Speaking to the press on Vietnam’s Population Day (Dec. 26) in Hanoi on Dec. 15, Trong said that the work has helped to ease the pressure of the population boom on socio-economic development, ensure social welfare and create more chances for people to get access medical and education services.

GOPFP’s Deputy General Director Tran Mai Hoa put forward a number of solutions to iron out snags in the country’s population and family plans for 2010. She suggested enhancing the provision of information and reducing the gender imbalance while continuing to promote joint initiatives with foreign countries and organisations.

According to the GOPFP’s statistics, Vietnam’s population growth rate has fallen by more than one third over the last 50 years, from 3.9 percent in 1960 to 1.2 percent in 2009. The period when growth dropped from 1.36 percent in 2000 to 1.2 percent in 2009 was the lowest growth rate for over half a century.

Vietnam has a large population which continues to increase, by around 9.5 million people over the past 10 years.

Vietnam now has the third largest population in Southeast Asia, after Indonesia and the Philippines and ranks 13 th in the world.

To mark Vietnam’s Population Day, the Vietnam Journalists Association presented a special press award to Professor Mai Ky from the Information and Population Centre for his work “Population Scale and Socio-economic Development: Challenges and Experiences.”/.

(Source: VietNamPlus)