Previously, on November 1, 2013, Vietnam's population reached 90 million people and after nearly 10 years, it increased by another 10 million people. With the average population growth rate in recent years, it is predicted that this April, Vietnam will officially become one of 15 countries in the world and one of 3 countries in Southeast Asia with a population of 100 million people.
Vietnam reaching the milestone of 100 million citizens, according to experts, is a proud milestone. Especially, in the context of global economic competition, all countries consider human resources as the most important tool to improve national competitiveness, so Vietnam welcoming the 100 millionth citizen will help enhance Vietnam's position with international friends and partners.
Regarding the event of Vietnam welcoming its 100 millionth citizen, Professor Nguyen Dinh Cu, former Director of the Institute of Population and Social Issues, said that Vietnam reached 100 million people during the golden population period, which means the proportion of people in working age is high (15-64). Moreover, Vietnam reached 100 million people when the birth rate was low because since 2005, each Vietnamese woman has given birth to 2 children and the two-child model has been popular and maintained until now. Therefore, in the condition of a large population but small family size, it will create conditions for population increase.
We also expect that with a population of 100 million people, along with appropriate investment and development incentive policies, a stable political environment, and a culture imbued with national identity, Vietnam will become an impressive country in the eyes of international friends.
To mark this event, with the approval of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Planning and Investment (General Statistics Office) presided over and coordinated with the Ministry of Health and relevant agencies to organize major events to welcome the country's 100 millionth citizen. Notable events include the 100 millionth Lac Hong footprints parade; the rally to celebrate Vietnam's 100 millionth citizen; and the ceremony to visit and welcome the 100 millionth citizen at the hospital.
This is also an important event for the population sector. However, in addition to expectations, industry leaders also believe that opportunities will come with difficulties and challenges. Regarding this issue, Dr. Pham Vu Hoang, Deputy Director General of the General Department of Population and Family Planning (Ministry of Health) also said: “We are in the golden population period with nearly 68 million people of working age, which is a huge resource. However, Vietnam has also entered the population aging period since 2011 and will end in 2038 with the number of elderly people reaching 20%. Rapid population aging requires social adaptation. Besides, there are many challenges in population structure (gender imbalance at birth), population distribution and population quality”.
According to Dr. Pham Vu Hoang, population is both a productive force and a consumer force. Therefore, any change in the scale, structure, distribution, especially the quality of the population, has a huge impact on the sustainable development of each country and nation. In our country, since the announcement that Vietnam began to enter the golden population period in the late 2000s, many policies have been issued and implemented to take advantage of this period to help develop the economy. Thanks to that, the economic growth rate reached a high level, averaging 6.21% in the period 2011 - 2018.
In Nghe An, according to the General Statistics Office, the total population of the province in 2021 is 3,409,812 people. Compared to the whole country, Nghe An is the 4th most populous province after Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Thanh Hoa province. In recent years, population quality has improved in many aspects. Malnutrition and maternal and child mortality have decreased sharply. The stature and physical strength of Nghe An people have improved significantly. Average life expectancy increased rapidly from 72.3 years old (in 2012) to 73.15 years old in 2021.
With a large population, along with the whole country, Nghe An is also entering the golden population period. Currently, the labor force aged 15 and over in the whole province is nearly 1.97 million people, over 57.7% of the total population of the whole province, of which more than 66% are trained workers and over 26% are trained workers with certificates.
According to Mr. Nguyen Ba Tan - Head of the Provincial Department of Population and Family Planning, with the above advantages, Nghe An has many favorable conditions to promote the golden population period. However, to promote, the province needs to continue to stabilize the scale, improve the quality of the population, and create human resources to meet the requirements of industrialization and modernization of the homeland and the country.
One of the important tasks in the coming time is to continue to thoroughly grasp and fully, comprehensively and deeply understand the content of the Party and State's policies on population work and the importance and strategic significance of Population and Development work. At the same time, it is necessary to promote communication work, pay attention to improving population quality. Research solutions to promote the advantage of "golden population" to have an abundant, skilled and qualified workforce, meeting the labor market well.
The province also needs to have a plan to develop and implement a mechanism to integrate population factors into strategies, plans, projects for socio-economic development of each sector and field. In particular, it is necessary to ensure the principle that people are the center of development so that the plan is practical and highly effective, such as labor and employment planning, taking advantage of the golden population structure; education and training planning, health care planning, social security policies taking into account population aging, etc.
