In her speech, Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said Vietnam is entering its gold phase of population and the country must take full advantage of this period to speed up its industrialization and modernization process.

Over the past 50 years, the Population and Family Planning sector has helped reduce the child-bearing age from 6.3 to 2, raise longevity from 40 to 73, and reduce the population growth rate from 3.8 percent to 1.05 percent.

The same day, State President Truong Tan Sang granted the sector an Independence Order, First Class, in recognition of its efforts.

Before the meeting, thousands of young people marched through the streets of the capital city to promote the work of population and family planning.

Despite recent progress, the country still has different birth rates among regions, a large number of women of child-bearing age, low quality of population, and gender imbalance at birth.