In Vietnam, social security stands as both a cornerstone of the nation’s socialist-oriented reform efforts and a catalyst for economic growth and social stability. This dual-purpose approach aims to progressively enhance the realisation of citizens’ human rights. The nation’s achievements in social security, guided by the motto “leaving no one behind”, stand as compelling evidence refuting any misrepresentations by hostile forces regarding the human rights situation in Vietnam.
As has become customary, each year on the eve of World Human Rights Day (10 December), hostile entities flood online platforms with articles distorting Vietnam’s human rights record. Among their favoured targets is the issue of social security - a sensitive matter intrinsically linked to the safeguarding of human rights.
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| Official of Tuyen Quang provincial Social Security Office talks with a citizen about the benefits of taking part in social insurance (photo: qdnd.vn) |
The hostile forces commonly employ tactics of distorting social security policies, downplaying or denying the social security achievements that our Party, State, and People have strived to attain during the reform process. They deliberately exploit sensitive social issues that can easily provoke public discontent, such as exposed corruption cases involving some officials and party members, or the hardships faced by certain segments of the population, especially during natural disasters and epidemics. These elements use such instances to misrepresent our Party and State’s social security policies, falsely claiming that “the socialist regime and the Vietnamese State do not care about implementing social security” (!). Recently, they have propagated the notion that “Vietnam’s social security achievements are self-fabricated and self-praised, lacking any substance” (!). They even go as far as to maliciously distort and incite by suggesting that “Social security is merely a ploy to pacify the people, allowing Party officials to freely plunder” (!). In the wake of the severe consequences left by Typhoon Yagi (Storm No. 3) in some northern localities, these forces deliberately ignored the collective efforts of our entire Party, people, and armed forces in addressing the storm’s aftermath and ensuring social security. Instead, they falsely proclaimed: “Only the people care for the people, while the State shirks its responsibility for the people’s welfare” and “The State abandons the poor to fend for themselves” (!). The underlying objective of these subversive activities is to undermine the credibility of our Party and State, ultimately aiming to deny the Party’s leadership role and the State’s management, organisation, and administration in ensuring social security. They seek to incite people to reject the path of building socialism. While these tactics are sophisticated and malicious, they cannot obscure the bright picture of social security in Vietnam.
First and foremost, from a guiding perspective, our Party and State have always regarded “the people as the centre, the subject, the primary resource, and the goal of sustainable development” (1) aligned with socialist orientation. They consistently affirm that social security policies are designed to care for the people and are fundamentally about the people. Ensuring social security is a regular and important task for the Party, State, entire political system, and society as a whole, aimed at providing every citizen with an increasingly prosperous and happy life. Former General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong emphasised: “The socialist society that the Vietnamese people are striving to build is one where the people are prosperous, the nation is strong, democracy prevails, justice is upheld, and civilisation flourishes; it is a society where the people are in charge, where individuals enjoy a prosperous, free, and happy life with conditions for comprehensive development”. (2) He also stressed: “We need economic development to go hand in hand with social progress and equity, not to increase the gap between rich and poor and social inequality”. (3) Therefore, the integration of economic and social policies - aligning economic growth with social progress and equity at every step and in every policy throughout the development process - is a hallmark of a socialist-oriented market economy. In this spirit, our Party views ensuring social security as both a goal and a resource, a driving force for national renewal. Effectively implementing social security creates an important foundation for economic development and political and social stability; it contributes to consolidating achievements in economic reform and political renewal while meeting the legitimate needs and aspirations of the people, fostering their trust in the socialist regime. Our Party remains steadfast in its stance of not “sacrificing” social progress and equity for mere economic growth. It advocates that every economic policy must aim towards social development goals, while each social policy should create incentives for economic growth. Encouraging legal wealth accumulation must go hand in hand with sustainable poverty alleviation and care for those who have made contributions or are facing difficulties. These fundamental viewpoints guide our on-going renewal process and the construction of socialism in our country while simultaneously refuting distorted narratives about the nature of socialism in Vietnam.
In the realm of legal frameworks, Vietnam’s commitment to social security is consistently reflected in Party resolutions, enshrined in the Constitution, and codified in State legislation. The Communist Party of Vietnam has consistently prioritised social security in its congress documents. Notably, the Party issued two specialised resolutions: Resolution 15-NQ/TW, dated 1 June 2012, by the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, titled “Several Issues on Social Policies for the 2012-2020 Period” and Resolution 42-NQ/TW, dated 24 November 2023, by the 13th Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, titled “On continuing to innovate and improve the quality of social policies to meet the requirements of national construction and defence in the new era”. These resolutions emphasise social security as a crucial, on-going task for the entire political system and society, calling for a diverse, multi-tiered, modern, inclusive, and sustainable social security policy system.
