Vietnamese Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung and South Korean Minister of Health and Welfare Kwon Deok-cheol signed a bilateral social insurance accord between the two governments in Seoul on December 14.

The signing ceremony was witnessed by the Chairman of the Vietnamese National Assembly, Vuong Dinh Hue, who is on an official visit to South Korea.

Vietnamese Labor Minister Dao Ngoc Dung (5th from L) and South Korean Health Minister Kwon Deok-cheol (4th from R) pose for a photo after signing the bilateral social insurance agreement in Seoul on Dec. 14, 2021. Photo: Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs of Vietnam

This is Vietnam’s first comprehensive bilateral social insurance agreement, whose negotiation was started in 2015 by the two governments and signed today after reaching an agreement on many major contents.

It is expected that once the agreement comes into effect, Vietnamese guest workers in South Korea as well as Korean people working in Vietnam will be entitled to contribute to social insurance funds and thus benefit from them.

The agreement will contribute to ensuring social security and creating more favorable conditions for workers in getting access to employment opportunities.

It will also contribute to promoting the comprehensive cooperative partnership between Vietnam and South Korea, especially in the context that the number of Vietnamese workers in South Korea is growing, just as the number of South Korean workers in Vietnam.

The agreement is expected to create a favorable premise for Vietnam to sign bilateral social insurance agreements with other countries that have labor cooperation relations with Vietnam.