Vietnam's social protection will be be more inclusive, sustainable in 2024 (Photo: chinhphu.vn)

Striving to achieve labor, national devotees, and social development goals

The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs strives to reduce the urban unemployment rate and the multidimensional poverty rate and increase the rate of trained workers, the three main tasks assigned by the National Assembly and the Government.

To realize these tasks, the Ministry is working on an Action Program to reform and improve social policies, which will be submitted to the Government for approval. It is also submitting to the National Assembly a draft of the revised Law on Social Insurance for approval at the Assembly’s 7^th session.

Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung said: "In 2024, we’re determined to make every effort to achieve better results than last year. We aim to fulfill the targets set by the Government and the National Assembly: to reduce the urban unemployment rate below 4%, increase the rate of trained workers to 69%, and reduce the multidimensional poverty rate at least 1%, while fulfilling our own 16 targets for this year."

The labor market will continue to stabilized and developed and the quality of labor be improved to meet the requirements of international integration and emerging occupations.

Minister Dung said: "In 2024, we will give highest priority to building a stable, flexible, multidimensional, sustainable, and integrated labor market by promoting continuous learning and training of high-quality human resources to meet the needs of the labor market and enhance labor productivity. We will also focus on training the workforce for semiconductor chips and the carbon credit market, which are in high demand."

Developing comprehensive, inclusive social protection system

To achieve a multidimensional poverty rate reduction of at least 1%, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs will continue to improve mechanisms and policies toward conditional support, promoting the internal strength of people and communities to escape poverty, and effectively implementing the National Poverty Reduction Target Program for the 2021-2025 period. 

Vietnam is one of the first 30 countries in the world and the first country in Asia to apply a multi-dimensional poverty standard, which guarantees a minimum standard of living with minimum access to employment, medical services, education, housing, water and sanitation, and information.

Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Le Van Thanh said: "The 2021-2025 poverty reduction program has fundamentally changed, setting out higher goals and requirements compared to previous periods, making the work of poverty reduction more challenging. In addition to the income index, we need to reduce shortages of basic social services and change the support mechanism from free to conditional support. So poverty reduction does not mean simply increasing income. Higher requirements are set to ensure more comprehensive poverty reduction."

Considering people the center, stakeholders, goal, driving force, and resource for development and not trading social justice and social security for pure growth, Vietnam has worked hard to improve social security and people’s lives. In 2024, social security work will continue to be promoted, focusing on stabilizing the lives of disadvantaged groups and ethnic minorities, helping them integrate into the community, and ensuring that all people share in social achievements.