Vietnam may not be able to agree on its most popular beer, but there’s no question about the drink’s popularity. To curb the “social evil,” the government is considering reviving an unpopular proposal that would ban late night beer and liquor sales.
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The announcement was made by the country’s health ministry at a conference on drinking hazards in Hanoi last week where experts discussed the steadily increasing rate of alcohol consumption in Vietnam.
Vu Thi Minh Hanh, director of the Health Strategy and Policy Institute, said that while global consumption has remained steady (5.2 liters per person per year for the last 15 years), Vietnam has seen a 150% increase of alcohol consumption over the last decade, according to DTI News.
Among ASEAN nations, Vietnam has the eighth largest economy but ranks first in beer and liquor sales growth, said Hanh.
Beyond drunk driving, a health ministry official warned conference-goers about the harmful effects of excessive drinking which has been directly linked to three cancers and indirectly to seven others.
Apparently, desperate times call for desperate measures as the government has decided to reconsider the extremely unpopular draft law from last year that sought to ban businesses from selling liquor or beer after 10pm, according to Thanh Nien.
Though the plan was eventually shelved after coming under fire for being unenforceable and ineffective, it looks like officials are struggling to come up with a different approach.
[Photo via The City Lane]
