Next year, the country's funds for condoms will expire and individuals will be forced to personally pay for contraceptives.
As Viet Nam approaches middle-income status, international aid for condoms would be cut down, said the Department of Population and Family Planning director, Do Ngoc Tan.
He said no international organisations were offering to supply condoms to the country's population and family planning programmes after 2010.
From 1996 – 2009, the programme supplied more than 1.2 billion condoms to the country, of which 435 million were free and 780 million were sold at subsidised prices. Condoms cost between VND1,000 to VND3,000 (up to US$0.15).
It is estimated that from 2011 to 2015 the country will need about 2.3 billion condoms, which would cost about $57.5 million, Tan said. Currently, 62 million condoms have been provided by the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
Nguyen Duc Son, an official from the Ministry of Planning and Investment, said if the country continued its subsidised contraceptive programme, Viet Nam would only be able to afford one-third of the total cost for condoms each year .
Tan said that people in remote and poor areas depended on the free supply.
Need for a change
The Government's social marketing programme, which is part of the population and family planning programme, will supply condoms to people at subsidised prices.
The programme is primarily carried out mostly in urban areas where people earn higher incomes and are willing to pay for condoms themselves. The programme would need to focus on remote and poor areas initially to provide access to low-price condoms and then gradually make people pay for contraceptives individually, Tan said.
General Director of the General Department of Population and Family Planning Duong Quoc Trong said a comprehensive programme to co-ordinate, manage and supply condoms must be set up.
Communication campaigns would be needed to encourage people to purchase contraceptives themselves and not to rely on free condoms.
Other officials have called on couples to financially share the cost with the Government.
Deputy head of the Sub-department of Population and Family Planning from southern Dong Nai Province Huynh Cao Hai said if couples could buy the condoms themselves, the programme would be sustainable.
Currently, about 20 per cent of people who use condoms pay for the contraceptives individually. —VNS
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