From March 20, no discipline will be given to party members who have a third child.
According to new guidelines from the Central Inspection Commission, from March 20, party members who give birth to a third child or more will no longer be subject to disciplinary action.
The Central Inspection Commission has just issued Instruction 15/2025 on amending and supplementing Instruction 05/2022 of the Central Inspection Commission on implementing a number of articles in Regulation 69/2022 of the Politburo on disciplining party organizations and party members who violate regulations.
Instruction 15 omits points 8.1 and 8.2, section III of Instruction 05. Point 8 of Instruction 05 stipulates disciplinary action against party members who violate population policy regulations.
In particular, point 8.1 stipulates that if party members violate the regulations on family planning measures that will affect their maternity health (with confirmation from a district-level hospital or equivalent or higher), they will be considered for a reduction in disciplinary action.
As for point 8.2, which regulates handling of party members who intentionally or forcibly fail to implement family planning, the disciplinary level should be considered to be increased.
Instruction 15 also supplements some contents in Clause 8, Section III of Instruction 05. That is, not considering handling the behavior specified in Clause 2, Article 1 of Ordinance 08/2008 of the National Assembly Standing Committee amending Article 10 of the 2003 Population Ordinance "giving birth to one or two children, except in special cases prescribed by the Government".
With this change, from March 20, having a third child is no longer a violation subject to Party disciplinary action.
Previously, the Party Central 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 disciplining cases of giving birth to a third child or more, in line with amending legal regulations (not retroactively handling cases that have been disciplined).
The Ministry of Health has submitted 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.
According to the draft Decree amending Article 10 of the Population Decree, the Ministry of Health proposes that each couple and individual decide on the time of birth, number of children and the interval between births. The proposal aims to overcome the situation of low birth rate and significant difference in birth rate between regions and subjects.
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 drop to 1.96 children/woman in 2023 and 1.91 in 2024 - the lowest in history and is forecast to continue to drop in the following years.
It is forecasted that the birth 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.
