In recent years, our country has achieved significant and comprehensive accomplishments across all fields. Among them, social welfare policies have always received special attention from the Party and the Government; directly contributing to improving the material and spiritual lives of the people. These are vivid proofs that refute any distorted or reactionary arguments.

Through various stages of the country’s development since the success of the August Revolution in 1945, social welfare has always been one of the important guidelines and policies of the Party and the Vietnam’s government. Ensuring social welfare is identified as both a goal and a driving force, a fundamental foundation for sustainable socio-economic development, enhancing the country’s position; it is the basis for maintaining socio-political stability, improving the quality of life and happiness of the people, and it reflects the humanity, benevolence, and positive nature of our country’s social system.

However, hostile and reactionary forces are constantly seeking ways to distort or deny the achievements that our Party, government, and people have strived to accomplish. They exploit the difficulties in the lives of certain parts of the population, stressful social issues; the outcomes of the fight against corruption and negative phenomena; and the manifestations of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” within our ranks to carry out their subversive plots. Firstly, they directly attack and distort the system of social welfare policies implemented by our Party and Government over the past 80 years, especially in recent times. Secondly, they deliberately tarnish and deny the tangible results in ensuring social welfare that we have achieved, as well as the significant, historically meaningful achievements of the process of renewal, nation-building, and national defence. These two aspects are closely combined by hostile and reactionary forces and are always linked with issues of “ethnicity”, “religion”, “democracy”, and “human rights”, which they consider as “leverage” and “material” for their subversive efforts. They often spread arguments such as: Vietnam’s social welfare policies are “lacking progress and social justice”; “the government is abandoning its responsibility to ensure social welfare for the people”; that “the social welfare system in Vietnam is regressing”; the government “leaves the poor to fend for themselves” and “swim on their own”, etc. Therefore, they aim to directly attack and deny the leadership role of the Party, the management and governance of the government, and to tarnish and deny the positive nature and superiority of the socialist system.

But the truth is always clear! These distorted arguments cannot deny the fact that ensuring social welfare has always been a consistent and overarching policy of the Party and the Vietnam’s government; it is a fundamental policy aimed at eradicating hunger, reducing poverty, mitigating adverse impacts and risks, achieving social justice, ensuring the livelihood of the people, fostering social consensus, contributing to maintaining political stability, social order, and safety, as well as strengthening national defence and security. The goal that the Party and our people strive for is to ensure that everyone lives in prosperity, freedom, and happiness, with the opportunity for comprehensive development. This goal not only sets the requirements but also defines the direction and objectives of the social welfare policies that the Party and the Vietnam’s government implement throughout the process of building and defending the nation.

Providing free medical check for ethnic people (Photo: dangcongsan.vn)

Looking back at history, right after the success of the August Revolution in 1945, in the context of a new government having to confront “hunger enemy”, “illiteracy enemy”, and foreign invaders, President Ho Chi Minh and Party identified the foremost task as building a new government, consolidating and using that government to create and build a new social regime, continuously enhancing and expanding the people’s rights, including ensuring social welfare, bringing true freedom, prosperity, and happiness to the people. Faced with the reality that 95% of the population wasn’t able to read and write while around 10% were famished, ensuring social welfare and caring for the people’s lives was an extremely important and urgent task that the Party and the Government pursued relentlessly. In just a short period, about a year after the success of the August Revolution, the “hunger enemy” and “illiteracy enemy” were fundamentally pushed back, the national finances were rebuilt; the foundation of a new culture and way of life began to take shape; healthcare and disease prevention were given attention, etc. These were fundamental issues that vividly demonstrated the social welfare achievements that the Party and the Government had quickly implemented in caring for the people’s lives; deeply reflecting the good nature and superior qualities of our social system, even at its early stages of development.

In terms of policy, our Party and the Government have always pursued building and constantly improving social welfare policies, aiming at the goal of comprehensive coverage for all people, following the motto of “leaving no one behind”, linked with promoting social progress and fairness. From the First Constitution (1946), significant provisions were established to create a legal foundation for forming a social welfare system: “The rights of labourers, both intellectual and manual, are guaranteed” (Article 13); “Elderly or disabled citizens who cannot work are supported. Children are cared for in terms of education” (Article 14). The 2013 Constitution states: “Citizens have the right to social welfare” (Article 34). The Platform for national construction during the transitional period to Socialism (supplemented and developed in 2011) clearly outlines the goal of socialism that our people strive to build is: “a society in which people live in prosperity, freedom, happiness, and have conditions for comprehensive development”. To achieve that goal, our Party has defined the need to complete a diverse and flexible social welfare system “capable of protecting and assisting all members of society, especially vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, to overcome difficulties and life risks”. At the same time, the Party has set out key solutions: completing the system of insurance, social assistance and relief; implementing programmes to eradicate hunger and reduce poverty in remote and especially difficult areas; mobilising all resources to care for the material and spiritual lives of war invalids, soldiers, families of martyrs, and those who have contributed to the revolution. The Resolution of the 13th Party Congress emphasises: “ensuring social welfare, human security; promoting social progress and fairness”.

