Vietnam faces 'not rich yet old'

Voters in the provinces of Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Yen Bai, Ha Giang... expressed concern about the above scenario, requesting the Ministry of Health to study regulations on the number of children each couple can have to suit the actual situation, ensuring human resources to serve the long-term socio-economic development of the country.

In fact, Vietnam is still in the "golden population" period with a structure of two people of working age and one dependent person. The proportion of the population aged 15 - 64 accounts for over 67%; under 15 years old accounts for over 23% and over 65 years old accounts for over 9%. However, the population aging index is increasing faster than in the years 2014 - 2019. Currently, the whole country has more than 14 million people over 60 years old, an increase of 2.8 million people compared to 2019 and is forecast to reach approximately 18 million people by 2030.

The aging index is the ratio of the population aged 60 and over to the population under 15 years old, expressed as a percentage. In Vietnam, the aging index has tended to increase rapidly in the past 10 years and is likely to continue to increase in the following years. In 2011, Vietnam officially entered the population aging stage and is one of the countries with the fastest aging rate in the world. It is forecasted that by 2038, which means just over 10 years from now, our country will enter the period of an aging population.

The Ministry of Health assesses population aging as one of the challenges of population work, affecting economic growth, social security, labor, infrastructure design, especially in the field of health care. Population aging also reduces the working-age population structure, changes the occupational structure, and increases the economic burden on young workers... To cope with population aging, the health sector is making efforts to address the low birth rate.

Responding to this issue on March 13, Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan said that the Ministry of Health has completed the content of the Proposal for the development of the Population Law and sent it to the Government. The draft Population Law focuses on the main contents of maintaining the replacement fertility rate nationwide, overcoming the difference in fertility rates between regions and subjects to ensure a reasonable population size and adapt to the aging process of the population.

It is expected to allow couples and individuals to decide when to have children, the number of children and the spacing between births; to bring the sex ratio at birth back to a natural balance in order to minimize the economic and social consequences of sex imbalance at birth.

Regarding the birth rate, the Ministry of Health proposed to allow female workers to extend their maternity leave from 6 months to 7 months when giving birth to a second child. The Politburo also requested that Party members not be disciplined for having a third child. These series of policy changes are aimed at encouraging births because Vietnam's birth rate is among the lowest in Southeast Asia, currently only reaching 1.91 children per woman.

The Ministry of Health is finalizing a report on receiving and explaining the opinions of Government members. The draft Population Law is expected to be considered by the Government at a special session on law-making in 2025. If approved, the draft law is expected to be submitted to the 15th National Assembly for comments at the 9th session in 2025 and approved at the 10th session in 2025.