism between the VSS and the Lao ministry in this field.

Over the past years, the VSS also received officials from the National Social Security Fund of Cambodia who came to scope out health insurance in the VSS and social insurance in Hanoi. With the support and information sharing of the VSS, the fund’s officials collected knowledge and experience to serve the reconstruction of its system.

Annually, the VSS welcomes many delegations of officials from social welfare organisations in regional countries like Indonesia and the Philippines. Besides, through ASSA, the VSS has also send its representatives to visit other ASSA member organisations and learned from their experience at regional and international workshops in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei. Their expertise has helped the VSS realise and contribute to finalising the Law on Social Insurance and the Law on Health Insurance in Vietnam.

Reality has proven that joining ASSA has brought about significant and practical benefits to the VSS, helping complete the social and health insurance system in Vietnam through learning from experience in managing and implementing policies in regional countries with more developed social welfare. The ASSA membership has also helped the VSS enhance its international cooperation and improve the capacity of its officials, thus better meeting requirements and implementing targets set in the sector’s development strategy, especially those in the action programme on the implementation of the Politburo’s Resolution No. 22-NQ/TQ on international integration dated July 10, 2013./.