Pension Reforms in Vietnam: Voices of Local Citizenry

Research purpose: This article examines pension reform in Viet Nam, a developing country. Viet Nam pension reform is targeted towards encouraging participation. This study examines the views of citizens – those who are affected by pension reform. The questions addressed in the study is why, despite the reforms, people are not willing to participate in a pension system. Research motivation: The research motivation is to seek views of people on the ground on why they are not willing to participate in a pension system in Vietnam. Research design, approach, and method: This study reports on original data from 28 interviews and a survey with 1,049 respondents. Main findings: Although citizens’ views were diverse, many respondents expressed a low level of trust in pension management, which significantly correlated with their unwillingness to participate in a pension scheme. Importantly, the low levels of trust and low levels of willingness to participate were common in people who were targeted by the reforms – people with informal employment. However, low trust was not addressed explicitly by recent reforms. Practical/managerial implications: The findings suggest that pension policy advisors develop an awareness of the dimension of ordinary people’s voice in developing countries, especially people with socioeconomic groups such as people with informal employment. This paper provides some recommendations for pension policy to be better aligned with citizens’ views.