The sites attending the meeting

Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Haji Omar Bin Mohd. Dali - ASSA Chairman highly appreciated the sharing and discussion of the members during the plenary session. At the same time, he requested the members to approve the Meeting Minutes of the ASSA 36 - a 17-page minutes approved by 100% of the participants.

An issue that has received a lot of attention among members is to develop and define the new ASSA membership criteria. Accordingly, most of the members agreed on the proposed criteria including: A member of ASEAN; A non-profit organization; social security related; public service sector.

The members also discussed and supported the research proposal to establish a Permanent Secretariat to facilitate the comprehensive development and coordination of programs and plans on sharing experiences and data in the Association.

The topic of sustainable investment commitments were also raised at the Board Meeting. Accordingly, it is necessary to ensure that the sustainability of those investments is in line with the goals of sustainable development set by the United Nations. However, according to the member organizations, further discussion is needed to clearly define effective investment criteria, since each social security organization has varied investment, etc.

At the section on comments and proposals from the member organizations, General Director of Vietnam Social Security Nguyen The Manh added: The Association's website currently relatively has all of the required items, however, the level of interaction of the member organizations and the partners given to the site remained limited. Therefore, in the coming time, Vietnam Social Security (VSS) called for its member organizations to increase the exploitation and supplementation of information for categories such as: Information on Conferences, Seminars and training courses (online or offline) and documents and researches on the website so that interested members can register to join and learn. VSS also proposed to increase sharing and connection with partners outside ASSA. Accordingly, the ASSA Executive Committee may consider expanding the integration of the ASSA+1 or ASSA+2 Dialogues with international partners other than ASSA selected by the Committee. For partners who choose ASSA+1 or ASSA+2 Dialogues, they must be reputable, experienced and willing to support the sustainable development of the ASEAN community and social security system.

The General Director of Vietnam Social Security during the discussion and sharing session at the meeting

VSS also suggested that ASSA members positively responded to the Vietnam's initiatives approved by the 2020 ASEAN Summit to implement practical ones such as: Establishing the ASEAN COVID-19 Response Fund; the ASEAN region's medical supplies reserve in response to public health emergencies; ASEAN Strategic Framework for Public Health Emergencies; ASEAN Comprehensive Recovery Framework and its Implementation Plan. VSS called for the ASSA member organizations to maintain and develop the inherent spirit of cooperation of ASEAN and ASSA; strengthen internal cohesion and proactively adapt to unpredictable developments of the region and the world.

In the immediate future, VSS has proposed the ASSA Association to develop a social security response strategy, along with emergencies for workers, especially migrant workers in ASEAN, who are the most vulnerable in the economy. At the same time, VSS proposed to merge the tenure of the ASSA and the ASEAN Chairmanship, as the current tenure of ASSA is one year earlier than that of the ASEAN, thereby helping to integrate ASSA's activities more effectively.

Delegates attending the meeting at the Hanoi Site in Vietnam

At the meeting, the members all agreed and supported the proposal to merge the year of the ASSA and the ASEAN Chairmanship. However, the issue of bringing official ASSA activities into ASEAN needs to be considered in the long run and an appropriate roadmap needs to be developed. The nember organizations should therefore consult with their respective country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs; on that basis, to build a specific outline and roadmap for exchange and proposals to the ASEAN, etc.