Births dip below 30,000 as Nixie Lam urges rethink of family support

Legislative Council member Nixie Lam Lam has called for a high-level population policy task force to coordinate Hong Kong’s fertility measures, after the number of births fell below 30,000 over the past year.

Speaking on a radio program on Wednesday, Lam said Hong Kong currently lacks an integrated fertility policy as well as sufficient research into young people’s attitudes toward marriage and having children.

She urged the government to study the pressures affecting young people’s decisions on starting families and establish a population policy task force led by a senior official at Secretary of Department level to coordinate measures across bureaus and departments.

Lam said existing measures are currently handled separately by different authorities. These include the HK$20,000 newborn baby bonus and arrangements giving families with newborns priority in public housing allocation.

She said the lack of coordination could leave the public questioning whether the government is providing sufficient and comprehensive support.

Lam also said Hong Kong has conducted little recent research into whether young people want children, how they approach parenthood and what pressures influence their decisions.

She contrasted this with research in mainland China covering people’s marital and relationship status, arguing that Hong Kong could not formulate fertility policies based on assumptions from previous generations.

She said people aged 25 to 35 may have very different views on having children from those aged 35 to 45.

Referring to Singapore’s recent expansion of childcare subsidies, Lam said cash incentives alone would not be enough to support Hong Kong parents and stressed the importance of family-friendly workplace measures.

She also raised questions over the city’s reliance on foreign domestic helpers for childcare and whether government childcare services could provide sufficient backup when such support is unavailable.

Lam said the government had considered purchasing properties for social welfare services about a decade ago, but the plan was ultimately shelved because it could not be made financially viable.

She suggested offering tax incentives to companies willing to provide childcare services for employees, saying this could help expand childcare provision in the short term.

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