Additionally, the Government has issued numerous resolutions, programmes, projects, and plans that are comprehensive and inclusive, covering all segments of society across all “pillars” of policy, and ensuring practical implementation. Specifically: (1). A unified and synchronised social insurance system from the central to local levels; (2). An employment support system that contributes to job creation, offering diverse employment opportunities to meet the majority of labour force demands, vocational training, and improving the quality of human resources; (3). A social assistance system that provides direct financial and material support from the government budget, helping citizens overcome risks and adversities; (4). A system of preferential policies for those who have contributed to the nation and vulnerable social groups who suffer significant disadvantages; (5). A system that ensures access to basic social services (education, healthcare, housing, information, etc.), with continuous improvements in quality and scale, meeting the basic living requirements of the majority, especially those in remote, rural, and particularly difficult areas, etc.

With increasingly completed and synchronised policies being implemented in real life, Vietnam’s social security has achieved significant and important milestones across various fields. In poverty reduction, our Party and the Government have flexibly implemented support measures to help people overcome poverty, achieving remarkable results. The poverty rate, according to the new multi-dimensional poverty standards, decreased from 9,88% in 2015 to 2,75% in 2020, reaching the target 10 years ahead of the Millennium Development Goals. Vietnam is one of 30 countries to adopt multi-dimensional poverty standards, gaining international recognition. In terms of social assistance, the country currently has 425 social assistance facilities (191 public and 234 non-public) providing care and support for over 41.000 people. By the end of 2023, 100% of eligible individuals were receiving monthly allowances, 100% of those affected by natural disasters or food shortages received timely assistance, ensuring no one being hungry, over 90% of people with disabilities received support, care, and rehabilitation services, and over 90% of elderly people in difficult circumstances were provided with assistance, care, and support. Regarding social insurance and health insurance-two main pillars of the national social security system, the coverage has been expanding. According to statistics, by the end of June 2024, about 18,305 million people were participating in social insurance, accounting for 39,05% of the working-age labour force, an increase of 1,164 million people compared to the same period in 2023 (nearly double the number in 2010). Notably, the number of people participating in health insurance has steadily increased over the years (2021: 91,01%; 2022: 92,04%; 2023: 93,35%), approaching the goal of universal health insurance coverage. Most low-income groups, the poor, and vulnerable individuals in society have been participating in health insurance through government, local budget support, or mobilisation from other resources. The right to access information, particularly in ethnic minority areas, remote and isolated regions, has been increasingly well-implemented. Currently, fiber optic cable transmission line and mobile information services have reached 100% of communes nationwide. Mobile phone networks now cover the entire country, with Vietnam’s 4G broadband mobile coverage reaching 99,8% of the population. The educational infrastructure has rapidly developed, achieving universal education from preschool to lower secondary school before the schedules; the rate of children attending primary school at the appropriate age has reached 99% since 2015, and the rate for lower secondary school has exceeded 95% since 2020, with a literacy rate of 97,85% among those aged 15 and above. The results from social security policies have contributed to a continuous increase in Vietnam’s happiness index over the years. On 20 March 2024, the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network released its 10th annual World happiness report, in which Vietnam rose 11 places, from 65th position in 2023 to 54th out of 143 surveyed countries.

With the “telling” figures mentioned above, aimed at the goal of “Completing a diverse, multi-tiered, comprehensive, modern, inclusive, and sustainable social security policy, linked with ensuring human rights and citizens’ rights”, Vietnam has constructed a social security system that develops into an inclusive, comprehensive network for the people, with coverage that is continuously expanding, increasingly better meeting the needs of all groups. This is a proof to the fact that Vietnam’s achievements in ensuring social security are something to be truly proud of, as the people genuinely and practically benefit from these improvements, which continue to be enhanced and elevated. This reality cannot be denied in any form.

Assoc. Prof., Dr. NGUYEN MANH HUONG and Lieutenant Colonel, Dr. NGUYEN HUU CAN