Students: Nguyen Thi Nhat Minh – Do Huyen Mai – Do Duong Trong Hieu

TOPIC: SITUATION AND SOLUTIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE POPULATION

DEVELOPMENT IN VIETNAM

I. INTRODUCTION
Population and human issues are important factors in sustainable development and
this is also the strategic goal of the country. Therefore, Vietnam needs to make changes
to respond to the new development context such as improving the quality of human
resources, developing a medical education system in line with the rapidly changing
population structure, aging population, social security, sex imbalance at birth and its
consequences, migration, and quality of life, etc. It is important to address population
factors in close relationship with sustainable development because population is both a
driving force for development and a beneficiary of that development.
The article also mentions issues such as development, sustainable development, so
what are they? Development is “economic growth, social progress and environmental
sustainability”. Nowadays, when it comes to development, people often emphasize long-
term visions or the sustainability of development. Sustainable development is
"development that meets the needs of present generations without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (World Commission on
Environment and Development, 1987).

II. VIETNAM’S POPULATION OVERVIEW

The current population of Vietnam calculated until October 8th, 2021 is 98,446,206
people, provided by United Nations data. Vietnam’s population is equivalent to 1.25% of
the total world population, ranked 15th in the list of countries (and dependencies) by
population, and 3rd in Southeast Asia after Indonesia and Philippines. Some information
related to the population of Vietnam in 2020 is as follows: the population density is 314
people/km2; urban population accounts for 37.7% of the country's population, equivalent
to 36,772,248 people; the median age is 32.5 years old; and total fertility rate is 2.1 live
births per woman. (Worldometers.info, 2021)

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 Students: Nguyen Thi Nhat Minh – Do Huyen Mai – Do Duong Trong Hieu

III. THE CURRENT SITUATION OF VIETNAM'S POPULATION PROBLEM

1. Some issues affecting the population in Vietnam
 Aging population - low fertility
One of the major challenges facing socio-economic development and ensuring
social security of each country is the low fertility rate, which leads to the rapid aging of
the population. Thus, the aging population is a situation in which the population
distribution of a country changes in the direction of increasing the proportion of elderly
people. According to the Global Burden of Disease statistics source in 2017, countries
like Korea, Russia, Japan have low TFR of 1.2-1.3 children/woman, while the minimum
fertility rate to maintain replacement fertility is 2.1 children/woman. For developed
countries, the aging process of the population happens when the proportion of the age
group 65 and older accounts for 7-14% of the total population. When the fertility rate is
low, the number of children born decreases, the number of people in the child-dependent

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 Students: Nguyen Thi Nhat Minh – Do Huyen Mai – Do Duong Trong Hieu

age group decreases, leading to a decrease in the total population. At the same time, the
proportion of the population aged 65 and over in the total population increases rapidly,
leading to the aging rate also increasing rapidly. The reasons behind the low fertility rate
fall under the changing lifestyle of modern society. More and more women are choosing
not to have children or have only one child, marry late or not marry. There are also
problems of high living expenses and high cost of education… (TTĐTBD Dân số, 2020)
 Sex imbalance at birth
The sex imbalance at birth in Vietnam has been at a critical level. In 2006, the
country’s sex ratio started to exceed normal levels (104-106 boys to 100 girls). In 2018,
the ratio was 114.9 boys per 100 girls. In 2019, it dropped to 111.5:100.
The United Nations Population Fund declares in its State of World Population
report 2020 that every year, the preference for boys in Vietnam’s society leads people to
abort 40,800 baby girls before they are born. The report also said that this demographic
imbalance is the result of the abuse of scientific and technological progress to perform
prenatal sex selection such as termination of a pregnancy when the fetus is determined to
be female, or pre-implantation of sex determination and selection, or “sperm-sorting” for
in-vitro fertilization. Besides, the reason for the above problem also comes from the fact
that Vietnam is an Asian country with a traditional culture in which Confucian thought
plays a dominant role. Accordingly, the custom of preferring sons has been deeply
ingrained in people's minds. Adding onto that, since the social security system for the
elderly has not been well-developed, many elderly people in rural areas do not have
pensions, social allowances, or medical care. They will tend to feel anxious for the future
and insecure when they get old without a son. And the need to develop the household
economy is the next reason when in many rural areas, hard work requires the muscular
labor of men. Finally, it is because the government does not have adequate policies to
address issues related to gender inequality. If Government cannot adopt some kind of
incentive for people to balance the sex of their children at birth, in the long-term there
will be a bad prospect. (VnExpress, 2020)
 Migration
Migration trends in Vietnam increase both in number and rate, most strongly in big
cities with mainly young migrants, will continue in the next 10 years. Internal migration
mainly takes place in the great plains where conditions are favorable for living. Migration
and international labor mobility will increase the context of Vietnam's deep international
integration, participation in the ASEAN economic community, and the removal of
barriers on entry and exit across countries, especially labor at a young age.

