Vietnam has always created all favourable conditions for the development of women, said Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan.

Speaking at a meeting in response to World Population Day in Hanoi on July 10, Deputy PM Nhan said that women are an extremely important social force that contributes to the development of each country and the world.

Thus, investing in women’s development and their health is expected to bring happiness to each family and prosperity to each country, he added.

While applauding this year’s theme of “Responding to the Economic Crisis: Investing in Women is a Smart Choice”, he called upon ministries, agencies and social organisations, especially health and population sectors, to build and implement practical action programmes in an effort to fulfil international commitments to provide proper healthcare for women.

With the people’s support and active participation as well as the international community’s cooperation and assistance, the Vietnamese government will try its utmost to successfully implement the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and objectives of the national strategies on population, reproductive healthcare and for the advancement of women by 2010, Nhan stressed.

Over the past years, Vietnam has seen encouraging achievements in woman and child healthcare work with the mortality rate among mothers falling from 95/100,000 babies in 2000 to 75/100,000 in 2007 and the malnutrition rate among children under five down from 33.8 percent in 2000 to 21.2 percent in 2007./.