Hanoi (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc has proposed a birth rate adjustment programme towards 2030 to encourage compatriots to marry before they are 30 and for women to have a second child before they are 35. The goal is a population strategy to achieve a replacement rate of 2 children per couple.
The programme is meant to increase the birth rate by 10 per cent in places with a low rate (less than two children per couple) and reduce the rate in places with a high rate of more than 2.2 children per couple.
Provinces and cities where women in reproductive age have 2 to 2.2 children should maintain the so-called desired fertility at the replacement level.
To achieve this goal, public servants and Party members are invited to set an example by not having more than two children, whilst local authorities are urged to promote policies to support couples in having and raising children.
Local authorities have also been asked to promote marriage and family counselling services such as dating clubs and pre-marriage health consultations.
Couples who have two children will see their income tax reduced and will be helped with children’s school tuition fees, rental housing or buying social housing.
The children of these families will have priority in admission to public schools.
Getting married or giving birth in old age is not encouraged.