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 Students: Nguyen Thi Nhat Minh – Do Huyen Mai – Do Duong Trong Hieu

The above factors show that migration comes from many different causes. First of
all, poor economic conditions and poverty lead to people's desire to leave, besides the
difference in human resources in the labor market and jobs between regions and between
regions, developed and developing countries. The flow of international migration in this
day and age also comes from the main causes of wars and armed conflicts that take place
with great density. There are also other causes such as natural disasters, droughts, floods,
reclamation, government policies, etc.
2. Vietnam's population problem affects factors related to the quality of life
 Economic
Large population size is one of the contributing factors to economic growth, which
is an abundant labor source in addition to technical conditions, technology, capital, etc.
On the contrary, if the technical conditions with limited technical and financial resources,
rapid population and labor growth will be the cause of economic growth.

Table 3 shows that the proportion of people of working age has increased from
52.23% to 68% of the total population, that is, an increase of nearly 16%. The young
population is a potential condition for economic development in the future, but also a
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 Students: Nguyen Thi Nhat Minh – Do Huyen Mai – Do Duong Trong Hieu

burden and pressure on society at present. The working-age population plays an

important role because this is a dynamic, creative, and fast-adapting labor force that will
meet the needs of many industries today. This population segment has a great influence
on the economic development process.
GDP per capita growth rate = Labor productivity growth rate + Working-age
population growth rate – Population growth rate (1)
Based on formula (1), it is possible to calculate the contribution of the population
factor to economic growth in each period to forecast the impact in the further future on
economic growth due to population change. number brings. (Tổng cục Dân số, 2020)
 Social security
Sexual/reproductive health risks such as infertility, teenage pregnancy, pregnancy,
unwanted abortion, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS still pose many potential
risks in the social context changes rapidly.
Pressure on social infrastructure, increasing urban poverty, unsatisfactory quality of
life of migrants, or degradation of the natural environment.
Education is unequally distributed throughout different regions of the country. With
the disparity in fertility rate, there will be places children cannot be brought to school or
cannot attend the higher education level.
 Environmental issues existing from the growth of population
In developing countries, international economic and political fundamentals
contribute a significant portion in forming demographic factors such as population
growth and environmental degradation. Hence, when the number of people increases, the
impact on the environment is increased too.
Air pollution
According to information from the World Health Organization (2017), air pollution
causes premature death for about 4.2 million people worldwide, of which 91% of the
population belongs to the poor and populous countries in the Southeast. Asia and the
Western Pacific. Vietnam ranks 4th in the Western Pacific region with more than 71,300
deaths from environmental pollution and more than 50,000 deaths from air pollution in
2017.
Due to the rapid population growth in Vietnam and the use of cars and motorbikes
mainly for commuting, these vehicles emit very toxic dust, most of which are fine dust.
Fine dust pollution in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi is now at an alarming level, making
these two cities the most polluted cities in Vietnam. In addition, pollution also comes
from other factors such as burning honeycomb charcoal for cooking and cooking;
burning votive paper during the holidays, which can make dust by biomass burning and
greatly affects air quality. (Report, 2020)
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 Students: Nguyen Thi Nhat Minh – Do Huyen Mai – Do Duong Trong Hieu

Increasing amount of waste

Along with the population growth, each year, the total amount of domestic solid
waste of the whole country is nearly 16 million tons. The daily amount of plastic waste is
estimated at nearly 18 thousand tons, with an amount of about 1.8 million tons per year,
and is among the top 5 countries discharging waste into the sea.

A comparison with several countries shows that Vietnam is among the countries
with the highest amount of plastic waste and ocean waste. Vietnam is also facing the risk
of becoming a global dumping site with a 200% increase in plastic waste over the past
year. Along with the increase in population, plastic consumption per capita in Vietnam
has increased sharply from 3.8 kg per year to 41.3 kg per person between 1990 and 2018.
According to a statistic issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of
Vietnam (2018), in Vietnam, each household uses about 1kg of plastic bags in a month;
Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City average of emitting waste into the environment every day
are about 80 tons of plastic waste. (Report, 2020)
 The difficulty for man’s marriage, or late marriage
It is difficult for men to get married, get married late, or even can't get married
because they can't find a partner, leading to a foreign bride. While marrying a foreigner
also has many problems such as great differences in culture, language, etc. will lead to
the risk of affecting the family, discrimination, and loss of gender equality.
Men reach marriage age but cannot marry because of the lack of women, which
easily leads to an increase in sex crimes, fraud, kidnapping, and trafficking in women;
increase the crime of prostitution, rape of women... increase the risk of HIV infection and
social diseases, causing political, economic and social instability.
In addition, because the husband's family or husband wants to have a son when the
wife cannot give birth to a son as she wants, the husband abandons or divorces his wife;
the husband's family forces the husband to abandon his wife, or the couple can give birth
to a daughter, put the daughter up for adoption... (Báo Vĩnh Long, 2020)
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 Students: Nguyen Thi Nhat Minh – Do Huyen Mai – Do Duong Trong Hieu

