The Vietnam Social Security (VSS) held a seminar in Hanoi on March 14 to update leaders and senior staff members of the VSS and the Hanoi VSS Agency on knowledge about international integration and external information. VSS Deputy Directors-General Tran Dinh Lieu and Dao Viet Anh attended the event.

The seminar saw the presence of former Deputy PM Vu Khoan, Director of the Policy Planning Department under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Minh Vu, and Deputy Director of the Institute for Foreign Policy and Strategic Studies at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam Tran Viet Thai.

The guests gave an overview and analysed Vietnam’s diplomatic context at present. They also suggested ideas to help the VSS improve its participation in the country’s integration process and make relevant policies to maximise social security cooperation.

Presenting an overview of the country’s external relations and international integration in the new context, former Deputy PM Vu Khoan said Vietnam now has multiple opportunities, but it is also facing many challenges. 

Thanks to international integration, the country has successfully opened its market, and businesses have accessed the world’s practices, thus improving themselves. More importantly, Vietnam has gained momentum to make institutional reforms.

For example, the social security sector has reformed many administrative procedures and applied information technology to better serve people and businesses, he noted.

At the seminar, speakers also talked about Vietnam’s viewpoints on and orientations for its foreign policy, the outcomes of the summit between the US and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in Vietnam, and the US-China trade relations and impacts on Vietnam.

Highly evaluating the VSS’s importance and recent contributions, especially in social security issues, Director of the Policy Planning Department under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Minh Vu said in the time ahead, his department will cooperate with the VSS in external programmes and activities as well as cooperation with other countries. It will also assist the VSS to improve the qualifications of its personnel in charge of the external affairs to help fulfill their assigned tasks./.