'Govt aims to stop birth rate from falling off cliff'
New government measures to encourage childbirth in Hong Kong are aimed at managing the territory's declining birthrate and preventing it from "falling off a cliff", Deputy Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk said on Wednesday. He was speaking at a Legco panel meeting about 11 measures unveiled in the Policy Address earlier this month, including upping a newborn baby bonus from HK$20,000 to HK$30,000 for…
The Hong Kong government has introduced a series of measures to combat the territory's declining birthrate and prevent it from plummeting, Deputy Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk stated on Wednesday. Speaking at a Legco panel meeting, Cheuk unveiled 11 initiatives, including raising the newborn baby bonus from HK$20,000 to HK$30,000 for families having their second child or more.
Lawmaker Dominic Lee inquired whether the government had benchmarks to gauge the effectiveness of these measures, expressing concern over Hong Kong's fertility rate dropping to 0.73 births per woman in 2025. Cheuk assured that the medium-term goal is to manage the decline and avert a sharp drop, adding that the existing measures have already shown some impact. He noted that without these initiatives, the birthrate decline would likely be even more severe.
New Territories Abolition Party lawmaker Rock Chen called for the government to instill confidence in Hong Kong's economic future by creating more job opportunities across various sectors. He emphasized that people need to believe the next generation will have promising employment prospects to feel reassured about having children. Cheuk expressed that Hong Kong's economic momentum has improved significantly in recent years, and the government will strive to foster a pro-childbirth environment.
Written by urgent.news from RTHK News's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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