Economic gains from population to fall sharply from 2019: UNFPA

The remark was made by Nguyen Ngoc Quynh, a representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), at a workshop held by the National Assembly’s Committee for Social Affairs in Ho Chi Minh City on December 18.

She noted that the strong decrease of economic gains from population is because the population’s total income will be lower than total spending.

At present about 70 percent of Vietnam’s population are of working age, which is a chance for the country to strongly promote economic growth. However, opportunities from golden population do not necessarily mean economic gains.

Quynh said a UNFPA study shows that in 2017, total income of Vietnam’s population is bigger than their total spending. With rapid population aging, this income – spending scale will balance in 2018 and begin to have deficit in 2019 as total spending will be bigger than total income of the population.

To capitalise on economic gains from the golden population opportunities, she suggested the country increase the number of people in working age along with the employment rate while creating favourable conditions for the elderly and women, especially ethnic minority women, to work.

It is also important to boost labour productivity since Vietnam is among countries with lowest productivity in Asia. To extend economic gains from population until 2042, local labour productivity must be raised by 1.28 percentage points each year, she added.

At the workshop, former Vice Chairman of the National Assembly’s Committee for Social Affairs Nguyen Van Tien said the Government should have a road map for gradually raising the retirement age, firstly for women. 

He added it is also necessary to encourage the elderly to engage in employment and social activities, encourage the employment of old persons, provide vocational training for people near retirement age, reform the social insurance regime, and build a friendly environment for the elderly.