Having a third child is not subject to Party discipline: Contributing to maintaining a reasonable population structure for a comprehensively developed Vietnam

Previously, the Central Party Office sent a document to the Central Inspection Commission, the Government Party Committee, the National Assembly Party Committee, and the Ministry of Health Party Committee to notify the Politburo's opinion on the preliminary review of the implementation of Resolution No. 21 on population work in the new situation and the amendment of Party and State regulations related to population policy. In particular, the Politburo assigned the Central Inspection Commission to advise and amend the regulations of the Central Executive Committee, the Politburo, and the Secretariat related to handling violations of population policy and proactively amend Instruction No. 05 in the direction of not subjecting disciplinary action to cases of giving birth to a third child or more, in line with the amendment of legal regulations (not retroactively applying disciplinary action to cases that have been disciplined).

Appropriate policies needed to address the risk of population aging

According to the Ministry of Health, Vietnam's fertility rate is among the top 5 lowest in Southeast Asia. Specifically, the national fertility rate is trending down below the replacement level, from 2.11 children/woman in 2021 to 2.01 in 2022. This index continues to decrease to 1.96 children/woman in 2023 and 1.91 in 2024 - the lowest in history and is forecast to continue to decrease in the following years. It is forecasted that the fertility rate will continue to decrease, by 2039 Vietnam will end its golden population period, in 2042 the working-age population will peak and after 2054 the population will begin to grow negatively.

Faced with the current rapidly aging population and uneven birth rates across localities, experts say Vietnam needs to introduce many policies to increase birth rates. Experts have determined that the best replacement birth rate in our country is 2.1 children per woman, but birth rates vary across localities. Therefore, a unified plan is needed to encourage young couples to have two children.

To build a legal corridor for this issue, the Ministry of Health has taken a series of actions such as: submitting to competent authorities for approval the policy of abolishing regulations on handling violations of population policies that are no longer appropriate, initially abolishing the handling of violations of regulations on the number of children; drafting a revised Population Ordinance regulating the rights and obligations of each couple and individual in implementing the population campaign and family planning, reproductive health care in the direction of: deciding on the time of giving birth, the number of children and the interval between births...

Maintain a reasonable population structure, taking people as the foundation for sustainable development

The country is entering a new era of opportunity, an era of growth. In the article “The Future for the Growth Generation”, General Secretary To Lam, in addition to highlighting achievements, also pointed out the challenges facing the country, including the population issue.

General Secretary To Lam stated: “Another challenge is that Vietnam is currently entering the final stage of the golden population period while the population aging phenomenon is taking place at a very rapid rate”; “As the population ages, the proportion of workers decreases, the number of dependents increases, leading to an increasing financial burden for the working-age population. The health and healthcare system will also be under increasing pressure as the need for elderly care increases. This is a major challenge for planning a sustainable development strategy to effectively utilize young human resources before entering the aging population stage”.

“In the population development strategy, we need to maintain a reasonable population structure, effectively taking advantage of the current golden population period before entering the aging population period. Population quality needs to be improved through comprehensive health, nutrition and education programs. Policies to support young families, encourage replacement fertility and provide comprehensive health care for children need to be implemented synchronously,” General Secretary To Lam emphasized.

At the rally organized by the Ministry of Health and the United Nations Population Fund - UNFPA to celebrate World Population Day on July 11, 2024, Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan emphasized that the Vietnamese State always pays attention to population work and adjusts policies to suit the context and actual situation. With the principle of taking people as the center and the goal of sustainable development of the country, the 6th Conference of the 12th Party Central Committee issued Resolution No. 21-NQ/TW dated October 25, 2017 on population work in the new situation with the viewpoint: "Population is the most important factor in the cause of building and defending the Fatherland. Population work is a strategic task, both urgent and long-term; it is the cause of the entire Party and the entire people; continue to shift the focus of population policy from family planning to population and development".

Thus, it can be seen that Instruction 15/2025 on amending and supplementing Instruction 05/2022 of the Central Inspection Committee from March 20, 2025, having a third child is no longer a violation subject to Party disciplinary action; amending the Population Ordinance in the direction of not regulating the number of children for each couple but giving the right to decide to each family... is in line with the direction of General Secretary To Lam, Resolution No. 21-NQ/TW towards the goal of population and development.

Spring Flower

Source: https://baophapluat.vn/sinh-con-thu-ba-khong-bi-xu-ly-ky-luat-dang-cong-phan-duy-tri-co-cau-dan-so-hop-ly-vi-mot-viet-nam-phat-trien-toan-dien-post543578.html