Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam’s population and family planning work in 2019 faced difficulties,especially in communications due to decreased funding, heard a conference inHanoi on January 9.

Hostedby the Ministry of Health, the event aims to review the population and familyplanning work in 2019, and set out key tasks for 2020, including theimplementation of the Vietnam Population Strategy through 2030.

Reportspresented at the event showed that a number of documents, regulations and guidelineson the implementation of the population work were issued late andasynchronously, while funding for communications campaigns – a crucial solutionto the work – has reduced, greatly affecting the sector’s performance.

By April 1, 2019, Vietnam had a totalpopulation of over 96.2 million people, up 1.5 million compared to a yearearlier. The crude birth rate was 16.3percent, up 1.7 percent against 2018. The newborn screening rate rose by 2 percent compared to 2018 to reach 40percent, but failing to meet the goal of 70 percent set for 2019.

Thanks to efforts of the sector at all levels, a number ofbasic targets of the 2019 plan were satisfied.

The replacement fertility was maintained at 2.09 children per woman, while the sex ratio at birth was controlled at 111.5 boys per100 girls.  The rate of couplesaccepting to use modern contraception reached 70.8 percent, 2.8 percent higherthan the target. The number of women receiving screening during pregnancy stood at 56.43 percent.

Meanwhile, the percentage of elderly people receiving health checkups at least once a yearreached 20 percent, exceeding the target of 10 percent.

In2020, the sector aims to firmly maintain the replacement fertility, reducefertility disparities across regions, and bring the sex ratio at birth to thenatural equilibrium, and improve the quality of population and health care forthe elderly.

Attention will paid to building legal documents on the population and familyplanning work, while promoting communication campaigns to raise publicawareness of the work, and the implementation of models and measures to improvethe quality and structure of population.

Vietnam’spopulation is forecast to reach 97.3 million people in 2020, with the total of birth rate standing at 2.1 percent, and the sex ratio at birth at 111.3 boys per 100 girls./.