Illustrative image (Photo: VOV)Hanoi (VNA) - Population policies should change from focusing onpopulation and family planning to focusing on population and development, saidAssociate Professor Nguyen Dinh Cu, former director of the Institute ofPopulation and Social Studies, at a conference in Hanoi on December 1.
Expertsat the conference, held by the General Office for Population and FamilyPlanning under the Ministry of Health, discussed the Party’s new orientation onpopulation, forecasts for the country’s population in the period 2014-49,reduction of gender inequality at birth and adaptation to the country’s agingpopulation.
Withthe forecast that Vietnam’s population will reach 100 million by 2026, expertsat the conference recommended that the country adopt suitable policies on urbanplanning, infrastructure development and vocational training.
AssociateProfessor Cu said that for more than 50 years, Vietnam’s population policiesfocused on encouraging families to have no more than two children.
Vietnamhad been developing with urbanisation and international integration, thanks togood education, and people understand more about the benefit of small families,he said. But with that target achieved, it is no longer suitable to focus onfamily planning, he added.
Manyurgent new problems now demand attention, such as an aging population, genderinequality at birth and more, he said.
Amongother General Statistics Office data presented at the conference:
-By 2020, Vietnam will have 1.38 million marriage-age men without availablepartners.
-The country’s golden population period, in which for every two people working,there was only one dependent person, will end in 2040, and an aging populationwill become a problem as it is in much of the developed world.
-The number of primary school children will increase until 2025, and thendecrease sharply until 2034 and remain stable to 2049.
-The number of women of child-bearing age will be stable and decrease sharplyafter 2035.
Moreeducation should be given to gender equality to reduce gender inequality atbirth, and more researches should be focus on taking advantage of the agingpopulation./.
VNA
