Attending the conference, on the VSS side were: Mr. Le Hung Son - Deputy General Director of VSS; Mr. Dinh Ngoc Quy - Standing Member of the National Assembly's Social Committee and delegates representing units under the National Assembly's Social Committee, Government Office, Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, Ministry of Finance; Leaders of a number of units under VSS and Social Security Office of some provinces and cities.

International experts attending the conference were: Mr. Yasser El. Gammal, Director of Social Security and Employment Sector for Asia and the Pacific; Mr. Robert Palacios, Chief Economist, World Bank and a group of prestigious international speakers in the field of social security from Thailand, China, the United States and Malaysia...

Deputy General Director of VSS Le Hung Son spoke at the conference

Speaking at the opening of the Workshop, Deputy General Director of VSS Le Hung Son warmly welcomed representatives of domestic and foreign international organizations and all delegates to attend the conference; especially Sir Yasser El. Gammal, Director of the Social Security and Employment Sector for Asia and the Pacific, World Bank paid a working visit to Vietnam and attended the conference.

Deputy General Director Le Hung Son emphasized: The workshop is an important activity under continued series of effective cooperation activities between the World Bank and Vietnamese ministries and branches in building up and perfecting legal institutions, policies on social insurance. “It is especially meaningful to hold the confenrence right after the Social Insurance Law (amended) was passed by the National Assembly on June 29th, 2024 at the 7th Session, 15th National Assembly; Demonstrate the close attention and direction of agencies of the National Assembly and the Government, and the full and timely support of the World Bank before, during and after the process of developing social insurance policy in Vietnam; contribute to institutionalizing and soon bringing social insurance legal policies into life, ensuring increasingly better social security for the people" - Deputy General Director Le Hung Son shared.

Deputy General Director Le Hung Son shared that the Social Insurance Law (amended) recently passed by the National Assembly has many positive changes in the direction of: expanding participants; increasing the rights and benefits of policy beneficiaries to motivate and attract the people to participate in social insurance, ensuring long-term social security for the people; Basically overcoming problems and inadequacies arising from the practical implementation of the 2014 Social Insurance Law; Strengthening sanctions to handle acts of late payment and evasion of social insurance payment.

“However, besides the achieved results, VSS is also facing many difficulties and challenges. Therefore, we hope that the World Bank will continue to have practical support activities for Vietnam Social Security and Vietnamese ministries and branches to well carry out the mission of ensuring social security for the people, promoting progress, social justice and sustainable development of the country" - Deputy General Director Le Hung Son shared.

Mr. Yasser El. Gammal, Director of Social Security and Employment for Asia and the Pacific spoke at the conference

Speaking at the conference, Mr. Yasser El. Gammal, Director of the Social Security and Employment Sector in Asia and the Pacific, congratulated the Social Insurance Law (amended) being passed by the National Assembly. “This is truly an achievement because it demonstrates Vietnam's strong commitment to continuing to strengthen and expand the social insurance system, in accordance with the orientation and vision of Resolution No. 28 of the Communist Party of Vietnam.  The amended law brings significant changes and progress in key areas such as: pensions, social insurance coverage, one-time withdrawal of social insurance, international integration, increasing the coverage and completeness of social insurance benefits. different social security benefits, while bringing them closer to the most effective international standards and practices" - Mr. Yasser emphasized.

According to Mr. Yasser, although Vietnam has had impressive growth achievements in recent years, the proportion of workers in the informal sector is still high. Overall, about 76% of all workers still work in the informal sector and of those, only 1.9 million informal workers, representing just 5% of the total workforce, participated in the volunrary program by 2023.

Some comments presented at the conference

At the same time, Vietnam is at a demographic tipping point, with the fastest population aging rate ever seen globally. The proportion of elderly people in the population (65 years and older) will increase from 7% to 15% by 2035. This poses great challenges for the social insurance system if the majority of them are not included in the "security network".

“Therefore, the conference highlights two big trends and discusses the potential expansion of the social insurance system for workers in the informal sector. We will listen to the experiences from representatives of countries that have overcome these challenges, thereby, offering initiatives to improve and expand coverage safely and effectively" - Mr. Yasser shared.

Mr. Yasser El.Gammal expects that, by learning the experiences shared at the Conference, delegates representing ministries, branches and social insurance agencies will be able to take advantage of this opportunity to learn, discuss and figure a future where many informal workers enjoy Vietnam's social protection system.

Overview of the conference "Implementing social insurance policy: International experience and implications for Vietnam"

At the Conference, the domestic and foreign experts presented a number of contents as follows: Basic reforms in the Social Insurance Law (amended); Results, challenges in implementing voluntary social insurance, and plans to expand coverage in Vietnam; Population aging, official status and the role of social security programs. Experiences in countries with expanded coverage such as Korea; China; Social insurance for employees in Malaysia; Thailand; India; The effects of premiums support on expanding the scope of participants; Improve the effectiveness of implementing the voluntary social insurance program...

Deputy General Director of VSS Le Hung Son assessed that the presentations and opinions of international organizations and experts are of great practical value to Vietnam Social Security in organizing and implementing social insurance policies in particular and the social security system in general. From researches and lessons learned from the world, VSS shall set out additional solutions and plans to better develop the social insurance system, and at the same time, develop specific scenarios to cope with difficulties and challenges in the coming time./.