(VOVworld) – Vietnam aims to have of its workforce covered by social insurance by 2020. To achieve this target, policies are needed to increase the number of insurees.

13 million workers in Vietnam are currently covered by compulsory social insurance and 200,000 more are covered by voluntary insurance. Vietnam’s total workforce is projected to be 60 million by 2020, half of whom will have social insurance. But to increase the number of insured from 13 million to 30 million will be a real challenge, says Doan Mau Diep, Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs: "Under the 2014 Social Insurance Law, social insurance is compulsory with labor contracts of more than a month. Currently, 60% of Vietnam’s workforce works in unstructured sectors and sectors that lack formal labor relations. This law encourages those workers to voluntarily obtain social insurance.”

In the near future, a number of incentives will be implemented to make it easier for workers with compulsory insurance and those who don’t have labor contracts to obtain voluntary insurance. The Vietnam Social Insurance Department has increased communications to address the problems of discontinued and delayed contributions. Deputy Minister Doan Mau Diep again: “The 2014 Law on Social Insurance allows the Vietnam Social Insurance Department to establish and inspect collections for social insurance.”

The expansion of voluntary social insurance is expected to attract more than 40 million customers. Changes concerning insurers, contribution methods, and benefit mechanisms have been made to fine-tune incentives. These regulations will come into force in 2018.