According to the National Assembly’s Committee for Cultural and Social Affairs and many deputies, the measures proposed in the draft Population Law to maintain replacement fertility are largely short-term in nature. Therefore, more comprehensive, fundamental, and sustainable measures are needed.
Beyond housing issues, there are also matters relating to support in education (such as tuition exemptions and assistance with study costs) and healthcare (including health insurance for children aged from six to eighteen), with the aim of giving people confidence to marry and have two children, thereby reaching the replacement fertility level.
Further research is required to expand policies on employment, allowances, and support for workers who give birth and are raising young children.
Some deputies proposed that the draft law should adopt a more universal approach to ensure equitable access for different groups of women, and between workers in the formal and informal sectors (the latter currently forming the majority).
Instead of supporting women who give birth, policies should be designed to support the children themselves (such as tuition support or childcare allowances up to a certain age).
It is necessary to integrate pro-birth policies with labour, employment, childcare welfare, and pre-school education policies, thereby creating a stable and favourable environment in which couples can feel secure in having and raising children.
Some opinions suggested further specifying incentives to encourage having two children in localities with low fertility rates, enabling clearer differentiation in policies between regions and population groups.
Le Thanh Dung, Director of the Population Department under the Ministry of Health, stated that the drafting committee has taken on board the feedback received, supplementing the draft with broader, more fundamental policy orientations aimed at sustainably increasing the fertility rate to replacement level.
The development of the draft Population Law aims to institutionalise the Party’s viewpoints on population work. The draft focuses on core, non-overlapping policies, including: maintaining replacement fertility; reducing sex imbalance at birth; adapting to population ageing; improving population quality; and ensuring conditions for implementing population tasks.
The policy on maintaining replacement fertility is one of four major policy groups outlined in the draft law. It continues to inherit the rights and obligations of married couples and individuals regarding childbirth as stipulated in the Population Ordinance, while also specifying measures and policies that encourage and support married couples and individuals in having and raising children.
Based on socio-economic conditions in each period and budget, local authorities may supplement regulations on measures to maintain replacement fertility, expand the groups eligible for such measures, increase maternity leave for mothers having a second child, and introduce priority access to the purchase or rental of social housing for individuals or married couples with two children, in accordance with the law.
The policies on maintaining replacement fertility can be regarded as immediate solutions to halt the nationwide trend of declining birth rates as well as to address late marriage, late childbirth, low fertility, and non-childbearing.
According to studies and international experience, economic pressures related to giving birth and raising children, alongside limited support policies for families with young children, especially in economic zones and industrial parks, together with the desire for career advancement, higher income, and personal development, are key factors influencing late marriage, delayed childbearing, and low fertility.