IV. PROPOSING SOME SOLUTIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE POPULATION

DEVELOPMENT IN VIETNAM
Firstly, Vietnam should create a safe and favorable business environment, promote
industrialization, urbanization and economic development,... to help create more jobs in
the labor market. This would help increase the number of women entering the workforce,
close the gender gap, attract foreign investors and workers to migrate to Vietnam, reduce
the problem of Vietnamese people leaving their country to go abroad to live and work,
and limit migration from rural to urban areas.
Second, Vietnam should focus on raising awareness and education on gender issues
through the media, enforce laws and regulations on gender equality, establish and amend
the legal system in the direction of protecting and increasing women's rights, banning
fetal sex determination,... These can help reduce the abortion rate, increase the natural
birth rate, and improve the value of women in society.
Third, the government should reform the education system, build a "brand" for
Vietnamese education, invite good quality teachers, allow students to propose and
implement personal ideas; there are policies for awarding scholarships, tuition fee
exemptions and reductions, allowing students to borrow money for tuition fees and offers
job opportunities so they can work to pay off their loans during and after their time at
university,… These also facilitate procreation; attracting talents from abroad to Vietnam
to study and stay to live and work; restricting the migration of Vietnamese people to
foreign countries; etc.
Fourth, the government can create a support system for the elderly, so that
Vietnamese people can rest assured that when they get old, they will not have to be
completely dependent on their children and do not need to have their son live with them.
From there, the issue of having a boy or a girl should be less important, which helps
reducing gender imbalance. Furthermore, when young people have less pressure and
burden associated with taking care of their parents, they can think of having more
children when they have enough money to take care of their children, then fertility also
increased.
Fifth, Vietnam needs to quickly implement plans to help improve the quality of life
for its people. This issue should not only be implemented in urban areas, but it is also
essential to implement in rural areas. The country should invest in developing the road
transport system, schools, medical facilities, amusement parks, sports facilities,...;
overcome problems of environmental pollution, social evils,... This is expected to help
increase fertility since the anxiety level of couples due to negative social factors will
decrease and their confidence that their children would live in a place with a good quality
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of life increased. Other solutions include regulating population distribution, restricting

farmers from leaving the countryside; attracting people of working age abroad to bring
their spouses and children to live and work in Vietnam; reducing migration to developed
countries.

V. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, this essay has generalized some of the issues affecting the population
in Vietnam as well as the problem that the population of Vietnam affects the factors
related to the quality of life here. From there, we propose some solutions in line with the
expectation to help the sustainable development of the population in Vietnam.

VI. REFERENCES
1. Báo Vĩnh Long. (2020). Vĩnh Long Online. Retrieved from
http://www.baovinhlong.com.vn/xa-hoi/202104/nhung-van-de-dan-so-va-phat-trien-
cua-viet-nam-hien-nay-3050435/?
fbclid=IwAR0t7Qe7iGdHpJsavOitWFu1VfHNT_a9R38v5UXp1zKawPkLrjHG4irgQ
94#.YWLlHNpBxPa
2. Report, V. C. (2020). Population Explosion and the Environment in Developing
Countries: A Case Study of Vietnam. Vu Hong Van.
3. Tổng cục Dân số. (2020). Trang thông tin điện tử - Tổng cục Dân số và Kế hoạch hóa
gia đình. Retrieved from http://gopfp.gov.vn/chi-tiet-an-pham/-/chi-tiet/dan-so-voi-
phat-trien-%0Anhung-van-%C4%91e-%C4%91at-ra-o-viet-nam-hien-nay-8317-
3308.html?
fbclid=IwAR3tDQunHTpXH4aoGk7grScwP6yUR0LiD_xfyv5TK7eB0X3rPSCLGe8
yx2o
4. TTĐTBD Dân số. (2020). Trung tâm Đào tạo, Bồi dưỡng về Dân số. Retrieved from
https://population.edu.vn/tac-dong-cua-muc-sinh-thap-den-gia-hoa-dan-so/?
fbclid=IwAR260mCVX7uyayh_z9UpV1qVu7sWG_9LQWr29gzwdKPDdlyNAHxlc
1OW1xo
5. VnExpress. (2020). VnExpress. Retrieved from
https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/vietnam-has-more-than-family-planning-issues-to-
worry-about-4212032.html
6. Worldometers.info. (2021). WorldOMeter. Retrieved from
https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/vietnam-population/