Businesses see great opportunities in “Dragon’s year” with infant boom

Economists and market researchers have predicted that the year 2012 would witness the baby boom in Vietnam, which means the great opportunities for the companies which make products for children.

The Ban Viet Securities Company has found out from a mini survey that the number of pregnant women who go for antenatal examination has increased by 2.5 times in comparison with the same period of the last year. Ban Viet believes that the number of infants would soar in 2012, thus advising investors to consider investing money in the companies that make products for infants, such as food or toys.

“The number of infants in 2012 would increase greatly, not only in Vietnam, but in China and other Asian countries as well,” said Mard Djandji, analysis director of Ban Viet Securities Company.

“We believe that this will have big impacts on the society, not only in this year, but in the next few years, when the demand for nursery schools would also increase,” he added.

The year of Dragon is believed to be a good year for having babies. Twelve years ago, 2000, was also the year of Dragon, when the birth date in the first six months of the year increased by 8.3 percent over the previous year. 2007, the year of golden pig, was also a year of population boom

Economists have every reason to believe that the number of infants would increase more greatly in 2012 than 12 years ago. This is explained by the fact that the majority of Vietnamese population are at the age of getting married and having first children.

The children who were born in the “population boom” 1975-1985, after the war finished, have grown up and they are now at the best childbearing age (27-37).

While the anticipated population boom raises worries about the pressure on the accommodations and schools, experts have pointed out that this is a cycle of natural population development which is unavoidable.

Meanwhile, the population boom can bring great opportunities to the companies which make products for infants and children. The revenue of the Vinamilk, the leading dairy producer in Vietnam, reached one billion dollars in 2011, an increase of 37 percent.

A representative of the company said that the company’s market share in powder milk increased from 20 percent in 2010 to 27 percent. Vinamilk has put a high hope on the market segment, especially when the high inflation would force parents to seek to purchase cheaper domestic products instead of foreign expensive products.

Go Duc Thanh, a company that specializes in making children’s toys, also expects greater opportunities in 2012. Especially, in the next few years, investing in nursery schools would be the good choices, when the demand for schools increases as the children born in 2012 are about to go to school.

To date, there has been no survey to find out the challenges to the society and environment in the next few years, when the new citizens from the “infant boom” grow.

A Vietnamese couple in the UK said on Saigon Tiep Thih that they have had a baby and they have booked a seat for the child at a prestigious music school in the country. H, the husband, wrote on Facebook, a social network that the study at the school has been registered until 2016.

As such, with the anticipated baby boom, will Vietnamese parents have to register schools for their children right now?

Source: SGTT