Social Insurance Fund surplus of more than 1.2 million billion VND by the end of 2024

The Government has reported to the National Assembly on the implementation of the 2024 financial plan and the expected 2025 financial plan of extra-budgetary state financial funds managed by the central government.

Accordingly, for the Social Insurance Fund (the fund used to pay pensions and insurance benefits), the total revenue according to the regime, including funds from the state budget transferred to the fund to pay pensioners and social insurance benefits, is estimated at VND 410,300 billion, an increase of 5.2% (VND 20,500 billion) compared to the plan.

It is expected that by the end of 2024, about 20 million people will participate in social insurance, an increase of 8.79% (1.255 million people) compared to 2023, equivalent to nearly 43% of the working-age workforce.

Total expenditure of the fund is estimated at over VND 352,000 billion, reaching 109.2% (an increase of VND 29,800 billion) compared to the plan, of which social insurance expenditure from the fund is about VND 300,000 billion. Pension and insurance allowance expenditure from the State budget is VND 522,000 billion, an increase of 9.3% (VND 4,500 billion).

The difference between fund revenue and expenditure in 2024 is estimated at VND 58,100 billion. The fund balance at the end of 2024 is expected to be more than VND 1.2 million billion, an increase of 4.9% (VND 58,100 billion) compared to the end of 2023, mainly used to invest in government bonds.

HSBC says Vietnam's economic growth 'surprises'

In a recently released report, HSBC Bank said that Vietnam recorded a "surprise" in September.

Specifically, Vietnam recorded stronger-than-expected growth in the third quarter of 2024 with GDP increasing by 7.4% year-on-year.

There are also concerns that the impact of Super Typhoon Yagi, the strongest storm to hit Vietnam in 70 years, could drag down growth. Northern provinces were particularly hard hit in early September, with damage estimated at more than $3 billion.

However, the impact was mainly concentrated in the agriculture, forestry and fishery sectors. Production and trade remained stable and continued to lead the recovery while the domestic sector was relatively quiet despite some improvements.

With a "positive surprise" in the third quarter of 2024, HSBC raised its 2024 GDP growth forecast to 7.0% from its previous forecast of 6.5%, while its 2025 GDP growth forecast remained unchanged at 6.5%.

HSBC also kept its inflation and policy rate forecasts unchanged as external risks remained outside the range of concern.

A business was fined for changing the purpose of capital issued without reporting.

The State Securities Commission has just imposed administrative sanctions on AAV Group Joint Stock Company (AAV) for securities violations.

Accordingly, this enterprise was fined VND175 million for not reporting changes in capital use plans and proceeds from the offering or issuance at the most recent General Meeting of Shareholders (GMS).

On October 5, 2021, the Board of Directors of AAV Group approved a Resolution on changing the amount of money raised from the private offering of shares in 2021. However, the company did not report to the most recent Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (2022) on changing the capital use plan and the amount of money raised from the private offering in 2021.

Remedial measures require approval at the nearest general meeting of shareholders on changes to the capital use plan and the amount of money raised from the private offering or issuance of securities in 2021.

Next, AAV was also fined 65 million VND for not disclosing information on time as required by law; Fined 65 million VND for disclosing information with incomplete content as required by law.

Up to 1.3 million Vietnamese people live with coronary artery disease.

Speaking at the 10th National Interventional Cardiology Conference held on October 10 and 11, Prof. Dr. Pham Manh Hung, Director of the National Heart Institute, said that in the past two years, the number of cardiovascular cases requiring intervention has increased by nearly 20% compared to before, especially cases of acute myocardial infarction and coronary artery disease.

It is estimated that there are 1.3 million Vietnamese people living with coronary artery disease. Every year, about 100,000 patients undergo interventional procedures, of which half are coronary stenting interventions performed to save patients' lives.

In addition, the number of patients receiving intervention for other cardiovascular diseases is also increasing rapidly, such as rhythm intervention, structural heart disease, intervention for large blood vessels, peripheral blood vessels...

Vietnam has 6 internationally certified centers as independent centers for transcatheter aortic valve replacement, of which 2 centers have become training centers for this technique.

At the conference, there were over 200 leading national and international cardiovascular experts, with over 50 scientific discussion sessions. Issues of interest at the conference included advances in complex coronary artery interventions, calcification interventions, intravascular imaging interventions, trends in multimodal and multidisciplinary approaches...

Over 80% of blind people in Vietnam have preventable and curable diseases.

The second Thursday of October every year is chosen by the World Health Organization as World Sight Day. This year, the Central Eye Hospital organized a rally in response to World Sight Day with the slogan "Prioritizing children's eye care".

According to the Central Eye Hospital, Vietnam currently has about 2 million blind or visually impaired people, 1/3 of whom are poor and cannot afford treatment to restore sight. 80% of blind people in Vietnam have diseases that can be prevented and cured.

The main causes of blindness in Vietnam are cataracts (accounting for more than 66%), followed by fundus disease, glaucoma, refractive errors... Notably, refractive errors (nearsightedness, astigmatism, farsightedness) are increasingly common among adolescents, accounting for 15-20% of rural adolescents and 40-50% of urban adolescents.

In the 6-15 age group alone, it is estimated that 3 million children have refractive errors that require glasses, 2/3 of whom are nearsighted.