Hanoi’s People’s Committee and the General Department of Population and Family Planning held a joint ceremony on December 6 to launch the 2010 National Action Month on Population.

Speaking at the ceremony, Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Ba Thuy said that despite recording some positive results over the past few years, population and family planning work in Vietnam still faces many difficulties and challenges, including a large population and an unsustainable growths in births, with a big difference between the regions.

Vietnam ’s current population has reached nearly 86 million, ranking 13 th in the world, he said, adding that the country welcomes an additional 1 million citizens annually, equivalent to the population in many provinces.

Gender imbalance is also an alarming problem for Vietnam , as its sex ratio at birth has rapidly increased in recent years from 105 boys per 100 girls in 1979 to 110.5 boys per 100 girls in 2009.

If there are no effective measures introduced, the surplus of men over women will become a serious issue in the next few decades, stressed Thuy.

In addition, the population’s basic qualities are hindering the country’s development as it is still named in the list of countries with a middle-level human development index.

In response to the Action Month, the Deputy Minister has urged all localities to step up information campaigns to control the increase in population, especially the gender imbalance at birth./.