A project costing $5.97 million to utilize population information was launched in Vietnam on Sep 17 under the support of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UNHABITAT). With a fund worth $4.5 million from the UNFPA and $800,000 from UNHABITAT, the project focuses on making the most use of collecting, analyzing, forecasting and disseminating data on population including reproductive and sexual health. The move aims to support state agencies in realizing the Vietnam Statistical Development Strategy (VSDS) in the 2011-2020 period and partly serve the implementation of the millennium development goals. Building statistics on population is so important to monitor socio-economic issues, including urbanization-related matters which are said to have great impacts on population growth in big cities, said UNFPA Chief Representative in Vietnam Bruce Campbell. Vietnam, though ranked the world’s 13th most populous country, was rated 128th among 187 countries listed for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP)’s 2011 human development index (HDI). Economic growth but not health or education was the major drive of Vietnam’s overall human development progress, according to the UNDP. The country’s population is forecast to hit 93 million in 2015. (Thoi Bao Kinh Te Viet Nam – Economic Times Sep 18 p3)
