Viet Nam needs to keep population growth at replacement level in order to improve the quality of its people and develop sustainability, said National Assembly vice chairman Uong Chu Luu yesterday.

Luu was speaking at a meeting in the northern city of Thai Nguyen to mark Viet Nam’s Population Day that falls today.

Population quality referred to the fact that the height and weight of Vietnamese youngsters were modest and there were high rates of disabled children and those with inborn or genetic diseases.

"We are facing challenges such as the fact that the population replacement level isn’t steady, especially in mountainous and remote areas and populous regions," Luu said.

"Each of us should be aware that population and family planning activities are vital to improving the quality of our human resource – a key to sustainable development."

He urged each couple to have only one or two children to maintain the replacement level so as to not surpass 100 million population by 2020.

Luu said various sectors and localities had been advised to adopt vigorous measures to curb population growth and improve family planning.

This year’s census statistics show Viet Nam’s population is 85.8 million with an average population growth rate over the past 10 years of 1.2 per cent.

The statistics show Viet Nam’s population has increased by nearly 1 million people a year, equal to the population of a medium size province like Ba Ria-Vung Tau or Thua Thien-Hue. Gender imbalance is high with 112 boys being born to every 100 girls. People of working age and the elderly have increased quickly.

Luu said gender imbalance was a big problem and led to an increased number of batchelor males and a female shortage that could threaten social and even political security.

Luu said he expected the Government would soon declare its Strategy on Population and Reproductive Health which would target the improvement of population quality.

Health Minister Nguyen Quoc Trieu also said the country should focus on population scale, structure and quality.

"We should be aware that birth control and family planning are an important part of the country’s socio-economic development," said Trieu.

"All efforts should be given to reducing the birth rate," Trieu said.

Population activities would focus on mountainous, remote and coastal areas with improved information and communication activities to encourage behaviour change and boost reproductive health and family planning services. — VNS