Deputy Prime Minister Nguyễn Đức Đam called on businesses, individuals and the community to join the Government in enhancing social protection. — Photo vov.vn

HÀ NỘI — Deputy Prime Minister Nguyễn Đức Đam called on businesses, individuals and the community to join the Government in enhancing social protection.

Đam, who is also head of the National Steering Committee that oversees the implementation of Government’s Resolution 70/NQ-CP dated 2012 – a Government Action Programme for social protection, said on Tuesday that mechanisms and policies were needed to better engage non-State resources in social protection activities.

He suggested a mechanism in which businesses, individuals and the community could raise funds and manage donations to the poor, those in vulnerable groups like the unemployed, or charity activities.

In June, 2012, for the first time, the Party Central Committee issued a resolution relating to social policies for the period 2012-20. The move affirmed the special attention from the Party and State for the sector for sustainable development in all stages of national growth.

In November 2012, the Government issued Resolution 70/NQ-CP to specialise the Party’s resolution.

Resolution 70 assigned the main tasks to ministries, agencies, localities, organisations and individuals, focusing on developing an effective scheme for the search and collection of martyrs’ remains, diversifying forms of social insurance, working on amendments and supplements to the supporting policies for households living near the poverty line, and implementing social security numbers for all citizens.

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs reported that this year, the remains of 1,688 martyrs were collected. Out of 8.8 million revolutionary contributors nationwide, about 1.4 million contributors and their families received monthly aid from State. Almost 92,000 contributors got housing support.

The Government spent VNĐ15 trillion (US$659 million) offering monthly aid and free healthcare insurance cards. About 14 million people including poor people and those from ethnic groups or disadvantaged areas and 1.8 million people from near-poor households received the free health insurance cards.

By this month, about 1.5 million workers were assisted in education and employment.

The number of social insurance participants increased by 13.1 million people, or 1.96 per cent higher than that of last year. This means 24.19 per cent of Việt Nam’s labour force participates in social insurance.

Regarding  poverty reduction, 826,000 poor and near-poor households and 21,000 students received preferential loans worth over VNĐ27.3 trillion ($1.2 billion).

More than 10,000 families in rural areas and 12,000 poor households in flood-prone areas nationwide were helped to build houses.

By the end of this year, the country expects a poverty rate of less than nine per cent, about 1.3 -1.5 per cent lower than that of last year. However, poverty rates in remote disadvantaged areas are still high with some localities seeing more than half of their population living under poverty line.

Deputy minister of Labour, Nguyễn Trọng Đàm, said that the country’s unemployment rate remained at 2.34 per cent but it saw high rate of college graduates unable to find jobs.

He said that job training activities in rural areas were ineffective because of the modest number of job categories, few applications of new technologies and hi-tech farming.

Attending the meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Đam, other representatives from ministries and agencies complained about the shortage of funding and improper co-operation among State agencies and non-State ones in social protection activities. — VNS

In box:

Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc has agreed to authorise the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs to submit a plan to present Lunar New Year gifts to people who made contributions to the national revolution to President Trần Đại Quang for his approval.

Under the plan, gifts worth VNĐ400,000 and VNĐ200,000 each will be presented to those who participated in revolutionary activities up to the August Revolution (August 19, 1945), Heroic Mothers, Hero of the People’s Armed Forces, Labour Heroes during the Resistance War, and fallen soldiers’ relatives.

War invalids and sick soldiers, and veterans affected by toxic chemicals would also benefit from the presents.

Total expenditure for the gifts is estimated to be worth over VNĐ431 billion ($18.9 million) Last year, the Government spent VNĐ437 billion ($19.2 million) on giving Tết presents to about two million revolutionary devotees. — VNS