Vietnam promotes population work in new context

On March 11, Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen chaired a nationwide conference to disseminate the 2025 Population Law (Law No.113/2025/QH15). The event was held online and connected to 34 provinces and centrally run cities across the country.

At the Dong Nai online connection point, Vo Thi Ngoc Lam, Deputy Director of the Dong Nai Department of Health and Standing Deputy Head of the Provincial Steering Committee for Population and Development, presided over the meeting. Representatives from various provincial departments and agencies that are members of the committee also attended.

Delegates attend the online conference at the Dong Nai online connection point. Photo: Hanh Dung

Speaking at the conference, Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen said that the 2025 Population Law will take effect from July 1, 2026 and consists of eight chapters with 30 articles. The law focuses on four key objectives: maintaining a reasonable fertility rate, improving population quality, addressing the imbalance in the sex ratio at birth, and adapting to population aging while ensuring appropriate population distribution.

Under the law, citizens have the right to decide whether to have children, the timing of childbirth and the spacing between births. The policy aims to maintain a reasonable fertility rate nationwide while allowing flexibility for local conditions. In areas with low fertility rates, families are encouraged to have two children, while supportive policies will be implemented to improve maternal and child care and enhance population quality.

In addition, the law outlines a range of solutions to improve the physical fitness, stature and intellectual development of Vietnamese people through reproductive health care programs, prenatal and newborn screening, and efforts to prevent child marriage and consanguineous marriage.

The law also strictly prohibits all forms of fetal sex selection in order to reduce gender imbalance at birth. Furthermore, policies to adapt to population aging, improve care for the elderly and regulate population distribution more effectively are given special attention. The promulgation of the 2025 Population Law is expected to contribute to improving the quality of human resources and ensuring sustainable socio-economic development in the coming years.

According to Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen, the Ministry of Health is currently finalizing draft decrees and circulars for the implementation of the 2025 Population Law. Localities nationwide have been urged to strengthen communication efforts to disseminate new points of the 2025 Population Law to officials and residents, while strongly shifting the focus from population and family planning to population and development with an emphasis on improving population quality.

He also called on local authorities to propose and implement solutions to maintain the replacement fertility rate, enhance healthcare for the elderly and develop a qualified pool dedicated to population work.

By Hanh Dung – Translated by M.Nguyet, Thu Ha