Minister Dung, who is also head of the Advisory Council for Administrative Procedure Reform, chaired a dialogue with the Japan Business Association in Vietnam (JBAV) on December 13.
JBAV Chairman Hiroshi Karashima said that to avoid collecting the insurance premium twice for foreign workers (in both Vietnam and their country), Vietnam is recommended to apply the mechanism of excluding the subjects that have paid compulsory insurance in Japan before being seconded to Vietnam.
"The majority of Japanese workers working in Vietnam are under Japanese firms' temporary assignment, but according to Vietnamese regulations, they still have to sign labour contracts and pay compulsory social insurance premiums. The regulations will create an additional burden on enterprises, while limiting Japanese small and medium-sized enterprises that wish to send their experts to Vietnam, "said Hiroshi.
Tran Hai Nam, Deputy Director of Social Insurance Department under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs said that the suggestion from the Japanese enterprises will be considered in order to revise the decree on social insurance towards narrowing the subjects paying compulsory social insurance to avoid the double collection of premiums.
Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam Kunio Umeda noted that he would soon report the issue to the Japanese Government to accelerate the negotiations on social insurance with Vietnam.
Japanese enterprises also expressed their concerns on a number of other issues, including the regulations on waste water treatment in the draft Law on Environment Protection; the regulations on the imports of used machinery and equipment; and the import of automobiles under the Decree No.116/2017/NĐ-CP.
Minister Dung affirmed that the recommendations and questions from the Japanese enterprises will be considered by Vietnam's authorised agencies in order to make the appropriate adjustments.
The Government official emphasised that the Vietnamese Government will continue to remove any difficulties and create a clear business environment for Japanese investors.
