The four-year unemployment insurance scheme implemented from 2009 to2012 shows that it is a meaningful and effective social policy, butseveral problems arise that need to be solved.
Thisis the focus of a seminar on unemployment insurance held by theNational Assembly Committee for Social Affairs and the InternationalLabour Organisation (ILO) in Ho Chi Minh City on March 1.
According to Do Thi Xuan Phuong, Deputy General Director of theVietnam Social Insurance Agency, the number of people joiningunemployment insurance and money in the fund has both continued to growover the last four years. In 2009, there were nearly 6 million peoplewith unemployment insurance, with the fund collecting more than 3.5trillion VND. In 2012, 8.3 million people joined this kind of insuranceand the fund’s revenues reached about 8 trillion VND.
The insurance fund reached nearly 15.6 trillion VND in late 2011, andwas estimated to be 24 trillion VND by the end of 2012.
However, Nguyen Dai Dong, Head of the Employment Department under theMinistry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, said that in 2012,nearly 500,000 people registered as unemployed, but only 420,000 ofthese people were entitled to unemployment benefits and just 5,000people received vocational training assistance from the unemploymentinsurance fund.
Despite the large insurance fund,expenditure for vocational training is still low, and labourers only payattention to cash benefits.
Bui Sy Loi, deputy headof the committee, said that social insurance and unemployment insurancein particular, need to be reformed and expanded to include morelabourers, especially those working in unofficial sectors.
An ILO representative and Nguyen Van Xe, Deputy Director of the Ho ChiMinh City’s Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs,suggested that vulnerable groups, including seasonal labourers, cleanersand foreign workers looking for jobs for the first time need to receivemore attention. It is also necessary to expand the scale of insuranceparticipants, including labourers with work contracts less than 12months long and organisations with fewer than 10 employees.-VNA
Thisis the focus of a seminar on unemployment insurance held by theNational Assembly Committee for Social Affairs and the InternationalLabour Organisation (ILO) in Ho Chi Minh City on March 1.
According to Do Thi Xuan Phuong, Deputy General Director of theVietnam Social Insurance Agency, the number of people joiningunemployment insurance and money in the fund has both continued to growover the last four years. In 2009, there were nearly 6 million peoplewith unemployment insurance, with the fund collecting more than 3.5trillion VND. In 2012, 8.3 million people joined this kind of insuranceand the fund’s revenues reached about 8 trillion VND.
The insurance fund reached nearly 15.6 trillion VND in late 2011, andwas estimated to be 24 trillion VND by the end of 2012.
However, Nguyen Dai Dong, Head of the Employment Department under theMinistry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, said that in 2012,nearly 500,000 people registered as unemployed, but only 420,000 ofthese people were entitled to unemployment benefits and just 5,000people received vocational training assistance from the unemploymentinsurance fund.
Despite the large insurance fund,expenditure for vocational training is still low, and labourers only payattention to cash benefits.
Bui Sy Loi, deputy headof the committee, said that social insurance and unemployment insurancein particular, need to be reformed and expanded to include morelabourers, especially those working in unofficial sectors.
An ILO representative and Nguyen Van Xe, Deputy Director of the Ho ChiMinh City’s Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs,suggested that vulnerable groups, including seasonal labourers, cleanersand foreign workers looking for jobs for the first time need to receivemore attention. It is also necessary to expand the scale of insuranceparticipants, including labourers with work contracts less than 12months long and organisations with fewer than 10 employees.-VNA
