Consumption of alcoholic drinks balloons in Vietnam

At a workshop held in Hanoi on November 11 on collecting opinions on the draft law on prevention and control of harmful effects of alcohol and beer, the Department said the rate of taking alcoholic drinks among males aged from 24 to 64 increased from 69.6% to 80.3% between 2011-2015. 

The rate among females rose from 5.6% to 11.2%. 

The MoH’s data in 2015 showed 44.2% of men were consuming alcoholic drinks at a harmful degree and 47.9% drove vehicles after drinking. 

Statistics also showed between 2005 and 2010, the average rate of using alcoholic drinks in Vietnam among people aged 15 and above nearly doubled (from 3.8 litres to 6.6 litres). 

Vietnam has become the largest beer consumption country in Southeast Asia and the third largest in Asia. 

Reports at the workshop also stressed drinking is one of the major reasons leading to 30% of social order disruption cases and 33.7% of domestic violence cases in Vietnam. 

The direct economic costs to treat six common types of cancer in Vietnam, five of which are related to alcoholic drinks, amount to VND25 trillion (US$1.12 billion), or 0.22% of national GDP in 2012. Of the costs, 42.4% was shouldered by families, 27.7% by the health insurance and 17.1% by the government. 

According to a survey by the University of Public Health in 2014 at over 700 places selling alcoholic drinks in Hanoi, HCM City and Danang, up to 93% of them hang advertisement boards outside the shop and 8.2% of shops still publicly advertising alcoholic drinks of more than 15 degrees, which is banned by law. 

Participants at the workshop recommended the government to soon complete the draft law on prevention and control of harmful effects of a lcohol and beer, and the National Assembly put the law on its law building agenda in 2017. 

They also called for the revision of the law on special consumption tax on tobacco and alcoholic drinks.