700 billion VND for population control and child-care

Viet Nam plans to earmark nearly 700 billion VND (43.75 million USD) for promoting population control and family planning as well as child-care activities in 2007. More than 560 billion VND of the fund will be disbursed from the State budget and the remaining will be sourced from donors, said a conference held in Ha Noi on Jan. 26 by the National Commission for Population, Family and Children.

In 2007, the population control and family planning programme will focus on tightening inspection over population structure and ameliorating living conditions for the whole population. The country also targets to reduce the birth rate to three per thousand in 2007 in order to keep its population at 85.3 million.

In order to fulfill these targets, chairwoman of the committee Le Thi Thu pointed to the need to speed up information dissemination and encourage involvement of every sector in implementing the population and family planning mission.

Besides, relevant ministries and agencies should continue finalising the legal system and policies on population and improving the quality of the management and information.