Director of the Hà Nội Population and Family Planning Sub-Department (under the Hà Nội Department of Health) Tạ Quang Huy. Photo hanoimoi.com.vn

The theme of this year's Vietnamese Population Day (December 26) is "Improving population quality to contribute to the rapid and sustainable development of the country". Director of the Hà Nội Population and Family Planning Sub-Department (under the Hà Nội Department of Health) Tạ Quang Huy talks to Hà Nội Mới Newspaper about the matter.

Could you tell us about the significant progress in population-family planning work in Hà Nội City?

The capital's population work has achieved many remarkable achievements. By the end of 2022, Hà Nội's population is expected to reach about 8.4 million people (accounting for about 8.4 per cent of the country's population). The city has reached the replacement level of fertility. The average number of children per woman of reproductive age is 2.1. In particular, the city initially controlled the sex imbalance at birth; the sex ratio at birth (the number of boys/100 girls) in 2022 is estimated at 112.5 boys/100 girls—the age-based population structure shifts towards an ageing population.

Currently, Hà Nội, along with the whole country, is in the "golden population" period, which is a favourable condition for the socio-economic development of the capital. Besides, the quality of the capital's population has also been gradually improved. The percentage of pregnant women receiving prenatal screening and the percentage of newborns being screened increases every year. Particularly in 2022, the rate of prenatal screening in the whole city is estimated at 82 per cent, and the newborn screening rate at 86 per cent.

Besides the achievements, is the population work of Hà Nội facing any difficulties and challenges?

Currently, population work in the capital is facing new difficulties and challenges. The reason is due to the large population size, and large population area. The rate of third childbirth has decreased but has not been stable. Moreover, the population's quality is still not commensurate with the potential of the capital.

Therefore, in the coming period, we must continue implementing activities to improve the quality of the capital's population.

On the other hand, the city's sex ratio at birth tends to decrease but remains high. As a result, the annual population fluctuations are large, leading to difficulties in managing population data, affecting social activities and service services in the capital area.

In particular, the life expectancy of people is increasing, and the proportion of elderly people is growing rapidly, so population ageing is a big challenge for Hà Nội. This requires a response plan and appropriate policies to ensure better the health, social security and interests of the elderly.

The theme of this year's Vietnamese Population Day is "Improving population quality to contribute to the rapid and sustainable development of the country". So how are we going to focus on improving population quality?

Population quality is closely related to the country's socio-economic development level. Therefore, population quality is considered the "golden key" to opening the door to the country's sustainable development.

For Hà Nội, the city leaders have always identified population and family planning as an important part of the capital's development strategy, a fundamental solution to improve the quality of life for each individual, family and community.

In the past, many models to improve population quality have been deployed and replicated, such as: providing care for the elderly in the community, conducting adolescent reproductive health care, counselling and pre-marital health checks.

Primarily, the city has effectively implemented screening, diagnosis and treatment activities for several antenatal and neonatal diseases in 30 districts, towns and cities to reduce the rate of congenital disabilities in children.

The city has also established a screening centre for some antenatal and neonatal diseases located at the Hà Nội Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital.

What is the most important issue in improving the population quality of the capital today?

Population policies must ensure balance and harmony between the rights and obligations of all people; between providing information, advocacy, awareness raising, behaviour change, and strict law enforcement; between the expansion and application of new techniques with the improvement of service quality, meeting the increasing needs of the people.

The most important thing in improving the population's quality is changing the perception and unifying the perception of the political system and all classes of people. From such basis, there will be measures to mobilise resources to perform the population work in general, especially to achieve the goals of improving the quality of life as we continue to shift our focus from family planning to population and development. VNS