A recent article about where the best place to invest in the manufacturing sector according to Price Waterhouse Coopers was titled “Vietnam ‘a better bet than China’.”
Clearly, my mind isn’t on manufacturing investments, but the title caught my eye. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Viet Nam is better than China, but I wonder about all the people drawn to China who will no longer be allowed to adopt from there. How will they feel if they have to go with their runner up country? Since the changes that have been happening in Chinese adoptions in recent months, many people have been questioning if all those would have been Chinese adoptive families would instead look to Viet Nam to build their families, and if so…why? Even one of our own bloggers, Grant, wondered about this over on the China Adoption Blog.

There aren’t any hard and fast numbers out there yet, but I have to imagine that the answers are 1) yes, many will head to Viet Nam, and 2) I'm not sure why. Viet Nam does not place weight restrictions on prospective adoptive parents (PAPs), allows single parents to adopt, and does not impose the same age requirements as China. But, as Grant stated, there are many other countries with requirements just as lenient as Viet Nam’s. I have to imagine that the proximity of Viet Nam to China is a draw, as is the supposed speed of the country’s program (which is not necessarily still the case, since the program’s been up and running for some time now—it’s not brand new anymore.)

What I do know is that since Viet Nam has become a more popular option for international adoption and more and more people are applying to adopt from there, changes have been taking place. Specifics vary by agency, but in some cases wait times for a referral have gotten longer and many agencies are no longer allowing PAPs to request the sex of their child-to-be (in most cases, due to increased demand for girls.) I’m certainly not trying to deter anyone from adopting from Viet Nam, I wish that more people would (as long as they do their research and only work with good, ethical agencies.) I think it’s going to be really interesting to see how/if China’s rule changes will affect adoptions in Viet Nam in the long run (as well as the short term,) and also if other countries such as Korea and Kazakhstan will see a spike in applications due to China's new rules. I wonder how one could measure such a thing with any kind of accuracy at all...


Viet Nam Adoption Requirements
Article: Foreign Adoption Boom is Ending (from January)
How to Choose a Country


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