However, General Director of the central Office for Population and Family Planning (OPFP) Nguyen Ba Thuy said as the situation stands right now, the reduction of the rate will probably be by only 0.1 percent in 2008.

A draft amended ordinance scheduled to be submitted to the National Assembly Standing Committee for consideration in December will suggests couples have only one or two offspring. The current law gives couples liberty to decide the number of children they want to have.

The number of families having three children or more increased by 13.4 percent in the first half of this year over the same period last year.

In the first nine months of 2008, couples already with two children have given birth to more than 93,000 babies.

OPFP’s Vice Director Duong Quoc Trong said there would be a proposed penalty scale for ordinance violation committed by Communist Party members and civil servants, reiterating that the current regulation has already stipulated such fines against guilty party members.

Trong also said the draft ordinance would allow some couples to have a third child: such as when either the mother or father belongs to an ethnic minority with a population of less than 10,000; couples having broken up or whose child has died, remarrying individuals who already have one child apiece; and mothers who have given birth to multiple children in their second pregnancy.

Head of Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences’ Health and Development Research Department Trinh Hoa Binh said most couples who give birth to more than two children are poor families from remote and rural areas.

“The birth rate has primarily correlated with citizens’ educational level,” he said.

Reported by Lien Chau – Xuan Toan – Tue Nguyen