From Xinhua
HANOI — “It is necessary to replace Vietnam’ s current two-child propaganda with a looser policy. However, Vietnam should take slow steps for new changes of the country’s population policy at suitable time,” said Dr. Nguyen Duc Manh, director general of Vietnam’s Institute for Population, Family and Children Studies.
Newborn babies at the central maternity hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam. Photograph: Chitose Suzuki/AP
The expert shared his views with Xinhua in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi in an exclusive interview over the possibilities of loosening Vietnam’s population policy on the occasion of Vietnam’s Population Day, which falls on Dec. 26 annually.
“Vietnam’s population hit 90 million as of Nov. 1, 2013, which brings Vietnam to the fourteenth in the world’s large population countries,” said Manh.
“A lot of very good progresses have been made in Vietnam’s population and family planning sector during the 1989-2009 period. During the period, each couple was advised to have one to two children to ensure the best raising and educating conditions for their children.”
Since 2009, Vietnam has maintained the birth rate for each woman at 2.05 to 2.09 children, instead of 6.4 children per woman in 1960. This means, Manh said, each woman at her productive age will give birth to approximately two children, instead of more than six children before the propaganda.
The decreasing birth rate has led to dramatic decline in population growth rate in Vietnam. The country’s population growth rate in 1960 reached 3.9 percent, before reducing to 1.06 percent in 2012, Manh said, adding that “results from the propaganda are quite impressive.”
Talking about the possibilities of adjusting the country’s two- child propaganda amid remarkable progresses in population controlling and family planning, Manh said, “Adjusting the propaganda of a maximum of two children for each couple is a necessary move. However, Vietnam should deliberate in publishing the new changes to avoid abrupt inversion in the country’s population growth rate and make them public at suitable time.”
Read the full story from Xinhua.
