Minister of Health: 'Vietnamese people spend nearly 4 billion USD on beer a year'

Bright9/11,Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien presented to the National AssemblyDraft Law on Prevention and Control of Harmful Effects of Alcohol and Beer.

According to Ms. Tien, currently theAlcohol and beer consumption in Vietnam is high and increasing rapidly, so it needs to be controlled to reduce consumption.

Specifically, in 2017, people consumed about 305 million liters of wine, equivalent to 72 million liters of alcohol, and nearly 4.1 billion liters of beer, equivalent to 161 million liters of alcohol. On average, each person consumed about 42 liters of beer. Vietnam is the country with the highest beer consumption in Southeast Asia and the third in Asia after Japan and China.

Citing statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO), the Minister of Health said that the economic costs of alcohol and beer account for 1.3% -3.3% of each country's GDP, with indirect costs often being twice as high as direct costs.

In Vietnam, if the economic cost of alcohol and beer is at the lowest level in the world (1.3% of GDP), the estimated loss is about 65,000 billion VND..

Ms. Tien said more specifically, the estimated total direct burden of 6 cancers of which alcohol and beer are one of the main causes is nearly 26,000 billion VND, accounting for 0.25% of the total GDP in 2017; the cost of dealing with the consequences of traffic accidents related to alcohol and beer accounts for 1% of GDP (about 50,000 billion VND according to GDP in 2017).

“In 2017, people spent nearly $4 billion on beer alone,” she said.

The Minister of Health stated that there are many advertisements and sales of alcohol and beer on social networks, and there are no measures to restrict them for children and adolescents. Beer advertisements are common, frequent, and often advertised during prime time and evening hours on television and radio. According to her, this situation leads to the promotion and encouragement of alcohol and beer consumption, and an increase in children and adolescents using these drinks.

Officials and civil servants are not allowed to consume alcohol during working hours.

The draft Law on Prevention and Control of Harmful Effects of Alcohol and Beer has proposed a number of measures to raise public awareness, focusing on specific groups such as students, young people, and organizations and individuals producing craft alcohol.

Article 5 of the draft Law prohibits advertising of alcohol and beer with an alcohol content of 15 degrees or higher in any form; prohibits forcing people under 18 years of age to use alcohol and beer; and prohibitsProviding inaccurate or false information about the effects of alcohol and beer on health;Cadres, civil servants, public employees and workers during working hours and breaks between shifts during the working day are not allowed to use alcoholic beverages.

"These are groups of people whose alcohol and beer use not only affects the person themselves but also has the potential to greatly affect others and the community, labor quality and, more seriously, affect the future generations of the country," said the Minister of Health.

This content is supported by the Committee on Social Issues because according to research, the same amount of wine or beer and the same alcohol content, when absorbed into the human body, will have the same harmful effects without any distinction between wine or beer. According to the Committee Chairwoman Nguyen Thuy Anh, the issuance of this regulation also does not create legal conflicts with the Law on Advertising and the Law on Commerce.

Ban on selling alcohol through vending machines

Article 20 of the draft Law stipulates that places where alcohol and beer are not allowed to be sold include medical facilities, educational facilities, entertainment venues for people under 18 years old... Also in this article, the drafting committee proposed that alcohol and beer should not be sold on the internet and vending machines.

Ms. Nguyen Thuy Anh said that the majority of the Committee members agreed with the draft Law and appreciated the Government's determination in proposing this policy to minimize the availability and accessibility of alcohol and beer. According to Ms. Thuy Anh, this regulation will "reduce supply" and "reduce demand" for alcohol and beer.

However, some members of the Committee on Social Affairs disagreed with the above regulation, because they thought that the content was not feasible and not suitable for the development trend of e-commerce. These delegates suggested that only strict conditions should be stipulated for the sale of alcohol and beer on the internet.

This is the first time the draft Law on Prevention and Control of Alcohol Harm has been submitted to the National Assembly. At this session, delegates will continue to give their opinions on the draft Law on November 12 and 20.

The Government's report cited a 2013 student health survey showing that more than 43% of students from grades 8 to 12 had their first glass of alcohol or beer before the age of 14, and over 22% drank to the point of getting drunk at least once. Meanwhile, international scientific evidence shows that alcohol and beer are the direct cause of at least 30 diseases and injuries and the indirect cause of at least 200 diseases listed in the international disease classification ICD10. Some disease names have been derived from alcohol, such as alcoholic psychosis, alcoholic cirrhosis, fetal alcohol syndrome, etc.