Vietnam Mulls over Encouraging Birth on Trend of Population Ageing

Vietnam’s policymakers are considering removing restriction on two-child birth in its family planning policies in the face of falling birth rate and population ageing. The General Office for Population Family Planning, under the Ministry of Health, has made a proposal in its latest draft law on population, which is going to be discussed during the ongoing month-long sitting of the National Assembly. Under the proposal, Vietnamese parents will have a right to decide how many children they want and the interval between births. Nguyen Van Tan, deputy chief of the office, was quoted as saying that the two-child policy which has been applied for five decades needs to be loosened gradually with an aim to raise the net reproduction rate (NRR) among women. Vietnam restricted birth rate when it faced NRR of 6.8 births per woman in 1970s. The government eased the restriction in 2003 and reapplied in 2009. Since then, Vietnam’s total fertility rate has been lower than the replacement rate. Vietnam’s population is about 93 million now and would be 115 million-120 million if the fertility rate is kept at 2.1, Mr. Tan said. Steven Mosher, president of the U.S.’s Population Research Institute, commented on Vietnam’s policy shift that “I celebrate the fact that the Vietnamese government is returning control of fertility back to the Vietnamese people. Couples have a natural right to determine the number and spacing of their children.” Vietnam ranked 121 among 187 countries for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP)’s 2014 Human Development Index rating. (Thanh Nien – Young People June 11)