Good governance plays a central role in effectively providing social security services across the world, heard an international workshop held by the Vietnam Social Security (VSS) in Ho Chi Minh City on July 17.

Experts discuss at the workshop

In her remarks, VSS General Director Nguyen Thi Minh, who is also Chairwoman of the ASEAN Social Security Association (ASSA) for the 2018-2019 tenure, stressed social security organisations in the world must work to ensure excellent governance so as to provide good services and meet increasing demands of the residents.

The social security system must be transparent and accountable, assuring that all people have chances to access to social welfare, she said.

Meanwhile, Ortiz D. Maribel, an expert from the International Social Security Association (ISSA), said that human resources and information technology (IT) are two pillars that help better governance in social security organisations. 

Only with good governance could the organisations build their prestige as well as take people on trust, he added.

Sharing the same viewpoint, Philip O’Keefe, Manager for the World Bank Group’s Social Protection and Jobs, East Asia and Pacific region, said that as many private services have gone online, the community has increasing demands for accessing online social security services.

Therefore, technology changes in social security organisations are necessary, making contributions to improving the quality of social security services. 

According to Director of the VSS’s IT Operation Centre Nguyen Hoang Phuong,  Vietnam has 15 million people joining the compulsory social security scheme, 13 million buy unemployment insurance, and 84.5 million people own healthcare insurance cards.

The centre is developing a 4.0 eco-system to have better governance in the field, he said, adding several services have been offered such as online payment, mobile payment app, message service, and Chatbot, among others.

Besides, all public services at the VSS have been upgraded into Level 4, which allows people and businesses to perform administrative formalities, submit required forms, handle documents and payments, and receive results with a computer connected to the Internet, he said.