Advocacy group urges Hong Kong to let residents tap pension savings for homes

A pro-Beijing lawmaker in Hong Kong has called for the government to develop a comprehensive population policy and research young people's views on childbearing, as the territory recorded its lowest number of births in a year. Nixie Lam, a Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) legislator, stated that while the government has implemented measures to increase fertility, it lacks a cohesive population policy.

Lam proposed creating a task force, consisting of secretarial-grade officers, to gather data on young people's perspectives on starting families and raising children. She criticized the government for lacking recent research on the subject, and argued that outdated ideas from the past century are still influencing policy-making.

Newborn births in Hong Kong dropped to fewer than 30,000 in the past year, marking a record low and half the number of 2015. Despite new initiatives, such as a tax allowance for assisted reproductive services and a one-off HK$20,000 cash incentive in 2023, the government has not extended the "Newborn Baby Bonus" scheme. Lam urged authorities to maintain the payments and not to cancel the scheme without a comprehensive population policy in place.

The shrinking number of children has also led to reductions in primary school classes, with 127 of 446 subsidized primary schools decreasing their Primary One classes, and 15 schools eliminating the classes entirely.