HCM CITY — The social insurance sector has made significant improvement in administrative procedures reform after four years implementing the Government Resolution 19/ NQ-CP on improving the business environment, delegates told a seminar in HCM City on September 28.

Đào Việt Ánh, deputy general director of Việt Nam Social Security, said the administrative procedures were reduced by 75 per cent from 114 in 2013 to 28 now.

That was thanks to the application of information technology as well as electronic transactions for both organisations and individuals in all areas involved in the sector, he said.

At present, the sector’s IT system has connected with over 12,000 medical facilities and performs electronic surveillance.

Nguyễn Minh Thảo from the Central Institute for Economic Management said since the implementation of the Resolution 19, Việt Nam’s business environment is constantly improving.

The World Economic Forum’s latest global competitiveness list, released on Wednesday, ranked Việt Nam 55th overall, up five places from last year, she said.

The administrative reform, simplifying procedures and accelerating the application of electronic transactions have significantly helped businesses to reduce time and costs, she said.

Last year time needed for paying social insurance reduced by 89 hours to 189 hours a year.

The resolution 19 orders the reduction of time required for payment of social insurance to 49 hours a year, so more needed to be done to accomplish the target, delegates said.

Delegates at the workshop also suggested the Government to adjust the social insurance premium as it was too high compared to other countries, making its business environment less competitiveness.

The current social insurance premiums in Việt Nam are the highest in ASEAN with 32.5per cent of the monthly salary, in which enterprises pay 22 per cent and employees contribute 10.5 per cent.

Meanwhile, in ASEAN, the social insurance premiums of Malaysia account for only 13 per cent of salary, the social insurance premiums of the Philippines account for 10 per cent of salary, Indonesia and Thailand with 8 per cent and 5 per cent respectively.

From 2018, workers and employees will have to pay social insurance based on total incomes, so the payment will increase.

The increase of social insurance premiums will increase the burden on businesses, increasing costs and affecting their competiveness, said Nguyễn Thị Cúc, chairwoman of Việt Nam Tax Consultants Association.

This will affect attracting foreign investors into the country, she said.

Thus she as well as many delegates at the event suggested the Government to reconsider the insurance premium rates.

At the event, officials from the Việt Nam Social Security as well as social security officials from many provinces and cities untied issues faced by enterprises during the process of completing or paying social insurance online, among other issues.

IT improvement

According to Lê Anh Sơn, head of the Việt Nam Social Security’s IT system operation centre said the Việt Nam Social Security agency has set up an electronic transaction system for declaration, remittance and settlement procedures for social, health and unemployment insurance since 2015, which has significantly helped to improve its services and ensure benefits for people covered by social insurance.

Speaking during an online meeting held on September 28, Sơn said the system, after two years of implementation, had reduced the number of administrative procedures from 114 to 28.

Online services are now carried out for level 3 and 4 services, meaning that applicants submit forms and settle service payments online, and transaction results are available either online or sent by post.

Nearly 500,000 public and private organisations and companies throughout the country have accessed the electronic transaction system since 2015 when the system was set up.

More than 28.6 million applications have been received and solved via the system, he said.

Since last year, the centre has also been using other information systems for health insurance assessment, Sơn said, adding that the systems had helped connect 12,241 health facilities in the country.

It has standardised nearly 12 million data items in medicine catalogues as well as medical materials and technologies.

The system also automatically finds overlapping payments and discovers other problems that indicate possible abuse of the health insurance fund, he said.

Vũ Quốc Tuấn, deputy chief of Việt Nam Social Security’s secretariat, said 11.4 million people had compulsory social insurance, as of the end of September. The number of people with voluntary social insurance in the country totalled 243,000, Tuấn said.

More than 79 million people in the country have health insurance, accounting for 84.9 per cent of the total population, he added. — VNS