At the Policy Dialogue Conference between the Ministry of Home Affairs and international partners held on November 27, Deputy Director of the Department of Salary and Social Insurance Tong Van Lai said that the Department is the only unit under the two ministries that was previously merged from 3 units.
After the merger, the Department currently assumes 5 very deep professional areas, with a wide impact on the whole society, including: Salary management in the production - business sector; wages; labor policies; building and developing labor relations in enterprises; and a multi-layered social insurance policy system.
He said that Vietnam's current salary policy has been perfected and completely transformed according to market principles, especially the minimum wage mechanism.
Vietnam is implementing a 3-party national representative model through the National Wage Council. This model has been supported by ILO for many years and is highly appreciated for its compliance with common international standards, especially the ILO Convention 131 .
Orientation in 2026, Deputy Director of the Department of Salary and Social Insurance said that the Department prioritizes 3 very important tasks related to salaries and hopes that international organizations, especially ILO, will support.
The first is to increase science for the National Wage Council. "How to make the council more competent in analyzing and evaluating the minimum wage policy to practical life to make better recommendations" - he said.
Second, continue to study the minimum wage mechanism after the provinces switch to a two-level local government model. During the implementation process, the Government is temporarily maintaining the old plan - minimum wage in 4 regions; while some countries such as Korea only apply a single minimum wage.
Third is to study increasing salary consultation to improve the ability to negotiate between employees and employers, towards the salary level that ILO is interested in - the salary level that employees consider satisfactory.
Regarding the field of social insurance, Mr. Tong Van Lai said that Vietnam's social insurance system has now been completed according to the multi-layered social insurance model.
This policy was built with the support of ILO and the World Bank, and has so far basically operated stably. In 2026, the Department was assigned to evaluate the overall social insurance policy to summarize Resolution 28, as a basis for developing new orientations. He expressed his desire to continue to receive the companionship and support of international partners.
Also in the field of social insurance, he said that in the 2025-2026 period, Vietnam is signing bilateral agreements with a number of countries, especially South Korea and Japan.
Currently, specific documents are being drafted, and he suggested that the Korean side pay attention and support the two sides to review and complete these documents accordingly.
Mr. Tong Van Lai also said that the Vietnamese Government has completed the first round of negotiations and plans to launch a second round of negotiations on social insurance in December. At the Conference, he requested relevant agencies to support Vietnam in the preparation and organization of the upcoming negotiation round.
