Ninh Binh (VNS/VNA) - AlthoughVietnam has obtained some achievements in improving the quality of itspopulation, there is still room for improvement, said Deputy Minister of HealthDo Xuan Tuyen.

He made the statement at ameeting which was held last week to review the performance of population andfamily planning work in the first half of this year.

Despite the fact that over thepast six months, the agencies focused on COVID-19 prevention and combat, andthe whole country exercised social distancing as requested by Prime MinisterNguyen Xuan Phuc, Vietnam has achieved positive results in the work, Tuyen said.

More than 361,000 pregnantmothers have been screened before giving birth, reaching 66 percent of the settarget for the year while the number of people who started using moderncontraceptive measures was 4.4 million, accounting for 88 percent of thedesired target.

According to Nguyen Thi NgocLan, deputy head of the General Office for Population and Family Planning,population and family planning work have yielded achievements in recent years.The replacement fertility rate – the average number of children born per woman– has been maintained for 14 years. The average population growth rate inthe 2009-2019 period was 1.44 percent per year. Child mortality and maternalmortality rates have both decreased while life expectancy has increased.

However, she said, the populationwork faced many challenges as it enters a new phase.

Tuyen, agreed, saying a numberof goals haven’t been met.

For example, the number ofchildren born in the first six months of this year increased by 1.9 percent comparedto the same period last year. The sex ratio at birth was still unbalance –110.1 boys were born for every 100 girls.

The rates of screening fordetecting diseases among newborns reached only 32 percent of the set target.

Resources for the populationwork at all levels have been significantly reduced, which affected theimplementation of action programmes and strategies.

Currently, there are 48provinces and cities that have not yet issued a plan to implement the VietnamPopulation Strategy by 2030 and 50 provinces and cities have not yet issued aplan to implement the population communication programme to the 2030 under theguidance of the Ministry of Health (MoH).

Participants at the meetingalso talked about difficulties in the implementation of the population work,sharing experiences as well as finding solutions to accomplish the assignedtasks.

Tuyen put forward a number ofmeasures to iron out snags in the country’s population and planning work.

He suggested the General Officefor Population and Family Planning work with the MoH and relevant agencies inaccomplishing resolutions on population work, promptly submitting a populationprojection for Vietnam by 2030.

He asked provinces and citiesto actively develop a funding plan on population activity by 2025 and includepopulation indicators in the Party Congress’ resolutions at all levels.

Tuyen also called for theadoption of measures to change people's behaviour and awareness on populationwork in the new situation./.