The commission coordinated with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to organize a workshop in Hanoi on December 20 to collect suggestions for the strategy, the first so far in Vietnam.

Based on a national survey to assess the demand for contraceptives, the strategy will cover the production, import, quality and distribution of contraceptives. It will be completed in early 2007, to be submitted to the Government for approval in the fourth quarter of 2007.

According to Prof. Le Bach Quang from the Military Medical Institute, chief of the national survey on contraceptive commodity security, the number of people using contraceptive methods increased from 2.8 million in 1996 to 4.3 million in 2005. He predicted that about 7.7 million people will use such methods in 2015.

VNA