The 2013 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam solidifies these principles, stating: “Citizens have the right to social security" (Article 34) and “The State creates equal opportunities for citizens to enjoy social welfare and develop the social security system” (Article 59). These constitutional provisions are further detailed in specialised legislation, including the Labour Code, Employment Law, Social Insurance Law, Health Insurance Law, and Laws protecting the Elderly, Children, and People with disabilities. This legislative framework aims to ensure better access to social security benefits for citizens, establishing a legal basis for implementing social security policies based on principles of fairness and social progress. Consequently, these laws have contributed to refining the institutional framework, creating favourable conditions for the effective implementation of social security policies under the motto “leaving no one behind”.
In practice, the government allocates approximately 20% of its annual budget to social security. The proportion of state budget expenditure on social security has steadily increased from 2.85% of GDP in 2005 to 6.7% in 2021. (4) Key pillars of the social security system (5) have seen significant improvements. Participation in insurance services continues to grow annually. In 2023, social insurance and unemployment insurance coverage reached 39.25% and 31.58% of the working-age population, respectively. By the end of June 2024, these figures increased by 1.164 million and 955,000 participants compared to the same period in 2023. Notably, health insurance coverage has expanded sustainably, approaching universal coverage - from 60.9% in 2010 to 93.35% of the population in 2023. The poor, children under six, and the elderly receive free health insurance cards. Recognising these efforts, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organisation, commended: “Vietnam has achieved remarkable progress in improving people’s lives and healthcare quality in recent decades. Life expectancy has increased by 15 years, with a significant reduction in vaccine-preventable diseases. You have expanded health insurance coverage, moving the country further towards the goal of universal health care”.
The system of preferential policies for people with meritorious services continues to be refined, ensuring that all policy beneficiary families have living standards equal to or better than the average of their local communities.
Social assistance policies have been implemented on a broader scale, with an increasing number of beneficiaries and higher levels of support. These policies now cover various groups, ensuring timely assistance for people facing risks, natural disasters, and epidemics. In 2023, 100% of social protection beneficiaries received monthly allowances, 100% of people affected by natural disasters received timely assistance, 99% of households with meritorious services had living standards equal to or higher than the average in their localities, over 90% of disadvantaged people with disabilities received social assistance and rehabilitation, and over 90% of disadvantaged elderly received social support and care. Annually, the Government has provided tens of thousands of tons of rice to food-insecure people. In 2023 alone, the State supported 16,900 tons of rice for 1.1 million people during the Lunar New Year. During the three years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the State provided over 120 trillion VND and more than 200,000 tons of rice to over 68 million people facing difficulties, and allocated over 38 trillion VND from the unemployment insurance fund to support businesses and workers. Most recently, in response to the severe consequences of Typhoon Yagi, the Government has decisively directed efforts with the spirit of “protecting people’s lives, safety, and health as the top priority; ensuring no patient lacks medical care; enabling students to return to school as soon as possible; guaranteeing social security, ensuring no one lacks food, clothing, shelter, or clean water; and quickly restoring daily activities to stabilise people’s lives”. (6) The Prime Minister has authorised the allocation of 430 billion VND from the central budget reserve and 432,585 tons of rice from national stockpiles to support affected families and provide relief for those at risk of hunger. Numerous delegations from central and local governments, along with various organisations and individuals, have contributed nearly 433 billion VND in aid to families suffering losses. Notably, the Vietnam Fatherland Front has mobilised and received 2.114 trillion VND to assist citizens impacted by the typhoon. (7)
Vietnam’s outstanding achievement in ensuring social security, recognised and highly appreciated by the world, is its poverty reduction efforts, which met the Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals ahead of schedule. The poverty rate decreased from nearly 60% in 1986 to 1.93% in 2024, making Vietnam one of the first 30 countries in the world to apply multidimensional poverty standards. GDP per capita increased from 86 USD in 1986 to 4,284 USD in 2023. Access to basic social services has also improved. In education, primary school enrolment rates reached 99% from 2015, and lower secondary school rates exceeded 95% from 2020. In housing, by 2020, support was provided for 648,000 poor rural households and 323,000 homes for the poor and disadvantaged. Currently, a project is underway to build at least one million social housing units for low-income earners and industrial park workers from 2021 to 2030, aiming to eliminate temporary and dilapidated housing nationwide by the end of 2025. Regarding information access, since 2016, 100% of mountainous, remote, border and island communes have been covered by terrestrial radio and television broadcasts. By 2020, all communes had radio stations, and by 2023, over 98% of communes had public telephone contact points, with 3,000 public telecommunications access points for citizens.
These social security efforts have contributed to improving Vietnam’s Human Development Index (HDI) and Happiness Index. According to the UNDP Human Development Report 2023/2024, Vietnam’s HDI value increased by 50% from 1990 to 2022, placing it in the high human development category. The Happiness Index improved by 23 places, from 77th in 2022 to 54th out of 143 surveyed countries in 2024.
These achievements in ensuring social security are the result of collective efforts by the entire political system and all social strata under the Party’s leadership, with the State playing a leading role. This reality serves as compelling evidence refuting any distortions by hostile forces regarding the human rights situation in Vietnam.
NGUYEN NGOC HOI