Advertising of alcohol and beer over 15 degrees will be banned.

The National Assembly Standing Committee has given its first comments on the draft Law on Prevention and Control of Harmful Effects of Alcohol and Beer.

Previously, in a report submitted to the National Assembly Standing Committee, the representative of the drafting committee said that the use of alcohol and beer is a long-standing consumption habit in Vietnam. Using alcohol and beer in moderation can bring positive effects. However, because alcohol and beer both contain alcohol, which is an addictive substance, classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as a carcinogen that affects most organs in the body, the use of alcohol and beer has the risk of causing negative effects on health.

In Vietnam, the current situation of alcohol and beer consumption is at an alarming level, as shown by three criteria on consumption (especially among men), including both absolute quantity and conversion to the average number of liters of pure alcohol per capita.

Specifically, according to the General Statistics Office, each Vietnamese person (over 15 years old) used up to 4.4 liters of pure alcohol in 2014. According to the 2016 estimate of the World Health Organization (WHO), this number was up to 8.3 liters, and Vietnam ranked 64th out of 194 countries that consume a lot of alcohol and beer in the world.

In recent years, the rate of people drinking alcohol and beer has increased and the rate of young people and teenagers drinking alcohol and beer at a high level, reaching 70% for men and 6% for women (over 15 years old) in 2010. By 2015, this rate had increased to 80.3% for men and 11.6% for women, of which 44.2% of men drank at a harmful level, an increase of 1.76 times compared to 2010.

The drafting committee also cited WHO statistics showing that the economic costs of alcohol and beer account for 1.3-3.3% of each country's GDP. In Vietnam, the lowest estimated economic cost of alcohol and beer (1.3% of GDP) is about VND65,000 billion. The cost of Vietnamese people consuming beer alone in 2017 was nearly USD4 billion.

After examining the draft law, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly's Committee on Social Affairs said that assessing the benefits and harms of alcohol and beer consumption in Vietnam, the promulgation of the draft law is necessary.

The Standing Committee of the Committee said that Article 9 of the draft Law only stipulates two cases where alcohol and beer are not allowed to be used: cadres, civil servants, public employees, and workers during working hours, breaks between shifts, and not allowed to drink at places where alcohol and beer are prohibited. However, the impact assessment report also mentioned cases where alcohol is not sold to people who show signs of intoxication; pregnant women; and people driving vehicles. Therefore, the Drafting Committee needs to study and supplement these subjects and at the same time add specific solutions to ensure feasibility for all "workers".

Regarding the regulation on controlling advertising, promotion and sponsorship of alcohol, there are currently two different opinions. One is in agreement with the regulation on strictly controlling advertising, promotion and sponsorship of alcohol to limit access to alcohol.

Second, the draft Law on strict control of advertising, promotion and sponsorship of alcohol will affect the contribution to the state budget from advertising activities. Along with that is the right to access information, as well as limiting funding sources for organizing cultural and sports activities that are currently sponsored and conflicted by alcohol and beer businesses.

Advertising of alcohol and beer above 15 degrees will be banned.

The Standing Committee said that although it will have some impact on the State budget and cultural activities, from the perspective of health and the costs of treating diseases related to alcohol, the regulation to control alcohol advertising is necessary.

In addition, while the Commercial Law only prohibits advertising of alcohol with an alcohol content of 30 degrees or more, the 2015 Advertising Law has included alcohol with an alcohol content of 15 degrees or more in the list of prohibited advertising. Studies have also shown that the same amount of wine or beer with an alcohol content of over 15 degrees when entering the body will have the same harmful effects.

Therefore, the Standing Committee agreed with the regulation "banning the advertising of wine and beer with alcohol content above 15 degrees".

In addition, the regulation that "all agencies, organizations and individuals are not allowed to sponsor with alcohol and beer items; have names, images, alcohol and beer products on sponsored items and in sponsorship activities and advertise alcohol in sponsorship activities" is also proposed to be researched and proposed.