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Date:         Mon, 4 Jan 1993 21:09:53 PST
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Subject:      Vietnam: Population growth could de

/* Written 12:03 am  Dec 23, 1992 by newsdesk@igc.apc.org in igc:ips.englibrary
*/
/* ---------- "Vietnam: Population growth could de" ---------- */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: Vietnam: Population growth could derail economic take-off


an inter press service feature

by kunda dixit

hanoi, dec 21 (ips) --  vietnam has all but abandoned its
centrally-planned economy in favour of a free market, but
officials fear that the reforms could be derailed if the
country's population keeps growing at its current rate.

after three decades of continuous war and seven years of
extreme economic hardship, vietnam's 69 million people are keen
to put the past behind them and are anxiously looking forward to
catching up with their richer south-east asian neighbours.

vietnam's planners have unshackled the economy, but the
still pre-eminent communist party has decided that political
reforms will have to wait until economic changes produce results.

in 1986, the landmark party congress that decided to launch
economic reforms also gave family planning the second highest
priority after food production.

since then, vietnam's success in boosting harvests has been
astounding. from a food importer, it is now the world's third
biggest rice exporter. granaries are bursting in the fertile
deltas of the mekong and the red river, and rice production for
the first nine months of 1992 is up 10 percent from last year.

now, the government is turning its attention to family
planning. officials fear successes in raising food production and
living standards could be negated by runaway population growth.

the last census in 1989 showed that the country's population
grew from 53 million in 1979 to 64.5 million in 1989. an average
vietnamese woman has at least four babies. at the present rate of
growth, vietnam's population could reach 150 million in 25 years.

the increase is straining the government's resources,
especially at a time when state subsidies for health, education
and housing are being drastically cut back.

eight in every ten vietnamese live in the rural areas, and new
incentives to private agriculture has encouraged them to have
more children who can help in the farm and raise family income.

reacting to the threat, reformist prime minister vo van kiet
last year set up the national committee for population and family
planning (ncpfp) which is charged with coordinating a population
strategy for the country and wants to reduce the annual
population growth to 1.7 percent in the next two years.

''we are very concerned that population growth will affect
living standards,'' said ncpfp vice-chairman, mai ky. ''therefore
we want to cut population growth to one percent per year in the
next 20 year
(story received incomplete)
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