Hanoi (VNA) – Bilateral agreements for a new generation ofsocial insurance policy have been negotiated to support foreign workers engagingin Vietnam’s social insurance scheme, said Deputy General Director of theVietnam Social Security (VSS) Dao Viet Anh.

Addressing a VSSconference in Hanoi on November 2, Anh said that under Decree No.143/2018/ND-CPdetailing the Law on Social Insurance and Law on Labour Safety and Hygiene,foreigners working in Vietnam with a work permit, practice certificate, orpractice licence granted by competent Vietnamese authorities and under indefinite-termlabour contracts or contracts with a term of one full year and over shall besubject to compulsory social insurance.

Those temporarilytransferred from parent companies abroad to subsidiary firms in Vietnam orreaching the retirement age shall not be subject to the compulsory socialinsurance scheme.

Deputy head of theVSS Deparment of Social Insurance Policy Implementation Dinh Thi Hien statedthat currently, foreigners have yet to join social insurance in Vietnam, sofrom December 1, 2018 to December 31, 2021, they are not subjected tocompulsory insurance.

From January 1,2022, foreign labourers who are subjected to the compulsory social insurancescheme must pay 8 percent of their salary stated in their contract to theretirement and survivor fund as their Vietnamese peers do.

For employers, fromDecember 1, 2018 to December 31, 2021, they must pay insurance for employees tothe fund for sickness, maternity, workplace accident, and occupational disease.From January 1, 2022, employers must pay an additional 14 percent of theirmonthly salary fund to retirement and survivor insurances.

According tostatistics by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs (MoLISA),the number of foreign employees in Vietnam increased from 63,557 in 2011 to83,046 in 2016. They mostly come from Asian countries like China, the Republicof Korea, and Japan, accounting for 73 percent of the total, followed byEuropean nations (21.6 percent) and American countries (2.4 percent).

Those withemployment contracts of under one year only make up 4.4 percent, which is inresponse to the local demand for and sustainability of foreign workers in thecountry.

VSS Deputy GeneralDirector Anh said that the VSS has finished the fourth round of negotiationswith the Republic of Korea, one of Vietnam’s biggest bilateral overseas labourpartners.

The VSS has alsobeen implementing necessary negotiation processes with Japan and Germany, aswell as all countries with overseas labourers in Vietnam.

Anh added that thebilateral deals will support foreign labourers in Vietnam to join socialinsurance, which is one of the benefits.–VNA