Each locality should prioritise its investment in ethnic inhabited and poorer regions to protect the lives of children, said an official of the Ministry of Public Health.

At a workshop on implementing an action plan for improving children’s lives in HCM City on Sept. 22, Head of the ministry’s Child and Mother Health Protection Department Nguyen Duy Khe said the mortality rate of children in mountainous and remote provinces and poor families is three to four times higher than that of wealthy families.

He emphasised the need for each locality to conduct surveys and have its own action plan to protect children’s lives, with a national programme target of reducing the mortality rate of children under five to below 18 percent and that of newborn babies to less than 10 percent.

A special focus should be put on reducing the mortality rate of newborn babies, which represents around 70 percent of that of all children, said Dinh Thi Phuong Hoa from the Public Health University.

The mortality rate of newborn babies can be reduced from 6-42 percent with timely emergency treatment and 55-87 percent for early breastfed cases, she said.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said Vietnam had around 28,000 children die under the age of five, including 16,000 newborns each year./.