Hanoi (VNA) - Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam has calledon businesses, individuals and the community to join the Government inenhancing social security.

Dam, who is also head of the National Steering Committee that oversees theimplementation of Government Resolution 70/NQ-CP dated 2012 – a GovernmentAction Programme for social security, said on December 20 that mechanisms andpolicies are needed to better engage non-State resources in social security activities.

He suggested a mechanism in which businesses, individuals and the communitycould raise funds and manage donations to the poor, those in vulnerable groupslike the unemployed, or charity activities.

In June, 2012, for the first time, the Party Central Committee issued aresolution relating to social policies for the period 2012-20. The moveaffirmed the special attention from the Party and State for the sector forsustainable development in all stages of national growth.

In November 2012, the Government issued Resolution 70/NQ-CP to realise theParty’s resolution.

Resolution 70 assigned the main tasks to ministries, agencies, localities,organisations and individuals, focusing on developing an effective scheme forthe search and collection of martyrs’ remains, diversifying forms of socialinsurance, working on amendments and supplements to the supporting policies forhouseholds living near the poverty line, and implementing social security policiesfor all citizens.

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) reported that thisyear, the remains of 1,688 martyrs were collected. Out of 8.8 millionrevolutionary contributors nationwide, about 1.4 million and their familiesreceived monthly aid from the State. Almost 92,000 contributors got housingsupport.

The Government spent 15 trillion VND (659 million USD) offering monthly aid andfree health care insurance cards. About 14 million people including poor peopleand those from ethnic groups or disadvantaged areas and 1.8 million people fromnear-poor households received the free health insurance cards.

By this month, about 1.5million workers were assisted in education and employment.

The number of social insurance participants increased by 13.1 million people,1.96 percent higher than that of last year. This means 24.19 percent of Vietnam’slabour force join social insurance.

Regarding  poverty reduction, 826,000 poor and near-poor households and21,000 students received preferential loans worth over 27.3 trillion VND (1.2billion USD).

More than 10,000 families in rural areas and 12,000 poor households inflood-prone areas nationwide were helped to build houses.

By the end of this year, the country expects a poverty rate of less than ninepercent, about 1.3 -1.5 percent lower than that of last year. However, povertyrates in remote disadvantaged areas are still high with some localities seeingmore than half of their population living under poverty line.

MoLISA Deputy Minister Nguyen Trong Dam said that the country’s unemploymentrate remained at 2.34 percent but it saw high rate of college graduates unableto find jobs.

He said that job training activities in rural areas were ineffective because ofthe modest number of job categories, few applications of new technologies andhi-tech farming.

Attending the meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Dam, other representativesfrom ministries and agencies complained about the shortage of funding andimproper cooperation among State agencies and non-State ones in social securityactivities.-VNA