Materials : Country/Review PaperThe Effort of Vietnam
on Promotion of Rights for Persons with Disabilities
ESCAP Inter-Governmental meeting on International Convention on rights for persons with
Disabilities
Bejing 4 - 7 November 2003
Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs
The Vietnamese Government has expressed its viewpoint on Social development namely
“economic growth must be linked with Social progress and Justice from the very
beginning and throughout the socio-economic development progress”
Lessons learnt from Vietnam show that, the system of social safety policies is a
consistent complex including:
- The state macro policies with the aim at linking the social safety policy with economic
development policy to create the harmonious combination between economic growth and social
equity and progress.
- The formulation and completion the legal systems in order to institutionalize the
advocacy, views and solutions related to social safety (e.g. Labour Code, Educational Law,
Law on protection, care and education for children, Ordinances on people (persons) with
disabilities, elderly, etc.) All of them are involved of the Disabled including
Education, Health, Rehabilitation, employment, Vocational Training and Social integration.
- The implementation must be carried by all Local levels and involved by Mass
Organizations.
- Setting up the national target programs and funds in social safety sector (e.g. programs
on employment, programme for extremely difficult communes, water and enviroment, social
security, Social Policy Bank and funds for employment, fund of love, etc.).
- Socialization with the aim at mobilizing all resources, in particular from people and
localities; while integration of the target programs each other for more efficient use of
resources for social safety. This system is gradually improved and penetrated into
reality, yearly with the average employment growth rate of 2.90 percent per year.
Improving policy for social assistance
- Through efforts made by state, community, and targets themselves it is to insure the
living standard of Households with the Disabled and disadvantaged groups not lower than
the minimum living standard and step by step to improve; most of Households with the
Disabled and Vulnerable groups will be taken care about and assisted by state, family, and
community for their life.
- Studying, revising policies and mechanism of social assistance, rates and maximization
of financial resources. Setting the social assistant fund raising from various resources
(e.g. state budget, contributions of people, humanitarian aid, etc.). The special concern
should be paid to the mutual assistance of community, commune, and village as tradition of
"the full leaf covers the torn ones".
- It is necessary to issue the policy and mechanism to facilitate the self-earning and
integrating into community by vulnerable populations, in particular to help them in
getting benefits from target national programs such as on vocational training, employment,
poverty eleviation, education, health care … to insure most of them to access to
education, health care, rehabilitation and other public welfare e.g. information, cultural
activities, etc.
To assist the production units headed by the targets i.e. persons with
disabilities and reinforcement of several preferential policies relating to products,
taxation, loans, sale of market….
Under this context, the social safety policy should make an important contribution in
socio-economic stabilization, creation of new momentum for development of the country
while focus should be placed for employment growth, poverty reduction, better care for
social vulnerable groups, limited and pushed back social evils ...
1. Improving policy for employment and accessment to public works:
- Continuing institutional, policy reforms toward liberalization of potential labour,
land, natural resources, capital of people for investment in production, employment
generation, in particular macro policies related to taxation, credit, technology,
marketing, sales of products, infrastructure developmentfor accessment to public works,...
2. Renovating the social insurance
- To build and develop the system of employment insurance, especially to conduct study the
policy on occupational accident injury insurance, unemployment insurance for labourers.
- To Continue the implementation of employment support programme for unemployment
especially for the Disabled in labour market
3. Attacking poverty
- To create opportunities for economic development, employment and income generation is
the most essential direction for sustainable poverty reduction, especially policy related
to the Disabled exemption from taxation, provision of credits associated with transfer of
technology for the poor/Disabled and business guidelines for the Poor/Disabled; policy on
purchase and subsidy of products for the Disabled, Development of infrastructure.
- To develop Social Safety net as shield with the aimed at limiting the risks for the poor
and their community also, especially for Disadvatagous groups; To set up policy and
programme to the Disabled who are getting benifits from target Social programmes .
- To expand the democratic mechanism to enable the Disabled to directly participate in the
socio-economic development programs so that they can actively escape poverty and integrate
themselves into their communities.
4. Preventing disabilities and social responsibilities
- Reinforcing socialist legislation, enhancing efficiency of legislative and executive
bodies, renovating the public administration and order are all very necessary measures
- The focus is given to measures of management, construction of schools and public places
coupled with nation-wide based movement of participation in prevention and fighting
against Disabilities, especially at grass-root level (e.g. hamlet, village, commune,
precinct, etc.).
- Effectively implementing programme on employment generation, vocational training,
developing social safety nets, especially in rural areas. Special attention is paid to
measures of combination of education with effective treatment, labour education linked
with vocational training, production, rehabilitation and integration of targets of Persons
with Disabilities undertaken by state and community to give them love, humanitarian and
opportunity to mend their ways.
Participating this meeting, I hope to learn lessons from all of you and apply the
articles of International Convention on rights for persons with Disabilities into the
practice of my country situation.
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