VietNamNet Bridge – Only six provinces and cities, namely Thai Nguyen, Bac Giang, Hanoi, Ha Nam, Ninh Binh and HCM City, fulfilled the goal of reducing their birthrates in 2008, reported the General Department of Population under the Ministry of Health.
The agency reported at a national conference on population, held on November 18-19 in the northern province of Thai Nguyen, that of the 64 provinces and cities in Vietnam, 58 failed to reach the goal of reducing birthrates by 0.3‰.
2008 is the third consecutive year that Vietnam has reached the birthrate reduction of 0.1‰, failing to reach the targeted ratio of 0.3‰.
In the period between January and September, the number of newborn babies who are the third and upwards children in families was 93,053, 10% more than the corresponding period of 2007, the agency said. It estimated that the entire number of newborn babies of this kind will be 142,500 for the whole year.
In addition, sexual imbalance is becoming a real threat for Vietnam with the ratio of male over female babies is now 112/100.
The Government on November 18 approved the amended draft of Article 10 of the Population Ordinance 2003, which will be submitted to the National Assembly Standing Committee later this month.
According to the draft, each family will be allowed to have 1-2 children, and not have the right to decide how many children they should have dependent on their economic situation.
Some families in the following seven cases will be allowed to have more than two children: they belong to ethnic minority groups which the population is less than 10,000 people; couples who have a twin or triples or more in the first time of childbirth; couples who have one child in the first childbirth and a twin or more in the second time of childbirth; couples who married in the second time and each of them have their stepchildren; singled women who have a twin or more in the first childbirth; and couples who have two children already but one of them are disabled or catch fatal diseases.
(Source: NLD) | 
