Vietnam has introduced a raft of incentives to encourage couples to have more children as the Southeast Asian nation seeks to reverse a fast-declining fertility rate.Gone is the country’s long-standing two-child policy, scrapped last year. In its place is a new population law, which took effect on July 1, offering a suite of sweeteners designed to nudge Vietnamese couples towards larger families.These include seven months of maternity leave for second children, subsidised prenatal and newborn screenings, cash bonuses of up to 6 million dong (US$228) and priority housing for young parents who have two children before the age of 35.Vietnam’s fertility rate sank to a record low of 1.91 births per woman in 2024, ticking up only marginally to 1.93 the following year and still well short of the so-called replacement rate of 2.1 needed to sustain a population.A pregnant woman holding an umbrella walks past a billboard in Hanoi showing a happy family last month. Photo: AFPThe Health Ministry has set a target of raising the fertility rate to replacement level by 2030, but achieving that will be a challenge. Already, nearly one in seven Vietnamese is older than 60; by mid-century, government projections suggest that figure could hit one in four.