The official “Two is Enough” campaign advising couples to have no more than two children helped curb a population boom in the 1970s. Families were later told to aim for three instead as the city’s births continued to drop at the turn of the century. Now the message is even more ambitious – the more children, the better.
This was made plain by Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu as he defended the 10 initiatives in his policy address to encourage births and foster a more childrearing-friendly environment. Among the highlights is a HK$20,000 cash handout for each child born locally to a parent who is a permanent resident. There will also be higher tax deductions and quicker access to subsidised housing. But officials rejected subsidies for women freezing eggs for delayed pregnancy, saying young couples should have children early.
The previous administrations have made piecemeal gestures in response to the chronically low fertility rate, the latest being an average of just 0.9 children per woman, down from 1.3 in 2017. The measures included more paid leave for parents of newborns and childcare places. But they were more family-friendly measures rather than direct incentives for births. Lee’s new initiatives, which also cover expanding reproductive technology services in public hospitals and “community nannies” support, are more wide-ranging.
Obviously, couples will not rush to have babies simply because of a one-off cash bonus. As the Covid-19 pandemic eases further, more couples will get on with their marriage and birth plans. With current annual births hovering around 32,000 a year, officials expect the measures may boost the figure by 20 per cent, or 6,000 babies more each year. About HK$800 million is to be set aside for the cash bonus for the next three years, enough for 40,000 newborns each year.
Cost aside, the economic, social and political environments also have an impact on decisions to raise a family. For instance, even when the allocation of public rental housing for families with newborns is to be fast-tracked, the cramped living space remains an issue of concern. More parents also took issue with the ongoing political changes and emigrated with their children in recent years. Lee sought to play down the exodus, saying emigration involved different reasons. But the drain is likely to intensify demographic imbalance and must not be ignored.
It has already been more than a decade since former chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen placed population high on the government agenda. Long overdue as it is, a comprehensive population policy is needed to help tackle the changing demographics. The government must not rule out more family-friendly measures should the initiatives fail to reverse the trend.
Source : SCMP
