There is a quiet ticking clock in Ho Chi Minh City, whose sound has grown more and more alarming in
recent years.
A biological one, it is: as not enough babies are being born, recent data show, to
replace its aging population. It will soon be the cause of disruptions in the city’s economic
development and an array of other social problems, the local authorities concern. But to many, the
fertility drop itself represents a consequence of a less human-friendly society the city has grown into.
No city for babies
For a society to survive and prosper, it would need an average of 2.1 children born to every woman.
But Ho Chi Minh City has not been able to keep up the replacement rate, as experts call it. The
numbers have been dropping since 2000, to merely 1.24 in 2016, and despite an uptick in 2021 up to
1.48, it has been projected to nose-dive in the coming years. Such a seriously low fertility level has
landed the city at the bottom 20 local alarming list by the Ministry of Health. Coupled with the
rapidly aging population, it would cause shortages of labor supply and pressures on the already thin
social safety net, the authorities concern.
The news, of course, has attracted public attention as Ho Chi Minh City, after all, is the most dynamic
in the country. Three-quarter of its population are in working age, putting the city in the ripe “golden
population” phase. And every year, they contribute the biggest piece to the country’s rapid economic
growth, making the city the “economic engine” of the overall development train.
But the facade covers a less beaming picture that the plummeting birth rate is just a tip of the iceberg.
Official explanations by the government offer reasons such as the fast pace of modern life, women’s
increased working hours, trends that draw people to move around instead of settling down, and other
social and financial pressures that shun them to have kids. And to fix it and keep the city on track of
property, the population and family planners draw out individual-level solutions. Policies to boost
childbirth include allowing couples to have as many children as they want instead of sticking to the
decades-old two-child policy, lowering childcare costs, and even granting mothers money upon having
their first and second children, etc..
But these miss the bigger picture
Among the most agreed comments of the news, netizens listed underlying reasons why young couples
become cautious in bringing a new life into the city. Sky-rocketing living costs, deteriorating
environment, stressful living conditions, and even traffic jams and paralyzed infrastructure have been
brought up. “In short, life here is always on tenterhooks. So we give birth less and less,” concludes one
of the most celebrated comments.
But Ho Chi Minh City has not always been this way. In fact, it has a history of being built to be the
most welcoming city in the country to everyone. When they crafted the ‘Pearl of the Orient’, the
French planners wanted Saigon to be a “jungle city”, that, as a cool and green tropical destination,
should be appealing to travelers across the globe. Even during wartime, it became the shelter for rural
dwellers and continued to be one after 1975. Over the years, its residents have taken pride in the generosity the city could give to anyone, labeling it a “city of love”.
What happened at the same time with the dropping birthrate, one can argue, is that the city has been
cropping out what has made it an easy place to live.
In three episodes of Make A Statement series produced by RICE, the team together addressed the
three basic essential activities of every human being – breathing, eating, and playing, whose spaces in
Ho Chi Minh City has shrunken: the vanishing green space, chased-away famous street food culture
and shrinking playground and playtime. In doing so, the series also made a connection of its past – a
tropical city originally designed with lush greenery, its present – a mixed pot of people from all walk of
life that enriches the local culture and, and the well-being of its next generation, with an emphasis on their
mental state.
To escape from the gloomy future, the RICE team and their guest speakers also imagined together how to make Ho Chi Minh City a better place for everyone
“It’s about working on what we already have, instead of borrowing ideas elsewhere and adopting them
regardlessly,” argued Vu Viet Anh, an urban planning expert. To take back the green space from heat
islands, he suggested the city turning to its own District 3 as the muse for green inspirations, rather
than envisioning unrealistic examples in the world. We can afford and enjoy a stroll in the central
district, he pointed out, despite it having no public parks, thanks to towering trees and mini gardens
popping up in both public and private properties. In other words, every plant by everyone count.
Watch Why is the heat killing your mood? | MAKE A STATEMENT
Asides from the infrastructure, for a city to be alive and sustainable, it also needs a “spiritual life”
running in between its roads and buildings, and Saigon’s street cuisine is a big vein of it, said Nguyen
Duc Loc, an social expert interviewed in the Street food episode. Preserving this “soulful” part instead of cropping it out of the sidewalks will ensure that Saigon continues to be a livable city. “Our street food culture does more than feeding us with delicious and affordable food: it has crafted for this city an identity that cannot be found elsewhere.”
Watch Have you ever imagined Saigon without street food? | MAKE A STATEMENT
And to make life here less stressful, mental well-being also needs to be taken care of. In the 3rd episode of the series, valuing play space and playtime is a good start. “If you want your city to be free from stress, quarrels and conflicts in the future, perhaps you should start by keeping and widening the playground,” said expert Nguyen Tieu Quoc Dat about the shrinking playing field problem.
“For a city to be more humane, more livable, it needs to be more child-friendly,” Quoc Dat told RICE.
Instead of the traditional over-generalizing GDP statistics, he pointed to another measurement in
urban planning and design in the world: that is to take kids’ well-being as the standard, the center figure
to build everything upon. “A child-friendly city means kids can access all services of the city. And that
is, by definition, a place that is friendly to everyone.”
Watch Where has your happiness gone? | MAKE A STATEMENT
This child-centered approach in urban planning could be exactly what the most developed city in
Vietnam needs at the moment. A lot needs to be done if we adopt this measurement. It is not simply
about counting how many babies are being produced or which macro policy would increase them. It is also about shaping a world where they can be healthy and thrive in the later years of their life. And that is something, as all experts featured in the series, the current young generation can help in.
“Young people in groups of 9x, 2000 […] can recall how the city they live in has changed, in what
direction,” Quoc Dat said. “Do you feel happy, do you find it friendly for everyone? If you feel
something has been lost, for example, something that used to be great but is no longer there, it might seem that the city is going in an undesired direction. All of these questions will lead to your action.
