According to a webpage called ASEANstats, Vietnam only ranks after Singapore and Thailand with aging growth rates of 10.4% and 8.7% respectively in 2015. So how does this affect the Vietnamese economy? A workshop on the impact of changes in population age structure on Vietnam’s economic growth held yesterday morning in Hanoi took a more in depth look into the figures.
According to the General Statistics Office of Vietnam, from 1989 to 2014, the Vietnamese birth rate decreased sharply from 39.5% down to 23.5%, while the number of young workers increased. The decrease in the birth ratio will lead to a shortage of workers in the future. If this situation continues, Vietnam’s population will age by 2035.
According to many experts, with such a rapidly aging population, Vietnam will fall into a “Getting old before getting rich” situation in the next 20 years. Based on the Development Strategy Institute, Vietnam’s economic growth mainly depends on a young labour force, meanwhile an elderly population means greater consumption. This means economic growth will decrease.
At the conference, many experts believed that the key to Vietnam’s future economic growth is investing in people under as well as in the working age.
According to General Statistics Office of Vietnam, Vietnam will age rapidly for the next 20 years, meanwhile the speed of developed countries’ aging is about 90 years. Improving working capacity and building an active aging population are seen as possible solutions when the country enters the stage of old population.
