Nguyen Van Tan, vice chief of the Ministry of Health's General Office for Population and Family Planning said that Vietnam is among 15 countries in the world and the only in South East Asia which is reporting a gender imbalance.

Nguyen Van Tan, vice chief of the Ministry of Health's General Office for Population and Family Planning

"In Asia which sees 14 countries with gender imbalances, Vietnam stands only behind China which recently reported 117-118 boys/100 girls," Tan said.

According to the official, Vietnam first reported gender-imbalance at birth since 2006 and haven't been able to curb the problem over the past 15 years.

In 2006, Vietnam reported 109 boys/100 girls. The sex at birth ratio imbalance climbed to 113.8/100 in 2013, and 114.9/100 in 2018 before it slightly decreased to 111.5/100 in 2019.

“If Vietnam doesn't have measures to deal with the situation, as many as 3-4.3 million local men will remain single by 2050," the official warned.

He attributed the sex imbalance at birth to discrimination against women and the introduction of sex selection technologies.

"With modern technologies, parents could know about the sex of their child the first and second week of pregnancy," he said. "There have been increasing numbers of abortions. So we have to prevent the import of sex selection devices."

The official also stressed the importance of communications about gender imbalance and the roles of women in the society.

"We are also gathering ideas for the Population Law which will ban gender selection during pregnancy," Tan said. "We propose strict punishment on doctors including revoking working licenses if medical staff are found violating the law." Dtinews/Vietnamnet