Ho Chi Minh City’s authorities are encouraging married couples to havemore than one child but no more than two, and to not delay marriagebeyond the child bearing age, as the birth rate in the city falls.
The city was in the early stages of making plans to inform the publicabout those issues, according to To Thi Kim Hoa, Head of the City’spopulation and Family Planning Division.
The Division reportedthat the birth rate in the southeastern and southwestern regions hasfallen to 1.5-1.8 children per mother each year.
HCM City hasthe lowest birth rate in the country 1.33 children per mother last year,compared to 1.45 in 2009, according to Duong Quoc Trung, Head of theGeneral Office for Population and Family Planning.
The birthrate in HCM City had fallen year by year, Hoa said, noting the mainreason was the increasing cost of living, including higher expense toraise a child.
As people become more educated, they alsorealise that having only one or two children will benefit the family’sfinancial development, she added.
Mandeep K.O’ Brien, ActingChief Representative of the UN’s Population Fund in Vietnam, told thelocal media that the birth rate in Vietnam had fallen from 2.1 in 2005to 1.99 in 2011.
She said that Vietnam’s national programme onpopulation and family planning in the last few decades had been verysuccessful.
However, now the country needs to look to thefuture and take action against the falling birth rate as the populationbecomes progressively older, she added./.