Fixing low birth rate to be priority

Boosting Hong Kong's birth rate will be a priority in Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu's second policy address next Wednesday, sources said, amid a low fertility rate and shrinking workforce.

Lee is expected to introduce measures to boost the birth rate, with particular focus on support for working parents who just had a child, sources told Sing Tao Daily, The Standard's sister paper.

It is understood that the government will roll out measures, including stepping up childcare and child-minding services, increasing allowances for working families and service bonus for home-based child carers.

Currently the government provides child care and child-minding services, including child care centers, after-school care centers, and the Neighbourhood Support Child Care Project through subsidizing non-governmental organizations.

But lawmakers have said the HK$25 per hour service bonus for volunteers of home-based childcare services under the NSCCP was too low.

"The service bonus will be increased, in order to increase the service quality and attract more people into joining as home-based child carers," sources said.

But the government will not be subsidizing women or amending laws to extend the deadline for "egg freezing", as senior government officials believed that doing so might encourage women to postpone having children.

"[The officials] are also worried that an increase in advanced maternal age will put the medical system and public health under risks," sources added.

Legislative Council member Nixie Lam Lam from Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, who gave birth to her first son in June this year, said the SAR is not "friendly to childbirth" and the government could take the lead to allow female employees to work flexibly.

"The government could take the lead and push the private sector to introduce child care services at workplaces. Women can also be allowed to work half-time," she said.

Lam said many Hongkongers are developing their careers in their 20s and 30s, but those who do not want to have kids due to political reasons "have cognitive problems."

But she agreed that the social environment during the 2019 anti-fugitive bill unrest was not appropriate to raise children.

"Some parents even brought their children to protest sites. Their behavior should be regarded as child neglect," she said.

"Hong Kong is definitely not 'unlivable.' A person can remain safe after getting drunk in the streets, which is definitely impossible in the Western countries," she claimed.

DAB Legco member Frankie Ngan Man-yu said it's not ideal that the rewards for community child carers are lower than the minimum wage.

The authorities should increase their rewards while offering training for them, as well as set up more child care centers in business areas such as Admiralty, Wan Chai and Kwun Tong.

Election Committee sector Legco member Eunice Yung Hoi-yan from the New People's Party, who gave birth during her term, said it's important for new mothers to look after their children.

She appealed for child care centers to be set up at government buildings across the SAR so that mothers can visit their children during breaks.

Yung also said the rewards for community carers should be increased to HK$50 per hour.