Young Vietnamese people have the lowest average height in comparison with their counterparts in many other Asian countries, a nutrition expert has said. 

>> $288.5 million for the growth of height of VN youths >> Vietnamese people shortest in Southeast Asia Dr. Nguyen Thi Lam, deputy head of the National Institute of Nutrition, released the information at a ceremony held in Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday to launch an infant baby formula milk product. According to statistics, young Vietnamese men are 1.64 meters tall on average while the average for young women is 1.54 meters, Dr. Lam said. Meanwhile, young people in Malaysia have the respective figures of 1.68 meters and 1.57 meters. In Thailand, young men are 1.67 meters tall and young women are 1.57 meters tall on average. In Singapore, the respective figures are 1.7 meters and 1.6 meters. Similarly, South Korean youths have an average height of 1.74 meters for men and 1.61 meters for women. In China, the figures are 1.7 meters for men and 1.58 meters for women. In India, young men and women are 1.73 meters and 1.65 meters tall respectively. According to the Vietnamese Committee for Population, Family and Children, the international average height of young men is 1.771 meters and that of women is 1.647 meters. That means young Vietnamese men and women are respectively 13.1 cm and 10.7 cm shorter than international standards. 

Last year, a project to elevate the average height of Vietnamese citizens was approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung with a budget of VND6 trillion (nearly $282.3 million). The project, which was prepared by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, aims to raise the height of young men by 3.3cm and 3cm for young women in seven years. These height targets were set based on assessments of neighboring countries such as Thailand and China, where the average height of citizens increased by over 2cm every ten years.

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