The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) is drafting a decree to create a State subsidy for people joining the voluntary social insurance programme.

This means paying social insurance premiums not through the employer, but on one's own initiative.

The draft decree offers two options. The first is for the State to subsidise participants for 50 percent of their premiums for the first five years and 30 percent for the next five years.

The second option is for the State to subsidise participants in rural areas only. The subsidy would be given throughout the period of premiums payment, on a monthly basis.

It would be equivalent to 30 percent of the lowest level of premium the insured could pay.

Talking to Tin Tuc (News) newspaper, Pham Minh Huan, Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, said the draft decree was open to input from other ministries, local government and the general public.

It is expected that the draft will be submitted to Government next month after being reinforced by these inputs.

MOLISA expects the country's workforce will reach 60 million by 2020. It sets the goal of engaging half of this figure or 30 million in the social-insurance programme - most of them in the voluntary programme.-VNA